Cambridge Forum: Thinking of Relocating to Mass with a 7 year old and 2 dogs

Hi, Deb!

There are many towns that would fit your description. A better tool for you to inquire would probably be the city-data website.

BTW, I think a town like Newton would be a good choice. It's a nice, pretty, safe community with a very good school system. Easy access into Boston, too. But, there really are so many towns that would meet your criteria.

Here's the Massachusetts forum for the city date site.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/massachusetts/

Good Luck!

Your priority with a 7 year old should be the quality of the schools (which usually is tagged to the price of houses). There are online reviews (you can search for) that detail each local school, not just the town/city system.

Did you have Cambridge in mind? If so, then a day touring around would be well spent. Cambridge has a huge melting pot of people, and your son would meet people from all around the world.

And there are certain elementary schools there that are good (that parents fight to get their kids into) and others that are not good at all. If you are indeed considering Cambridge (where btw, I would never allow a 7year old to "ride his bike ...around a block" unsupervised), do talk to some parents in the know and find out about the good schools and how to go about finding an opening in one for a kid who isn't starting from kindergarten (when most parents choose and after which openings are limited).

Check out:

Winchester

Lexington

Concord

Andover

Westford

Belmont

MA schools are rated by the MCAS testing so I would do a google search on the best MCAS Scores.

Boston Magazine writes an article every year on the Best Places to live in MA

bostonmagazine.com/best_places_to_live/index…

Good Luck!

What makes a town "village-like"?

Veroncia

I would assume a place with a town center that you can walk to versus a Suburb with a strip mall.

Concord, Harvard (the town not the college; looks like Vermont, one of the better school systems in the state).

I am a little out of the loop on where 7 year olds should be or shouldn't be supervised.

There are parts of Cambridge I know better than others. Huron Ave area is about as safe as most places. From what I have seen on this forum, walking in most parts of cambridge at midnight, is pretty safe for most adults.