Relocation, Relocation

moving house, packing up and go!

We are moving house on Saturday at Hogan Central. The house has been a buzz with packing and sorting and packing up the car with boxes and moving them to the new garage. I love to move house. Even though I wish I could snap my fingers and have everything moved for me like Elizabeth in Bewitched, I do love the cleansing feel of sorting and culling. Moving house gives us an opportunity to make positive changes in our family. 

But moving house can bring anxiety and unwanted stress for children, especially young children. A new bedroom, a new street. Watching your beloved belongings being boxed away. I have noticed that Mini Hoges has been a little bit extra clingy this week, and he has been coming into our bed most nights. Junior, being four years older than his brother is relishing the idea of being in a new house, mostly because his best friend lives in the street behind, just a hop, step and a jump over the fence.

To make the transition to a new house smoother and easy for Mini Hoges, I have taken a few steps to include him as much as possible in the process:

• Allowing children to choose their own bedroom
• Get children involved in packing and boxing up and moving their own belongings
• Set the new bedroom up in a layout that is as close as possible to their old bedroom
• Lots of visits to the new house and playing in the backyard
• Walking and biking the new route to school and kindy from the new house, before you move
• Purchase of decorative items for the new bedroom, like a new wall hanging, rug or bed linen 

Have you moved house with children? What steps did you take to make the transition easy on them?

Happy Days, 
Nicola