What is Texas like?

We live in E. Texas and I’m from the West Coast, too……WA State.

Homeschooling in Texas is pretty easy. There is a pretty big homeschool community and when the State tries to tighten the laws, they get a lot of phone calls. 🙂

Community where I am is a bit hard to create. People aren’t always super open to outsiders, so it takes some time.

Being from the NW, when I first came to TX, I was horrified at the racism and inter-racial families where very rare. But that was ten years ago and it seems to be getting better. We have a couple of inter-racial family in our co-op now and they are accepted with no problems.

Organic food is easy to find and there are naturopathic doctors, midwives, chiropractors, etc. around.

But TX is huge. West Texas may be completely different and the city areas definitely are different than the rural areas.

Hi Grace,

My husband and I moved here almost four years ago from IL. I am black and he is white. I don’t know if that makes a difference, but thought I’d mention it just in case your husband is black and you are white. I would be sharing my experience from the black female perspective.

I had the same questions about Texas before I moved here and had a couple of friends that I was able to talk to who made me feel more comfortable.  And so far, we have had nothing but wonderful hospitality from the Texans we’ve met.

We lived in the McKinney area (with our five children who are now ages 10 down to 2 years old), the first three and a half years we were here. But actually we were not in McKinney proper, we were out in the country, east of McKinney, about 10 miles in a small town of only 1,800 people, so our neighbors were all Texan natives. They were the nicest people I have ever met! I felt like the media has lied so much about Texas. Also, the first week we were here we saw at least 10 mixed couples within a span of 2-3 days. There were so many that we joked that there must be advertisement for interracial couples to move to McKinney! All of these couples were black/white couples.

We also used to attend a Church in the Plano area that had a ton of mixed couples, I am talking black/white, mexican/south-african, nicaraguan/middle easterner, korean/white, chinese/white etc…

I was born in the New Jersey area, just over the water from Manhattan. After College I moved to California. I met my husband and moved to IL. I have to tell you that I only experienced racism in the liberal areas of NJ, CA and IL. I have not experienced anything in Texas.

We just moved three weeks ago because we bought a home in Wylie. So far we are not having any trouble. I wouldn’t call these areas East Texas, but I do recall someone saying that East Texas wasn’t so great. McKinney is about 40 minutes north of Dallas. Wylie is about 35 minutes Northeast of Dallas.

I like the far northern Dallas burbs that used to be all country/farming here many, many years ago. That would be the cities of McKinney, Frisco, Little Elm, Melissa. These areas are growing so much. McKinney has about 144,000 people I think now. Where we live in Wylie, it’s about 44,000.

I think too these areas have a lot of people from all over because of all the businesses moving into TX.

Oh and there is plenty of local organic food via Farmer’s markets and other avenues like food co-ops. Azure Standard delivers in my neighborhood. There’s also stores like Whole Food, Sprouts and Trader Joes. Oh and there is a wonderful organic store called Central Market or something like that. We have allergies so I really loved it when we were closer to Frisco because they have a bakery called, Unrefined Bakery. You can get baked goods that are gluten-free, soy free, dairy free, egg free, yeast free, you name it!

There are plenty of naturopaths too. There are two pediatricians that do both. There is Dr. Bain in Frisco who is a functional med doc. She helped us identify the allergy issues. She will do vaccines (but prefers to go slow) and if you don’t want vaccines she is all for that too. No hassles. She does supplements and talks about probiotics, getting zinc, etc.. she really knows her stuff. And there is Dr. Naidoo who used to be in practice with her and has a similar mindset. He is in Richardson now.

I would say that it does take time to get connected in the community. But there are a ton of homeschooling support groups as well as co-ops. I am kinda having a hard time in that area because I don’t do co-ops and seems like everyone here is in one.

Well, I hope that helped you and that I answered all of your questions.

Oh in TX there is no requirement to report or anything. You just need to have a written curriculum and do basics of reading, writing, math and good citizenship I believe are the only requirements.

God bless and I pray your search goes well.

I whole-heartedly agree with everything Cheryl said.  I live in Frisco, next door to McKinney (Dallas metro).  This area is super-diverse and growing like crazy.  Homeschoolers have it pretty easy in TX.  No reporting to the state of any kind.  And there are a lot of homeschool groups, co-ops, etc.  I love living here!  It’s been eleven years now; spent 14 years in Southern CA before moving here; grew up in St. Louis.  I think our church has everything to do with Frisco, TX feeling like home.

Melissa

Hi Grace,

Cheryl again. (Well, Sheri). 🙂  I had to chime in again. I am sorry your Aunt has had a bad experience living here in TX. I do not know what Dallas is like because I do not go to Dallas at all. My life, for almost four years, has centered around the rural area east of McKinney, rural areas like Prosper and Anna and Melissa and shopping in McKinney, going to Plano, Frisco and Little Elm and even way north visiting some friends in Bonham. Again, we have not had any problems. Also, when we were living out in the country in this very small town that was only 1,800 people we attended the local Church down the road from our house. I was nervous because the Church was all white and the people were very country and I started thinking that it was going to be a problem being there with all of these country native Texans. And I was so wrong! We had such a warm welcome and there were so many Grandma and Grandpas there just being so sweet to our children and nice to us. If they had a problem with bi-racial families I could not tell at all. This is what I would expect from those who profess to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I also mentioned that we recently moved to Wylie. We are looking for a home Church and so visiting a few Churches in the area. There is a woman from my homeschool support group who invited me to her Church. It’s new and small because they are a Church plant. She is black and so is her husband and they are TX natives. She is so sweet and has never told me about any issues she has experienced. So, we visited her Church this morning. And there were two other married couples there with children who were white husband and black wife. They were so sweet. The younger of the two couples live in East Dallas near Mesquite and Garland. There does not seem to be this problem here that you think of when you think of the south. Seriously, the media is awful! They frighten you and make you think that it would be awful to move to TX. I don’t know where that kind of living would be where there would be racial tensions, but it’s not in the McKinney area, or immediate surroundings, nor in Wylie where I live. Wylie is also very diverse with white and black etc…

Oh and I don’t say this meaning that they are liberal minded people. I am very conservative, socially and fiscally and it’s a surprise to most people. These native Texans I am talking about are also very conservative and they had warm, welcoming hearts and were kind.

Praying for you and your husband in this tough decision to relocate. It is a tough decision, let alone thinking about racial tensions.