lucas

hello, what would be the best way to recce around canada with two small children ?? thanks , guy

Kabel

Leave them at home.

Kabel

Seriously, that is what we plan on doing. We have a 4 and a 2 year old and think the amount of stuff you try and cram in on a recce means it is not quite the same as having a holiday so taking children, especially small ones, could make it pretty difficult.

That being said, I'm not looking forward to doing it, even though it would only be for a week. I recently left the girls with my parents for one night and whilst I enjoyed the evening off and the subsequent lie in, I missed them like crazy.

Oh...I think I'm talking myself into taking them.

Look forward to your other replies!

Kabel

ARH

My wife and I left our 3 year old son with Grandma and Grandad. Whilst we missed him loads and often thought it would be good to have him with us, we are glad we left him behind. We got loads done.

It is now five months after our recce trip and we are moving to Calgary in 6 weeks time!

Where are you thinking of going?

Cheers
ARH

Paul Wildy

If your kids are very young (i.e. 4 and under) I guess it does make it easier not to take them but really for school age or near school age then I think there's a lot to gain from taking them. Its an opportunity for them to get introduced to the idea of moving countries, see first hand where they might be moving to, possibly visit a school and (hopefully) start to get excited themselves about moving. Otherwise its just something that mum and dad are talking about all the time but they its a bit unknown and scary to them. The tricky bit I guess is having to build-in some "fun" bits rather than just spending all the time looking at houses etc so they don't associate the new country with a totally boring time!

RodRos&Co.

Hi

I realise your kids are a lot younger but this is what we did.
Our kids were teenagers when we did our 1st recce to NS, I enrolled them on a 10 day scout camp on Miller Lake, I would recommend it now (of course you know your own kids) but at the time of leaving them and for me whilst they were there it was awful, they loved it.
The following summer they insisted on going again so they could meet up with the kids they had met and stayed in contact with on msn.

Rosie

Paul Wildy

That sounds a great idea

Judy in Calgary

FYI, everyone, lucas's sons are aged six and two, based on a previous post.

Paul Wildy

I think the 6-year old will definitely want to see where he is moving to

Southcote

We've been on 2 reccie trips with 2 young children (4 & 2 first time around, 5 & 3 second time around). The best thing we did was buy a DVD player for the car, with a stack of new DVDs - it helped entertain them when we were driving around and was the best £100 we spent. Make a lot of kidde stops, playgrounds, parks that sort of thing, and build in fun days by doing the sort of thing you would do on a normal family holiday.

Also, rather than stay in a hotel, rent a house / apartment / suite. You'll get a stack more room and it may even work out cheaper

I'm glad I took the children with me, it gave us more of an insight into the normal things we would do if we were living in Canada, plus it did make it a holiday rather than just a fact finding trip. You'll also realise exactly how child friendly Canada is

lucas

hi , thanks for post, we are thinking of alberta or b.c. , i thought a motor home would be ideal, i may get employment in fort mcmurray in the oil and gas industry, so calgary is looking good, but like i say im new to the site and there seems to be some helpful people ,so thanks again , guy

Kabel

The other thing I thought of was that taking the children also depends on your length of trip.

If it is for a couple of weeks then I'd say take them for most of the reasons already mentioned. Also when going for a longer trip the time difference/jet lag, which I imagine is hard for a small child, would be dealt with easier as you would give yourself (and them) time to adapt.
For a shorter trip, they will find it harder to adapt to a different time and routines will be all over the place. You will have your busy schedule, your own tiredness, as well as theirs, to manage.

Worth factoring in.

comet555

If your're planning on visiting Fort McMurray make sure you have some sort of accomadation lined up before hand, even if you are in a motor home. Most of the hotels and camp sites are full of workers who are working at the mines and put up in hotels.

Just a word of warning, I'd hate to see you get all the way up there and have no where to stay. There aren't any other towns nearby either.