Her only objection is that she prefers not to relocate our 3-year-old son. She thinks he would be better off with the advantages of a large school with an extensive athletic program and a wide variety of extracurricular activities.

Although I myself grew up in the city, I currently live in a small town and my kids go to school there.

In our experience there are actually at least as many or more extracurricular activities in the smaller cities (unless it really is a tiny village) than there are in the big cities.

Because there are not things like malls to hang out in, it seems that smaller cities are pretty good in providing extracurricular activities for children.

I live in Craig which has about 9000 people (pretty big, but is isolated a long way from any other towns) and there are plenty of activities here including soccer, basketball, swimming, skiing, etc, etc. even for little kids.

For the summer we lived in Granby, which has a population of around 1600 and is right next to the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. There were an unbelievable amount of choices the town offers for extracurricular activities. There were organized hikes, camping trips, river rafting trips, soccer, sports clinics, etc, etc. River rafting was my sons favorite. He is seven years old.

Anyway, yesterday in Craig was the big homecoming game at the high school. In a big city, there are several high schools, so it wasn't that big of deal for the town. Here there is only one high school. Because of this the entire city gets involved with the homecoming game. There is fireworks and a big parade. The elementary and middle school students get out of school for a while for a field trip to the homecoming parade. All the town businesses show support for the "Bulldogs" and paint things on their windows. the homecoming events make the newspaper:

http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/200 ... ng_parade/

See photos:

http://www.craigdailypress.com/photos/g ... ng_parade/

Check out the front page story from this morning's paper:

http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/200 ... _loudysim/

I guess it doesn't compete with the front page stories of crime and murder in some large cities, but oh well.

My own kids have been in the newspaper many times when the paper has taken photos of different extracurricular activities, so it's exciting for the kids when that happens.

Anyway, to put in plainly, I do not believe that these bigger cities offer much more in the form of sports or extracurricular activities. They do miss things like movie theaters, malls, shopping. amusement parks and things like that and "city folK" kids might get bored if they aren't into outdoor activities and the like.

Agree with a few of those posts, Goldenhop, especially in regards to projecting your kid's future athletic potential based upon his projected height.

I lived in Mammoth as a young twenty-something yr. old, returning several times throughout my twenties to work over Christmas break, etc. Most excellent times. I used to have fun, working the chairlift on 12, and having the same kids come by after school to ski and train for racing. Throwing snowballs at each other, etc. Very fun, and I felt those kids were so damn lucky to be skiing all the time and living in the mountains. I tell that story to my 14yr. old son and he can't believe the good fortune of those kids. But, did they go to Fri. night football games, etc.? Probably not. Trade offs. I'm sure they found other fun things to do, though.

Comes down to what you want, and your wife of course. The kid will adapt and adjust to whatever environment he's raised in. One option, though different than actually living in said town, is a manageable city near the mountains. Somewhere in Colorado, for instance, or, here in Portland. Though it's a "green" city, still very urban. But, some high-schoolers(who probably aren't playing winter basketball), hop on the bus some days after school, and head up to Mt. Hood(1.5 hr.) to ski on their high school ski team. They then compete against other high schools throughout the state. Pretty cool.

I remember visiting a friend in Mammoth a few years ago in the winter. They'd just received a foot of snow. We shoveled his walk while waiting for him to come home. My son, then about 8, was overjoyed to shovel snow, and amazed that there was that much right outside some one's front door. He wanted to move there immediately.
Now, he's hoping to make the freshman basketball team. But, if he doesn't(a good probability, since he doesn't practice all the time like some kids), he's thinking about the ski team.
Trade offs, buddy. Good luck.

Grade school in John Day


High School in Ketchikan Alaska


Living in the very flat tri-cities now, but Dean's shown a lot of hiking can be done from here so I'm not too worried about it.

goldenhopper wrote:

fatdad wrote:
BTW, just because your kid is projected to be tall doesn't mean he'll want to play B-ball. He may hate it. Staying in a big town with the assumption that he will play hoops, will like it, will get a college scholarship sounds like the kind of tracking the Chinese do with their would be athletes, i.e. this kid will be tall; he will play basketball.

goldenhopper wrote:I have to admit, if he had any aptitude for basketball and liked it, I'd feel pretty guilty about not giving him the best chance to take advantage of it.

Oops. My bad.

While I grew up close enough to the city that I had access to most programs like that, there are definitely disadvantages to growing up in the country. For example, I had a 5 mile bike ride to go to my closest friends house, and closer to 20 miles to be around more than a couple of friends. As mostly a loner, it didn't bother me much but a friend ended up finding things to keep busy, such as drugs and drinking which were very popular in the area I lived.

As Scott says, most smaller towns do more to make activities for kids (I didn't live in a town). I personally love living in a small town, but there are trade-offs. BTW, don't fool yourself into thinking that being in a small town will protect your kids from drugs/drinking/etc., especially in ski towns.