Help the 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 box and let them decorate it.

• 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 World.

• Encourage them 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.