We are a family with small children as well. I am friends with Kestral, one of the members of Abundant Dawn, and would *highly recommend* that group to anyone that has a tolerance for the southern summer, and possibly an outside income or potential to have one. Wonderful loving people on a great piece of
land. Too far south for us tho. lol. Summer gets hot there.
My husband and I want to go north, though, and are interested in having families join us as well. We will be purchasing land in MA this year and hope to settle a few families with children. We'd like to Co-op parenting/childcare/education while growing food and other interests together. The land will have no
mortgage, we plan to purchase it as an educational non-profit and maintain it with no property tax if possible, or minimum taxes based on agricultural income. Decision mostly by community discussion/concensus with a majority needed to *block* projects. We hope to get it set up as a permiculture farm/ forerunner of *best* agricultural practices moving forward. we want to hold seminars and summer programs to show people how to grow food effectively and efficiently on whatever land they have. We are looking for people that are interested in building small, simple homes (like the Simon dale style Hobbit-houses) and living mostly off-grid and low-tech. We want to have a large community building with all the amenities/tech and leave that all out of our little homes. Reality is that it will probably start out with a single home from which we all share/start in while building our homes.
If this sounds like a fun adventure, PM me? I'd love to hear what the rest of you are looking for/doing.