Wanted to say thanks......... (job transfer, neighborhoods, school rankings)

[carbonez]

When I was moving from the Midwest to Oahu a few years ago I "lurked" on this page for a few months. Being a Haole family with 5 kids I had the usual questions about education, cost of living, schools, fitting in etc. I never needed to ask any questions because with enough searching you all had already answered them. I ended up landing in Niu Valley where I have kids at Aina Haina, Niu Valley and Kaiser(this happens when you have 5 kids). It took our family about a year to adjust to different aspects of the culture and education process here, but we love it. Kids love to surf and if you enjoy the outdoors, respect the culture and embrace the culture this is such a great place to raise a family.

I am only posting to say thanks to all the long term posters that help those who don't at all understand the dynamics of living in "paradise". It was a great help to me and my family and made our transition successful.

Thanks again.

[hawaiian by heart]

@carbonez

Mahalo im glad you had a great experience and others were able to give you great advice. Magical place huh?

I took this from your post, i think its the most important piece of advice to give anyone moving to Hawai'i and its what i stress and i believe worth repeating. "It took our family about a year to adjust to different aspects of the culture and education process here, but we love it. Kids love to surf and if you enjoy the outdoors, "respect the culture and embrace the culture" this is such a great place to raise a family."

Mahalo again

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Originally Posted by carbonez

When I was moving from the Midwest to Oahu a few years ago I "lurked" on this page for a few months. Being a Haole family with 5 kids I had the usual questions about education, cost of living, schools, fitting in etc. I never needed to ask any questions because with enough searching you all had already answered them. I ended up landing in Niu Valley where I have kids at Aina Haina, Niu Valley and Kaiser(this happens when you have 5 kids). It took our family about a year to adjust to different aspects of the culture and education process here, but we love it. Kids love to surf and if you enjoy the outdoors, respect the culture and embrace the culture this is such a great place to raise a family.

I am only posting to say thanks to all the long term posters that help those who don't at all understand the dynamics of living in "paradise". It was a great help to me and my family and made our transition successful.

Thanks again.

Glad to hear that all is working out for you. I hope that you'll be an active poster answering questions from people who are thinking of doing the same thing. Your recent real-time experiences should be very helpful to them.

[pj737]

Originally Posted by carbonez

When I was moving from the Midwest to Oahu a few years ago I "lurked" on this page for a few months. Being a Haole family with 5 kids I had the usual questions about education, cost of living, schools, fitting in etc. I never needed to ask any questions because with enough searching you all had already answered them. I ended up landing in Niu Valley where I have kids at Aina Haina, Niu Valley and Kaiser(this happens when you have 5 kids). It took our family about a year to adjust to different aspects of the culture and education process here, but we love it. Kids love to surf and if you enjoy the outdoors, respect the culture and embrace the culture this is such a great place to raise a family.

I am only posting to say thanks to all the long term posters that help those who don't at all understand the dynamics of living in "paradise". It was a great help to me and my family and made our transition successful.

Thanks again.

Great to hear! Niu Valley is a beautiful neighborhood in a great location. Congrats on your home! Do any of your kids that attend Niu Valley Intermediate talk about the "Great 80's Egg Fight" I always wondered if the kids there carried on our tradition. LOL.

[ScottStielow]

Originally Posted by carbonez

When I was moving from the Midwest to Oahu a few years ago I "lurked" on this page for a few months. Being a Haole family with 5 kids I had the usual questions about education, cost of living, schools, fitting in etc. I never needed to ask any questions because with enough searching you all had already answered them. I ended up landing in Niu Valley where I have kids at Aina Haina, Niu Valley and Kaiser(this happens when you have 5 kids). It took our family about a year to adjust to different aspects of the culture and education process here, but we love it. Kids love to surf and if you enjoy the outdoors, respect the culture and embrace the culture this is such a great place to raise a family.

I am only posting to say thanks to all the long term posters that help those who don't at all understand the dynamics of living in "paradise". It was a great help to me and my family and made our transition successful.

Thanks again.

Glad everything is working out for you and the family. Join in on the forum form-time-time to let new comers who are looking to move here. You and your family's experience during the move and living here on Oahu. Could help out some other family.
Thanks for the update.

[carbonez]

pj737,

I have not heard them talk about an egg fight, but I will ask them. I know they have some traditions they keep with. One of my daughters is in in Polynesian Music and plays the Uke and they have quite a few traditions in that class they do from back in the 80's. I am guessing the Egg fight was a student lead event so I will see if they kept it going.

[0967]

Originally Posted by carbonez

When I was moving from the Midwest to Oahu a few years ago I "lurked" on this page for a few months. Being a Haole family with 5 kids I had the usual questions about education, cost of living, schools, fitting in etc. I never needed to ask any questions because with enough searching you all had already answered them. I ended up landing in Niu Valley where I have kids at Aina Haina, Niu Valley and Kaiser(this happens when you have 5 kids). It took our family about a year to adjust to different aspects of the culture and education process here, but we love it. Kids love to surf and if you enjoy the outdoors, respect the culture and embrace the culture this is such a great place to raise a family.

I am only posting to say thanks to all the long term posters that help those who don't at all understand the dynamics of living in "paradise". It was a great help to me and my family and made our transition successful.

Thanks again.

So happy to hear you love it and don't regret the move. We just recently found out it's official that we are moving to oahu. We are coming on a job transfer so company move. So far I think I'm going to be able to keep my job working from home. It's exciting ... We are thrilled.

[PinkyTuscadero]

Originally Posted by pj737

Great to hear! Niu Valley is a beautiful neighborhood in a great location. Congrats on your home! Do any of your kids that attend Niu Valley Intermediate talk about the "Great 80's Egg Fight" I always wondered if the kids there carried on our tradition. LOL.

Hmmm I was at that very school in 82 so it must have happened after that

[lost_traveler1]

Cool, thats the path of schooling I took.

I started at Aina Haina at 3rd grade, Niu Valley, then Kaiser. I'd say that my experience was a really good one. You get the exposure to both good and bad things growing up in this neighborhood. Its a good balance for a kid to develop in vs. the extremes of schools in poor neighborhoods and private sheltered isolated schools. I am very fortunate for this. Before 3rd grade I was in the worst neighborhoods on Oahu, 3 blocks away from Farrington High.

I along with my friends graduated with university degrees and have successful jobs. We had idiot friends that did dumb stuff but we stayed away from joining most of their activities.

I always read comments about people talking about schools and how good is this one or how bad that one is. School rankings are soooo limited in what info they base their "rankings" around. One can argue that regardless of school, with the exceptions of extremes, it all depends on the individual kid and how their parents raise them that will determine how they turn out.

I can give exact examples of people that went to expensive private schools that turned out average or subpar in their careers and people that went to average schools that are highly successful based on their efforts.

Happy belated welcome to the neighborhood!

[carbonez]

@lost_traveler1,

Are you still in Niu valley?

Thanks!