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It obviously seems that bedford is the place to be according to the school information; however which elementary school do I choose? I have a third grader and a kindergarten age child. I need a town that provides lots of options for extra-curricular activities for my kids. I am also looking for a safe family friendly neighborhood, i would love it if my kids could just walk to a friends house. This move will be extremely difficult for them.
I wish for my kids to be able to pick and choose whatever sports they want to participate in, as well as swimming lessons or teams, gymnastics, horse backriding lessons and music lessons, etc..
For us, I would like to have nice shopping and restaurants as well.
I live in a town bordering Bedford and drive through there quite often as we have family living there. From what I've seen, it is not a town connected by sidewalks where little ones can safely walk to a buddies house unless you live in a planned community of homes with sidewalks (and probably a HOA fee) or a neighborhood where the homes are close together. I live in an older part of town in Merrimack where the homes are close and my kids can walk to a friends home (or bike) but they are tweens now and I did a lot of driving around town when they were small (and still do) and probably will until they can drive. Both towns are very safe crime-wise but there are always going to be bored punks around who will break into cars, knock down a mailbox, or speed down your street when the kids are playing, etc.
All of the activities you mentioned can be easily found in Bedford as well as the bordering town of Merrimack. Merrimack has a YMCA with a swim team as well as many of the other activities you mentioned and it is a short ride from Bedford. Bedford is minutes from several nice restaurants and a major mall, the Mall of NH. It is also one of the most expensive places to live in this area.
As for shopping, there are many shots along 101A which stretches from Nashua to Milford. It is not too far from Amherst to the mall in Manchester or the mall in Nashua; my teenage daughters have shopped them all!
I am not sure about Bedford, but in Amherst there is no choice for public elementary schools as the schools are divided K - 1, then 2 - 4, then 5 - 8, then high school. This is done by design to prevent the situation where one part of town has a better school than another part of town...
I wish for my kids to be able to pick and choose whatever sports they want to participate in, as well as swimming lessons or teams, gymnastics, horse backriding lessons and music lessons, etc..
For us, I would like to have nice shopping and restaurants as well.
Gymnastics programs are popping up like dance and martial arts studios. The further you get from the larger population centers the more equestrian centers you'll find.
All of the above are private businesses. If you find a town which "provides" them, the real estate taxes will be astronomical.
Read "Prohibitivly Expensive".
Sports programs are usually handled by the school if they have the budget for it.
We are going to be moving up to Bedford this August. Our kids are the same ages as your kids. I think it's going to be more difficult for our oldest daughter (3rd grade) b/c she has some close friends in our home town now that she will miss. We did a lot of research and Bedford seems to fit our needs the best. There's a town pool open during the summer that will hopefully be the way our kids are going to make friends initially before school starts. Check out bedfordneighbors.com, which is a club we are probably going to join to meet people in town as well. One part of there website has info about all the sports/activities for the kids. Good Luck in your search. DM me if you want any more info on how our kids are transitioning.
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