nikkim

Hi
I have two small children 6 and 3 and am really worrying about how he will be on arrival in Canada.

Any of your advice and experience of this would be great. My eldest is really quite sensitive and although he is really happy at the idea of going, I am worried that he will be awful on flight after saying goodbye to friends and family.

Has anyone got any advice for leaving day with regard to trying to make it happy and exciting rather than a traumatic time.

Thanks

Nikki

Tom Masters

My kids were 5 and 3 when we came over and they loved it - still do. We made it in to a big adventure and really talked it up for about a year before we left!

I think they will follow your lead, especially if they are sensitive. If you think you are going to have a very emotional good bye scene at the airport, then maybe you could say good bye to family and friends before you get to the airport.

We ended up rushing at the last minute on our last day as the packers were late so no emotional good bye scene for us - more like a crazy rush for the plane!!

Anyway, I'm sure that whatever emotions you display on the day, will be the ones your kids pick up on. We had a great adventure and we are still very happy to be here 4 + years on Have fun, you'll probably only do it once so make it a good one.

Chris

moondevil

Nikki

Our two youngest are that age and they have adapted well
i have done a 3mth thread in the cann section to let people know how it was.
the goodbyes was done on we will see you later, although i was in pieces and so was by eldest the two little ones was looking forward.

We did a good flight back including there teddy's and blankets for the airplane, just like we would if we was going on a trip, they love it here and have settled in well at school.
my youngest goes to daycare a couple of days aweek, made friends and her accent is changing quicker than ours.
my 6yr old loves school, settled well and already has a great bunch of friends, misses his grandparents like crazy, but we are in the middle of doing there room for next year, so he cant wait

good luck with the move, dont worry and you can always come on here if you have issue's
we have all gone through it and i get advise from other expats who have made the move before me, network like crazy it help

Danny B

Mine were 4 & 11 when we arrived. The 5yr old (now) is a fully fledged Canadian brat and has never looked back, ask her to remember anything of her past English life and she cannot. She loves it over here and has made many friends.

My now 12yr old Son is 1 year a head (due to starting School 1yr early in the UK) and is now at High School. He was not very sporty back in England and the biggest single change I have seen in him is the amount of sports he does now.
Canadian Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Skating, snow boarding you name it he plays it.
I think the best age to move children to a new country is before they go to secondary School and start making close friends. We were lucky in that regard, one hadn't started and one had just finished middle School.

So to answer your question, there were NO negative affects of them moving here. As soon as they started School, they started making friends and the past has been forgotten about.

nikkim

Thank you for your replies. It is really nice to hear that your children have adapted well. i am sure that mine will too. We are trying to make it a big adventure for them.
Nikki
x

NatsnSid

Hi

I agree with the suggestion of no goodbyes at the airport.

Parents and alike wanted to come and wave us bye but we said very early on (after Jempee advised us!!) that we were having no-one at the airport to see us off - they came to see us the morning we went but by the time we hit the motorway we had all stopped crying and were saying "YAY were going to canada".

The Airport was positive, the flight was ok (as flights go) - my two are 10 and 8 so were entertained by the inflight movies and tried to get some sleep. If they were younger I think i'd just give them a bag for hand luggage for them to put their favourite things in - then stash it under the seat in front so they can get to it without you having to go to the overhead.

I also had my two in really comfy clothes so they could sleep easily.

My two have settled in really well at their new school - they couldn't wait to start and see what the differences were - they love the teachers and principle. I couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

Im really pleased with how it has gone and although i've still to find a job here - everything has slotted together nicely - big thanks there to Lisa/Rob, Craig/Rose and John/Gina - they helped us feel very welcome and to get us here!!

Enjoy your adventure

Nats

LotteW

When we came over, we had an 18 month old, a 3 yr old, a 5 yr old and a 7 yr old..... all their birthdays were within 3-6 months of us landing though....

I would say they adapted very, very well - within 2-3 weeks of us landing they were back at school (for the school aged ones) and they made friends, they enjoyed themselves (and scarily they developed a local accent!)

We did prepare them - the ones who were at school knew all about our impending emigration for about 6 months, and on their final day of school (about 2 weeks before we flew out) we gave them disposable cameras to take into school so they could photograph their friends etc (mostly blurry pics tbh when we got them developed - lots of fingers over the veiw finder lol) but they treasure those pics!

We also got special friends contact details - parents email addresses and phone numbers/addresses etc.. they have been able to write to their friends,and email them etc - we have had one set of friends visit us recently too.

But tbh my kids broke the ties to the UK very, very quickly.... they are not all that bothered - yes they like getting pictures and emails from their UK friends, but they don't miss them all that much - their local friends are far more important to them now... (this after nearly 3 yrs of being here)

Canada2006

Our kids were about 1yr and 3yrs when we came over. Before coming we explained a lot what was happening, how many aeroplanes we would be taking in quite a bit of detail.

To make Canada interesting we showed the eldest a youtube video of a Robert Charlebois song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZAaEZAzGf0)and promised her new boots. That was enough to make her interested. She is, by the way, a Highly Sensitive Child (http://www.hsperson.com/). Just before going we also did everything to make sure that she'd done all the crying she needed to do so that she felt happy and confident about the trip.


The journey went well even though it was long and tiring for us all. The following days the girls had jet lag, woke up really early, we were in an apartment and worried about disturbing the neighbours.... but the girls settled in really well, a few days of increased crying (it's really important at this time to accompany them with their crying) but they adapted superbly to their new life.

I think that the experience greatly matured them, especially the eldest. She hated daycare in Europe but loves it here.