relocating to portland

You really can't get much better than the quality and community of West Hills Montessori. There is one in SW on Vermont st where my daughter is in elementary school, and one in Lake Oswego. You should contact Anne Blickenstaff the school administrator. She is one of a kind, the most amazing woman. The environment that they provide at West Hills Montessori is one that allows your child to build independence and autonomy and thus high self esteem, good decision making and global awareness. They soak up the lessons without realizing their learning math at age 3, because it's presented in a way their minds can absorb it. I just can't say enough. My daughter has blossomed there and I wish I had put my older son in Montessori. As for locations, neighborhoods...it really depends on what kind of environment you're looking for. Multnomah is very down to earth, artsy, as well as Hawthorne area in SE. Close to downtown or the Pearl District is quite expensive (NW Portland) but very hip and trendy. There are great neighborhoods in NE, up and coming shopping areas there...we have a lot of friends who love the non-pretentiousness of NE Portland. SO, many choices based on your preferences. Good Luck, Claire

You think that you're just renting, and not necessarily tied down to one area. But I find that it's the norm to buy/settle in very close to where you start out renting.

We decided on the west side, close in. we did this because there are more good school options, both public and private, and because we wanted something less suburban, more portland. On our "preview trip" we spent more time looking at preschools than looking at rentals. We ultimately chose the foundation school, and have the highest praise. Most of the families in that community are in southwest portland and lake oswego. We also investigated a number of international programs, montessori schools, touchstone, and the jewish academy. Most of them got high marks from us.

For rentals, try www.housingmaps.com. It's a mashup of craigs list ads organized on google maps.

Hi Cathi,

I actually live in the Cedar Mill area and relocated 3 years ago from California. We love it here and it's been great raising our 18 month old daughter in this area! My husband works in Hillsboro so it was a great location for us especially with a short commute! The airport is about 25 mins away with out traffic. Downtown is about 10 mins away. We also live in WA county as part of the Cedar Mill area so the property taxes are lower which was important to us. The schools near us have great reputations. We're near two major hospitals, main highways and public transportation (Max train) is close.

Please email me directly with additional questions at melissa@itsa-belly.com. You can also check out my website at http://www.itsa-belly.com. I have a blog with free parenting tips.

Here are some websites which will give you great information on pre-schools in Portland:

http://www.cafemama.com/ http://urbanmamas.typepad.com/urbanmamas/2006/01/finding_prescho.html http://urbanmamas.typepad.com//urbanmamas/ http://www.readysetmom.com/readysetmom/2007/01/sw_preschools_c.html

Best, Melissa

i will look into it. thank you soo much!

Hi. Have you thought about living in Vancouver (burbs)? Very close to Portland but without the cost of property taxes. Plus they have great school system.