AFwife Claire Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 My dh is considering an assignment in Toronto. It's some kind of joint teaching thing, where he would be at a professional military excellence school for the Canadian forces, like our Air COmmand and Staff College or something, I think. I am hazy on the specifics, however. I am not even sure if there is a Canadian base anywhere there in Toronto. Anyhow, my main questions have more to do with homeschooling. How is it there? Is there any support? Is it difficult? Can you get stuff shipped from the States fairly easily, or is it a real hassle? How is just living in general? We have a large family (7 kids)--would we totally stick out like sore thumbs and be uncomfortable? Do they have Sams or something similar there, so we can buy food in bulk? Our first 4 are boys, and we go through a lot of food! Would you say cost of living is comparable to the U.S.? We are in D.C. right now, which is pretty expensive, so I wouldn't think that would shock us! How about housing? We're in a 5 bedroom house now, which fits everyone really well. Would that be an unusual size? Thanks for any help you can give! Our other option is to stay here and retire, and that is pretty tempting also, to be honest. We've got a great church and homeschool group here, with really close friends, and sometimes it's just hard to think about starting over yet again, especially in another country, with no US base around! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFwife Claire Posted July 21, 2009 Author Share Posted July 21, 2009 Hmmmm, no one lives there from this board? I must say that makes me a lot less tempted by this possible assignment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 send a pm to Janet in Toronto. There are other Ontario people here, but I can't remember their usernames. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elfgivas Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 hi - i grew up in TO, but am now in SoCal. there is a costco (or three). the staff college is in a lovely part of town. just a few blocks from where my dad lives, actually. there is an air base (downsview). i would go in a heart beat. i wouldn't live on base. when we moved things the other way, it was a hassle, but easier than other international moves. way easier. hth, ann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet in Toronto Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 I'm in Toronto! I'll try and answer your questions. Homeschooling is not well known here, but as I understand it, completely unsupervised. Here is a link to the Ontario Federation of Teaching Parents that should have lots of info. (I only homeschooled when we lived in Georgia, so am not much help on that front.) You will find lots of US stores here. I believe the Sam's Clubs just all closed, but we have Costco and Walmart here. No Target or Trader Joe's (**sniff**). I'd say the cost of living is comparable to DC. I have found food prices slightly higher here, with produce somewhat less expensive and meat/staples slightly more expensive. You will find more ethnic foods here, depending on where you live in the city. Like any major city, housing in-town is expensive (we are in a small single family home in the city that cost twice what our suburban Atlanta house sold for but is half the size). But you will be able to find larger houses in the 'burbs. Toronto is a very large and diverse city which makes it exciting and the source of great food and entertainment. There are large Chinese and Indian communities, West Indians, Middle Easterners, Italians, Portugese.... We have a world class symphony orchestra, opera company, lots of theatre, jazz, concerts, pro-sports teams....pretty much anything you would find in DC/NYC. Canadians are, in general, polite and would not make comments about your family size, or even probably think twice about it. There are some wonderful churches here, but Canadian life is much more secular than in the US, at least, that was my experience compared to Atlanta. People do not talk much about their faith practices, and I'm sure that church attendance is much lower than that in the states. The city has very good and safe public transit (my sons took transit to school from age 12), excellent city services (parks, arenas, pools, trash) although city workers are on strike at the moment. Fantastic library system. The city website is here. Please reply or PM me if you have more specific questions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 Getting homeschooling stuff shipped to Canada from the States is easy. You order, and it shows up a few weeks later. Although you might have to pay customs fees at the post office, but not usually for educational materials - and Stateside companies will label the packages as such to help you avoid fees. Mail system is a LOT slower here than in the States, but you just order way ahead of time. Something that moves from CA to NYC might take 2 days, here, from BC to NS might be 2 weeks. Or even 2 days across one province. :lol: Although, Toronto is probably a hub, so mail might be faster to you there. That said, there are many homeschool supply companies across Canada (I order from a few in Ontario, incl. R&S) that will ship anywhere in Canada. We also have amazon.ca and chapters.ca (like Borders) online. And Chapters bookstores. The big shocker when ordering homeschool supplies, or even when buying non-food items here in the tax. I can't remember what it is in Ontario, but here in Nova Scotia it's 13% (but it's lower for books), and things like soap and shampoo are generally more expensive here. It was hard for me to get used to at first when I moved to Canada, but it's all part of the cost of living here. You could always stock up on non-food consumables before you come. Other bulk stores in Canada (I'm pretty sure they are in Ontario) are Bulk Barns. You fill your own bags with flour, cocoa, rice, etc. and get them weighed and priced. There are McMansions all over Canada, too.:D And I don't think your family size would shock anyone here, there are plenty of big families here, too. We just had an 11-kid family sing at our church a few weeks ago. They were from Alberta. The society is more secular here, but there are plenty of churches around. Depending on where you are from in the States (I'm thinking south, or even New England where I'm from), you might find your thinking about Christianity challenged slightly. I did when I first came to Canada (and lived near Toronto). But it was a good challenge. And I made friends here, as long as I remained open to some new views on life. Toronto is a huge city, and it is fun. If you look for them, you could probably find some Americans to hang around with. It's very diverse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoyfulMama_Karen Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 I'm about 45 minutes from Toronto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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