Florence area

[pegasus]

Are there many home schoolers in the Florence area? We're in Columbia now and there are a great # of home schoolers and support groups. We may be moving to the Florence area and I wondered if there are many active support groups or activities for elementary age home school students.

[hh_spring]

Hi Pegasus

I live in Florence, But I am not in any support groups, I belong to the Grace home school assoc(there office is in Florence) for accountability and Carolina Homeschooler has there web link on their site. I know there are plenty of homeschoolers here in Florence, just haven't joined one of their groups, but if you contact Grace they can give you more information on support groups.

The only special program especially for HomeSchoolers, I can think of at the moment is the YMCA has a 2 hour PE once a week class that runs twice a year for a fee even if you don't join the Y.

There are plenty of Athletic programs too, organized by the Florence Recreation Department, football, baseball, tennis, gymnastics, cheerleading, basketball, probably more!! Several different leagues for soccer too. We have a big county owned park on the Lynches River that also has programs and summer camps. climbing wall, nature hikes and a pool. Its just a neat place to spend a day, take a picnic, trail is marked with info signs, has a small playground too, or take your canoe or kayak and paddle, nice clean, easy going river. Never crowded and FREE!! There are fees for climbing & pool.

We also have a huge brand new library, looks like it should be in Columbia....they offer many children programs too through out the year. They have weekly storytime for preschool, not sure if they have any especially for Homeschool, but they do run a summer reading program for all ages and have weekly events for kids under 12 in the summer. You can check it out at www.florencelibrary.org (http://www.florencelibrary.org)

Welcome to Florence:wave: and hope you find a group that suits you!!

[pegasus]

Thank you so much for the info. I don't really know a thing about the Pee Dee area. I'm originally from the upstate, but have been in the midlands for the past 16 years. Any idea what areas of town are good to look for housing? Also, we've homeschooled the past 3 years, but I wondered if there are any good schools (public or private) in the area in case we ever decide to go that route. The library sounds terrific and we love all types of sports and outdoor recreation. Our moving isn't a definite yet, but we're looking into the area.
Pegasus

[hh_spring]

Well....I do have knowledge of my town as I have lived here since I started the first grade with a few years here & there living elsewhere, always seem to return home. i lived in Columbia in the early 80's myself, Both of my brothers lived in Columbia and one still does. I worked in Real estate here for 20 years, so I am quite familar with the neighborhoods, although we are growing steadily all around the city of Florence.

I know plenty of the realtors and even trust a few:biggrin2: , I was a real estate appraiser. Do you have any idea, what type of home or neighborhood you are interested in. Price range, size of home, proximity to shopping or things like churches, golf courses, older home or new homes....In the city limits or country living? Rent or buy? I could reccomend someone if you get that far, to work with you.

There are plenty of choices in private schools from Christian, church run and secular. Public schools have basically three divisions, lots of grammar schools, several large middle schools, there are three high schools. i have not had any personal experience with any of the private schools except for James F Byrnes Academy and that was when my oldest went there in the 7-8th grade, back a while as she is 29 now!

We have an excellent Florence-Darlington Technical College and Francis Marion University, which I forgot to mention before, The FMU library is a super resource for the community too and open to non-student patrons. They also have weekly planetarium events free to the public. There is also a summer day camp at the University that is run by the sheriff's dept that is free(Camp Pee Dee). Many local kids will go to tech or FMU and then leave after they get there feet wet.

Anyway, I live right in town, if you go through Florence to Myrtle Beach, you pass three blocks from my house....LOL...My husband grew up down in the southern part of the county, so he is very familar with the country life.

There are plenty of areas to pick from, I would say West Florence, My husband would say South Florence, and that also happens to be the name of the High Schools:lol: . There are like 5 school districts for public schools, but the city and surrounding county area is District 1.

There are also several small town in Florence County that have there own branch libraries, Like Lake City, Pamplico, Olanta and Johnsonville.They are small towns....like the whole one stop light thing... maybe two:biggrin2:...Okay before anybody says anything I know Lake City has more than two!!

Motor Mouth here is shutting up now....Private message me if you want....:wave: