Helping Children Cope with the Move
Some Tips to Help Kids Cope with the Move:
- Show the children the new home and their new room prior to moving. If this is not possible, pictures or videos will help them visualize where they are going.
- Assure children that you won’t forget their friends.
- Make a scrapbook of the old home and neighborhood.
- Throw a good-bye party. At the party, have their friends sign a t-shirt.
- Have your children write good-bye letters and enclose their new address.
- You may wish to call the other children’s parents so that they will encourage return letters.
- When packing, give your children their own boxes and let them decorate them.
- Start a scrapbook for your new home.
- Visit your children’s new school, park, church, etc… Take a camera.
- Help your children invite new friends over to your new home.
- Let your children choose a new favorite restaurant. This will help them feel in control of their new environment.
- Encourage your children to send letters about their new home to their friends.
- Involve your children in groups, sports, and activities like the ones they used to participate in.
- Remember, even if you only lived in a home for a few years, to a young child it is nearly their entire lifetime.
