Moving Abroad With Kids
Moving abroad can be exciting and scary. It involves a lot of thorough planning from finding a new place to live to find a new job. When you have kids, this creates even more planning – you need to find them a new school and ensure that they’re happy with the move. To help make your move abroad as smooth as possible, here are just a few tips that could help.
Make sure it’s a family decision
The idea of moving abroad may seem perfect for you and your kids, but you need to make sure that everyone is on board.
This isn’t so much of an issue if your kids are still toddlers, however, if they’ve started to develop friends and join local clubs and are involved in school activities, they may be a little reluctant to leave and may need some positive reinforcement.
Teenagers are much more likely to resist and you should really consider whether it’s worth uprooting them if they’ve got strong friendships and if they’re enjoying school – in such cases you may want to delay plans until they’re older.
Keep your kids involved when planning
On top of making sure it’s a joint decision, you should ensure that your kids are involved in the planning process. This will help them prepare for and adjust to their new life. Such planning could involve looking at areas and properties to live, looking at school options and researching into local kids activities. You may also want to read guides about moving abroad together so that everyone feels prepared and mentally ready.
Get help budgeting
You’ll need to count up all the costs of moving, as well as budgeting the costs of living when you’re out there. This will allow you to save up enough money beforehand. Having kids could add up the costs – it could mean extra money spent on flight tickets, visas, and moving possessions. You may also have to consider whether you still get child benefits, free schooling, free healthcare, and other perks.
There are specialist financial advisers such as The Fry Group who can help you to budget for all the necessary costs. They may also be able to help with mortgages, taxes and other financial concerns.
Find the right neighborhood and property
This is the part that most people look forward to when moving abroad – deciding where exactly you will live.
If you’ve already got a job lined up, you may have more idea of the kind of area you want to keep within in order to reduce commuting. Within this area, you’ll want to look for a family-friendly neighborhood. Key ingredients of such a neighborhood could include access to schools, a low crime rate and plenty of local kids’ activities such as playgrounds and parks.
Finding the right property within the right neighborhood is also important. Having kids may require the need for a certain amount of rooms, outdoor space, and no hazards. You can look for properties on site listings such as these beli Rumah murah in Indonesia. You may even be able to book property viewings online use video-communication, although visiting in person may still be important before making the final purchase.
Look into school options
Next, you need to decide where your kids will go to school. This should be arranged before you move out as some schools may need time to sort out admin. Depending on where you go in the world, the level of education available is likely to differ. In some poorer countries, private schools may be a better option than public schools, which may be poorly funded. Home-schooling could also be an option if you don’t want them to go to a local school.
Adjusting them to the curriculum could be something you want to do beforehand, as this may differ from the curriculum back home. In the case of countries in which English isn’t the official language, you should also consider whether they’ll need an English-speaking school or whether you feel they can adjust to a non-English speaking school (younger kids may be able to do this, but even so lessons will still be needed first).
Consider language learning
Unless the official language is English, you and your kids may need to learn a new language. For your kids, this could be important not just for education but for integrating into the culture. You can find a Spanish tutors online. Young kids are usually able to pick up new languages very well, so long as they are encouraged to do so. You may need to give them a few lessons before moving out so that they have a basic grasp. You can then look into further schooling when you’re out there.
There are lots of resources to help kids learn new languages. This site eLearning Industry details some great apps for helping kids learn a new language. There may also be kids TV programmes that they can watch to help them learn.
Leading by example could be important, especially with older kids – if you don’t make attempts to integrate, your kids may not either. Consider group lessons and try to speak the language to each other around the home sometimes.
Help your kids say goodbye
Once you’re ready to leave, make sure that you give your kids time to say goodbye. You could throw a goodbye for younger kids. For older kids, let them arrange their own leaving get-together.
Thanks to the internet, moving abroad doesn’t have to mean permanently losing track of friends and relatives and you and your kids may be able to talk to friends back home via Skype. Social media could also be a useful communication tool – if your kids are old enough to use this, you should encourage them to use it to keep communication.
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