For Recently Relocated Families Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service
- Encourage kids to stay in touch by providing pre-addressed postcards and e-mail addresses for their old friends.
- Sign your kids up for sports teams, drama clubs, Scout troops and community youth groups, which offer children an opportunity to meet new friends outside school.
- Get back into familiar routines. If Friday-night pizza or Saturday-morning cartoons are a tradition in your family, take them up again as quickly as you can.
- Check out local attractions. Let the kids know it's going to be fun to live in a town with amusement parks, great museums and major sports teams.
- Invite new neighbors to the house for a get-acquainted session.
- Don't take it personally if your kids blame you for the difficulties that surround moving. No matter how well you've prepared them, they're apt to be upset sometimes and need time to grieve. Just assure them that they'll grow to love their new home, school and friends as much as the old ones.
(Source: Monstermoving.com, an online source of relocation information based in White Plains, N.Y.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. Visit SHNS on the Web at www.shns.com.)
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