Helping to prepare a 2 yr old for moving house?

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

We are moving house next week - from London to Durham.

DS (2.3) is aware (as much as he can be) and I have talked the process through with him lots. He knows we'll be living closer to his beloved Grandma and we'll be able to go to the seaside. The Moving House Fairy is going to bring him a present ("not a real fairy though Mammy, I'm a bit scared of fairies" )

He is a sensitive wee soul and will often ask (when we're out and about/visiting family) where his home has gone, or will say that he misses his home.

So, I was wondering if there is anything else I can do to help prepare him? Can anyone recommend a story book about moving house aimed at 2 yr olds?

Thanks!

Letterbox Library might have something suitable www.letterboxlibrary.com/acatalog/index.html

This book is good too. We moved when DS was about the same age. We talked about it alot, how lovely it was going to be, showed him pictures and read him the book. He was absolutely fine. At that age they are usually pretty happy as long as you are there and happy .

The Berenstain Bears' Moving Day is also great

No book advice but just to share a couple of tips for when we moved (apologies if they're really obvious, just that they helped me a lot)

On the moving day, set up his room first, as close to the set up as you have now. I also bought some new glow in the dark stickers and let him plaster them where he wanted, so he felt like he had a "say" and a "job" to do.

Use the same unwashed bedding, it'll have the familiar smell as a comfort for the first night.

If he's there on the moving day, involve him in a small way. DS's job was to take Makka Pakka/Iggle Piggle and show them around the new house and to "make sure they're ok, explain to them that this is their new bedroom now". My DS was 4 though so possibly more able to wander a bit?

Good luck :)

Have you got a photo of the house? We showed DD (2.5 at the time) the photo on the details the estate agent gave us and pointed out which room was hers and which was ours (both at the front luckily), and the garden and how big it was. She looked at it all the time and when we moved she stood outside the house and looked up and said 'that's my room above the door and that one is mummy and daddy's!' We got her room set up first and she amazed me by settling straight in - and she is the child who LOVES her routine, and loved her old house. She was a bit clingy for a while, but nothing too major. We also did lots of play about moving all her toys and she packed them on the day and had her favourite's in a little bag and helped them settle in. Preparation is the key!

Make a cheap scrap book? This was our old house, .........and we were really happy there, but now we've ........off on a new adventure...... Picture of old house. Many more Pictures of new house.
Have you asked him how he wants his 'new room' (sell it to him) decorated? I know he's only 2 but it gets him 'involved'. Have you talked about all the great things you are going to do there - (whatever it is he likes) - build big snowmen, play in the padling pool etc etc ?
Picture of removal men, to help mummy and dady move the furniture?
Then he can look at the pictures, whenever he wants.

Thanks!

Sadly we dont have any pics of the new house as the agents took them offline as soon as we paid the holding fee (just renting for now). I have shown him the outside of it using Google Maps and pointed out the different rooms etc.

He's going from a MASSIVE room with a double bed (in our current flat - long story) to a small one (single bed!) in the new house, so it's not possible for us to keep the rooms too similar. But obviously we can transfer curtains, wall stickers, his most precious fleecy blanket etc.

I'll have a look at those books - thank you. And good idea about the scrap book, will get on to it.

:)

I remember going through this with DS1 a month before his 2nd birthday. I tried to get hold of a storybook or similar for him (this was 2003) but didn't manage to find one. Talked about it a bit with him. Took him to nursery in the morning, after saying goodbye to his room and the house. Picked him up from nursery late afternoon and went to the new house.

He was excited but not phased at all!

Good luck with move IWillOnlyEatBeans - hope it all goes smoothly