Activities To Do With Kids To Explore Your New Neighbourhood.
Activities To Do With Kids To Explore Your New Neighbourhood.
For school-age kids, to say goodbye to the neighbourhood they knew can leave them feeling overwhelmed or feeling frustrated. Many kids adjust quickly but all kids can feel the stress of moving from one home to another.
It takes more than stuffed animals and candy to make a child feel at home far from their old house. Being the new kid is always daunting and a happy moving day might help but it's just that, a single day.
The benefits of getting your kids acclimated after moving.
The first few weeks will be tense for everyone. The first environment they need to consider a safe space is the new house, being able to identify this new place as somewhere stable and where they belong is going to help tremendously with their mental health.
This is why it's a good idea to get rid of cardboard boxes from the move as fast as possible. The new house is their new home, not a transitory place. It serves as their anchor as they find their place in the new community they find themselves in.
As a parent, you are also obviously busy during and after the move, after all, you need to find your place as well. To help kids feel at home is to help make that new home a better space for the whole family.
What are the best things then to help kids love their new neighbourhood?
1. Go for a walk.
The words "explore, new neighbourhood, with kids, and settle in yourself" all used in a single sentence can sound highly stress-inducing but deciding to take your child along when you need to run errands or just need to scope out a new area can help them get a quick peek at their new horizons.
Involving children this way also helps with your child's safety by teaching them which places are child safe and which are not.
A walk and how you comport yourself during the said walk is going to help them understand how they should move on the same streets as well. Kids sense things with a lot more ease than we give them credit for. If they feel comfortable, enough, let your child lead the way from time to time. This will encourage them to find markers in the environment that help them navigate.
You might not have noticed the ice-cream parlour on a specific corner but they sure did.
Finding a local park can help your kids see that there are places where they can go with their new friends. (This is all age-dependent obviously but the idea applies to playdates for middle-grade children as well as older teenagers, it's just the execution that's a little different.)
2. Visit the library.
Not all kids are the physical types and that's okay. Kids cope with the world in all sorts of different ways but keeping kids moving, even if it's a quick trip to the local library can help them situate themselves in their new life with a lot more ease.
A local library is also a great place for kids (and even parents) to make some new friends. The library may have events that involve other kids or tips about what to do around town for the more cerebrally-focused children.
Becoming a regular at the library will also give your kids a space where they can feel at ease if they need some time on their own. While your home should always be the number one safe harbour, it's important to let them have safe spaces that you know of and can get to easily.
Sometimes homesickness lasts a while and stays buried, but a good book can make things right.
3. Play in a local sports league or club.
On the other hand, some children just cannot sit still. That's where a group physical activity comes in. Mixing play, encouraging socialization, and creating an exciting environment are all things that playing a team sport can do to let your child come into their own naturally.
It will require some organization but organized activities also allow families to bond by giving the children something to talk about during dinners or family time instead of the usual tedium of school work.
A new house can mean changes for your family like spending more time on your feet and doing it as new members of a community can encourage positive changes for everyone involved.
Children tend to make more efforts if they see other members of their family, especially their parents, putting in more effort.
4. Organize community movie nights or BBQs.
If you and your family are the types to love having neighbours around or creating small events then renting out a projector for a community movie night can be a great way to become part of the neighbourhood. Just make sure the volume is low enough to prevent any complaints - that would defeat the purpose of the whole operation.
Involving all the family members can help everyone bond with their new peers. Teenagers can roll their eyes at you to bond with other teens, younger kids can hang out together and find something fun to do while the movie starts to get rolling.
The idea isn't so much to have everyone doing the exact same thing, it's to create an opportunity for people to gather.
You can replace the movie idea with a pool party or a convivial BBQ in your front yard with no strings attached.
5. Let them lead the way.
Some kids need to feel a little bit of control. Of course, it's not about giving them a free pass to do whatever they want but allowing them to make the calls instead of relying on you will help sharpen their decision-making process.
A new house can mean a chance to reinvent themselves. Some children can be very excited at the prospect of a new beginning. It could be because they want to leave some bad memories behind or create a new image for themselves in their new place.
If doing things that would have made them happy in the old house is not working anymore then it may be a sign that they are in the process of coming into their own instead of the mould they felt like they had fit in previously.
There's a lot of nuance that comes into play there, especially given the age of the kid in question but a new neighbourhood can be exactly what your child needs to flourish.
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