Relocation Questions from Canada, including school/sports (Seattle, Tacoma: mortgage, house)

[CanadianEh]

Hello,

My husband has received a job offer for a company in Seattle. This is fantastic but I am unsure if it is right for us. I am hoping someone can help answer some of these questions for us? We have two children to consider with this move as well. We have never been to the West Coast.

Has anyone before relocated from Canada and how was the transition into public school? Currently they are in grades 5 and 2. I realize some subjects will be slightly different (government, history, guessing no French class, is there Spanish? ) but wondering how different and did you find the children were behind or ahead at all? Can you register for school anytime or would I have to wait till the new school year?

Looking at mortgage calculators online, which may be off but wondering is it possible to buy a decent 3 bedroom house (not needing a ton of renos), with at least a little yard within a somewhat safe neighbourhod/school district for the $500k area? Also, would it be possible to have less than a 30 minute drive for my husband to downtown Seattle area with traffic? We currently live in the country within a 15 minute drive to my husbands work, really no traffic. I grew up in the country and would love to stay that way. I am expecting to have to have closer neighbours and stuff in a bigger city but would still like a bit of a yard if possible.

Somewhere in the area, is there competitive soccer and cheer offered? If so, does anyone know any clubs that I can start checking into? Also, if you have any info. on tryouts it would be great. Here soccer tryouts for spring are done in Sept. and we have begun winter training and cheer we have tryouts in May for the year and are going to our first competition in a couple weeks.

If anyone can help with any of the above questions, it would really be appreciated. We are very excited about the possibility but I am also really nervous about moving the whole family to a spot we have never even visited before.

Thank you, in advance.

[phoenixmike11]

The most popular hockey bar in Seattle

The Angry Beaver

If you want to meet lots of Canadians- when the toronto blue jays come to Seattle to play the Mariners there will be more Blue Jays fans from Canada then mariners fans in attendance

https://www.linkedin.com/grps?home=&...trk=anet_ug_hm

Canadians in Seattle

Canada-America Society of Washington

Canada-America Society (Seattle, WA) - Meetup

[MondoTime]

On the bright side, Seattle is farther north than is most of Canada's population. (wait, is that the bright side???)


And as for location, I wonder if you should strategize for a place not far from one of the commuter trains which head north (to Everett) and south (to Tacoma) several times each morning and afternoon. That way your housing dollar will stretch further AND you can have a bit of the 'peace' that a semi-rural setting might allow.

I expect that the traffic will aggravate your husband to no end if he insists on driving from a spot you can comfortably afford.

But of course there is no substitute for being here and matching what you need to what you can afford.

[CAMama]

Here's our experience with school. We moved from Vancouver. You can register for school at any point during the year. My son was only in kindergarten when we moved mid-year and he was behind academically (way behind actually, but he did catch up within a couple of months). BC grade 1 is the equivalent to WA kindergarten. And now in 1st grade, he is doing similar things to the BC grade 2 kids we know. I imagine the gap closes as the grades progress since the secondary kids we knew did similar things to the high school kids here. Also tons more homework. Anyway, I would take a look at the curriculums for your kids' grades and see how they match up. Washington State K-12 Learning Standards

[homesinseattle]

Hello Great Northerners!!! I used to live near Montreal and had a house in Vancouver BC, have lived in Seattle 26 years. You will find many Canadians here, I'm 1/8 myself . Look to Bothell, Northshore schools, great district, would work for your budget.