Preparing children for the move!
Oct 17th 2006, 7:06 am
#16
member
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Newport,Redcliffe,Qld
Posts: 321
Re: Preparing children for the move!
Hi,We moved to South africa when my sister was 3 and I was 6. We moved around quite alot and I ended up starting school about 5 times.I remember my gran sending me tape recordings of her singing "Save all your kisses from me!".This was all pre internet and cheap flights and South Africa really was the other side of the world.
I cant ever remember feeling homesick or unsettled and was quite happy as long as I was with my mum and dad.We were very close to my grandparents and aunties but,as awful as this sounds,I cant remember really missing them.My parents had a really good network of friends and we had a"surrogate" family .
This really sustains me when I think about taking my own 2 kids,who are 3 and 5 away.I think it will be me who is homesick,not the kids.I worry about them missing my Dad,Arron really adores him.I plan to buy webcams for Xmas and talk to the kids about the move.They have no concept of time or distance,they want to go to Oz NOW please!
If only it was that easy for me!
Andrea
Oct 17th 2006, 10:35 pm
#17
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: mackay and loving it
Posts: 202
Re: Preparing children for the move!
you can never give any child enough information
we told all 3 of ours right from the beginning ages 13.10 and 5
they are all very well informed and very much looking forward to our new life.
we are leaving the uk by the end of the month and the children are so excited.
just try to be as honest as you can with them.. yes they will miss family members and friends ... but children make friends so easy and there are web cams for contacting family. my 5 year old knows how to speak to our friends in aus via MSN and video mail.
good luck in your journey
Denise peter & family
we told all 3 of ours right from the beginning ages 13.10 and 5
they are all very well informed and very much looking forward to our new life.
we are leaving the uk by the end of the month and the children are so excited.
just try to be as honest as you can with them.. yes they will miss family members and friends ... but children make friends so easy and there are web cams for contacting family. my 5 year old knows how to speak to our friends in aus via MSN and video mail.
good luck in your journey
Denise peter & family
Originally Posted by Spikey
Any top tips?
I have a 6 year old son and a 3.5 year old daughter. So old enough to understand a fair bit, but also not much at the same time.
Now we have a proper date for going etc I need to start talking to them more about it. They know we're going and seem fairly excited (my son more so than my daughter - she has been quite worried I think which shows itself in different ways.. though she did matter of factly tell nursery staff that she was going to Australia 'forever'!) I've been keeping it quite low key up until now as it was all so uncertain but we've only got 6 weeks left in the UK now!
Would be interested to hear other people's experiences of the whole move with children - how they coped with it and so on.
I have a 6 year old son and a 3.5 year old daughter. So old enough to understand a fair bit, but also not much at the same time.
Now we have a proper date for going etc I need to start talking to them more about it. They know we're going and seem fairly excited (my son more so than my daughter - she has been quite worried I think which shows itself in different ways.. though she did matter of factly tell nursery staff that she was going to Australia 'forever'!) I've been keeping it quite low key up until now as it was all so uncertain but we've only got 6 weeks left in the UK now!
Would be interested to hear other people's experiences of the whole move with children - how they coped with it and so on.
