Moving to New Jersey from UK with 3 kids
 

Hi - We are moving to New Jersey in July with 3 kids (6 and twins of 3 years old) and wanted opinions on good areas/schools to join. Also interested in chatting with other families who are moving/recently moved to NJ from the Uk.

Thanks

Re: Moving to New Jersey from UK with 3 kids
 

Despite its relatively small size, New Jersey is a rather diverse state. What part of it will you be moving to?

Regards, JEff

Re: Moving to New Jersey from UK with 3 kids
 

Might help if you said where you'd be working, what kind of commute you'd put up with, what kind of budget you've got and if you're looking for a home/apartment or whatever.

Also search out posts by Englishmum, she has posted loads of great info in the numerous threads where people have asked about NJ in the past.

Welcome to BE though and good luck!

Re: Moving to New Jersey from UK with 3 kids
 

Hi, we moved from Scotland in October and are happily settled in Ridgewood, Bergen County in northern NJ. Happy to answer any specific questions on this area if I can help at all.

Re: Moving to New Jersey from UK with 3 kids
 

Welcome to BE.

I live in Morris County...been here for 17 years...what area are you moving to? There are loads of threads about NJ...you can find them by using the forum's search function...go to 'Advanced Search' for the best results. As Bob said look out for posts/threads by Englishmum...she has written extensively about schools, rail links etc...she lived in Milburn and her husband worked in NYC.

We have quite a few members now living in NJ...they tend to be scattered about. You could try looking through the threads in the Meet-Ups forum...you should find a few in there.

Re: Moving to New Jersey from UK with 3 kids
 

Hi

We just moved to NJ at the beginning of March, we have 2 young children. We are living in Florham Park at the moment. Happy to answer any questions you may have!

( Morris County)

Re: Moving to New Jersey from UK with 3 kids
 

Hi - thanks for those that have replied to my post. We have been looking into Shorthills, Milburn or Summit.....I will also read the threads from Englishmum.
Thanks

Sarah

Re: Moving to New Jersey from UK with 3 kids
 

Hi Sarah

From a previous post of mine:

My way of finding an area to live was based on the local schools. I used greatschools.org to find schools in the commute I (my OH really) would be happy with. Then I looked on neighborhoodscout.com to see what the areas were like. Then I looked at rentals in those areas (GSMLS.com) and came on 2 trips, an area tour and a house hunting trip to nail down the rental.

I also wanted to make sure we would be able to afford to buy in the catchment area of the school if we decided to stay as elementary schools are on catchment.

We moved to NJ 10 months ago with 3 boys (twins 5 at time and big brother was 7) and they love it here. I can't say I would have done anything differently.

One thing to note is once you know which school district your kids will be going to, check the required immunisations and make sure you start getting them up to date before you move. Mine had everything required in the UK, but needed 4 instead of 3 for most things and 3 doses of Hep B (got 2 done in UK then you wait 6 months and get the 3rd so had that done here) Luckily I had read that on here and got it started or they wouldn't have been allowed to start school.

The areas you are looking at are all good areas with great schools. It might come down to being able to find a rental you are happy with in the location that suits in the correct time frame. I was looking at those areas and Mendham, Randolph, Bernardsville and Mountain Lakes as my OH commute was not into the city.

HTH

Re: Moving to New Jersey from UK with 3 kids
 

Thank you HTH so much - really helpful and will get onto the immunisations tomorrow. We are moving end of july and only have time for one trip before this so trying to do as much research as possible....