Making Moving a Little Easier On The Young Ones

THANKS TO WALLY TINGLY AT CHICAGO TITLE FOR THIS POST! Moving can be an exciting time in any family's life, but it can also be a time of worry and uncertainty for the smallest members of your clan. To make the transition a bit easier on everyone, here are a few popular children's books to read with your little ones.

The Berenstain Bears series has a book entitled, "Moving Day" (Random House). This book follows the Bears as they make a move to a home with better soil for their farm. Children may have a hard time understanding where their toys are going, and if they'll ever see them again. As parents, it's a hard, but important job to make the transition of moving easy. These books may help to open a dialogue with young children. To open up conversation, consider "Moving House" by Anne Civardi (Usborne Books). One parental review says, "This book is great to make moving to a new house, school, or city easier. It isn't one that we read again and again, but it did give a great opening for conversations of topics related to the move." Another preschool geared book is "We're Moving" by Heather Maisner (Kingfisher). Receiving a 5 star review on Amazon.com, "I'm Not Moving, Mama," by Nancy White Carlstrom (Aladdin Publishing), is the story of a little mouse who refuses to leave his room on moving day. And finally, for your own reading, check out Lori Collins Burgan's "Moving with Kids: 25 Ways to Ease Your Family's Transition to a New Home". Library Journal writes of the work, "A no-nonsense, compassionate guide to helping children deal with the stress, trauma, and potential excitement of relocating...there are no other comparable titles in print. Easy to read and eminently useful, this is the ideal parents' helper when faced with a move across town or across the world."