8: Des Moines, Iowa

PHOTO: Courtesy of the Greater Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau

HOMESCHOOL REQUIREMENTS: None, for homeschoolers who don’t want to take advantage of dual enrollment or public school funds. Annual paperwork, testing, and/or evaluations are required for homeschooler who want to participate in the public school system.

COMMUNITY: Iowa Home Educators share resources, plan meet-ups, and discuss local homeschool options.

BOOKS: Browsers will be happy at The Book Store, where you’ll find a heady mix of old and new books, including lots of classics.

INSIDER TIP: The 515 Alive summer music festival is a great place to premiere your garage band or just catch some local music acts.

RESOURCES: Organize a field trip to Blank Park Zoo; take homeschool skating classes at the Ice Ridge rink; participate in hands-on homeschool classes at Living History Farms; have a sleepover at the Science Center of Iowa; have a trail-walking playdate at Ashworth or Greenwood Park; see a performance at the Iowa Fringe Festival; visit the Great Ape Trust primate sanctuary

NUMBER OF MUSEUMS: 22, including the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, the Carnegie Library Museum, and the State Historical Museum of Iowa

NUMBER OF LIBRARIES: 6, with events including themed dress-up days, gaming clubs, digital video-making classes, and more

MEDIAN HOME PRICE: $168,600

POPULATION: 207,510

Meat lovers won’t need much convincing that Des Moines is a great place to live: Iowa’s capital city hosts both the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival and the World Pork Expo every year. (Don’t worry, vegetarians: The Iowa State Fair, held here, has managed to redefine notions of vegetarian fair food and has some of the best veggie corndogs we’ve ever tasted, among other food-on-a-stick delights.)

You could say that life in Des Moines is all about options — and thanks to new legislation passed last year, homeschoolers have lots of options here, too, including a red-tape-free option that requires no paperwork or hoop-jumping for homeschool families. (If you want to participate in Iowa’s dual-enrollment opportunities or receive public school funds, you can choose from four other homeschool options, which do require you to file paperwork and participate in standardized testing and/or annual evaluations.)

And you may find planning your day a challenge since there are so many options to choose from: Should you spend the afternoon browsing and drinking coffee at the Cup O Kryptonite comic book shop, or experience life as a 19th century field hand at Living History Farms? Would you rather see a performance of the Royal Ballet of Iowa, catch a cheap matinee at the Merle Hay Cinema (where they only show one movie at a time in their single-screen theater), or bike to Saylorville Lake? Maybe it feels like a day to scrounge up a game of chess at the Downtown Library before browsing the books and making a sugar-fix stop at Snookie’s Malt Shop. In the summer, settle in the stands to watch an Iowa Cubs game, followed by fireworks. In the winter, go snow tubing at Sleepy Hollow. Make it a STEM day with a trip to the Science Center of Iowa, or explore art at the Des Moines Art Center. Whatever you choose, there’s a good chance you’ll run into another homeschool family or two on your weekday adventures.

With a cost of living almost 10 percent lower than the national average, Des Moines is one of the most affordable cities on our list. Expect to pay less for everything from housing to gas in this Iowa city. Des Moines’ transportation system, the DART, is handy for getting around downtown, but if you live further out or frequent places outside the DART radius, you will want a car for getting around.

This list was originally published by home/school/life in 2014. Are there great Des Moines, IA secular homeschool resources we missed or new resources created since we made this list? Add them in the comments!

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