This post is by regular contributor Tricia Hogbin of Little Eco Footprints.
We’re moving house at the end of the year. The move will be associated with a lot of change for my five year old daughter. She’ll be finishing preschool and starting school, moving from an urban area to a rural one, leaving behind her friends (although thankfully they will still be within regular visiting distance) and making make new friends, and she’ll be moving from a home – into a shed.
Thankfully the shed-living is only temporary and we hope to have a ‘proper’ home built within a year or so.
I’m starting to think about how I can help my daughter adjust to all this change. I’ve identified a few strategies so far:
- Help her understand what is happening and when. I’m going to mark dates associated with the move on her wall calendar so that she can mark each day off until the move. Hopefully this will ensure there aren’t any unexpected surprises.
- Highlight the positives. I’ve been highlighting the positives associated with the move and have been talking about the adventures we will have in our new neighbourhood.
- Familiarise her with the new property and neighbourhood. We’ll thankfully have plenty of time to visit our new property and the neighbourhood before the move. We’ll also try to meet some of the local kids as soon as possible.
- Establish an outdoor play space at the new property. Creating a natural playground area is high on our list of priorities and we plan to have the area established before we move in. There’s already an old swing set which we’ll repair and we’ll add a tree swing, a balance beam, picnic table and eventually a tree house. This will be a familiar space she can retreat to during the chaos of the move.
- Encourage her ‘city’ friends to visit. We plan to have regular parties and camping weekends at our property to encourage our daughter’s friends and their families to visit. We’re excited about the opportunities for natural and creative play our new property and neighbourhood will provide and are keen to share these with friends.
Have your children moved house or neighbourhood? How did you help them adjust?
Tricia is a nature-loving mum passionate about learning to live better with less. Working in threatened species conservation she has gained an increasing appreciation of the huge impact our consumption habits have on the environment. She hopes to inspire other families to live a little better with less too. Having recently made a 'tree change', you'll now likely find Tricia excitedly playing outdoors with her daughter, adding to her small flock of chooks and pottering in her new garden.
Read the comments or scroll down to add your own: