[lalaland42]

So. We are moving to Switzerland in 6 months!

:

Any tips on how to prepare my 4 year old DD before we move?

We are moving to the German speaking area of Switzerland and while the people there speak English, it might be a shock to hear primarily German. I've sold her on snowmen

we're currently in Texas) but I know she will miss our friends, schedule, house,etc. DD is very schedule oriented so I am afraid moving 1/2 way across the world would throw her off.

 

[bremen]

kids adapt amazingly fast. i think she will be ok. in the zurich area, most of the mamas and older kids will at least know some english, so she will be able to talk to big people at least.
do you watch tv?
i can recommend some swiss cartoons, and other swiss movies that could help her get used to the language, and also give her something to talk about with other kids.

do you know where you will be living yet? have you found a kindergarten for her?
if you are in the city, or in the area i lived in, i could recommend some places.

there is also a big english-speaking ocmmunity, and it might help her (and you) find some english speaking friends.

pm me if you want any more specific info. even though i complain a lot about switzerland, it is a pretty amazing place.

 

[velochic]

We've moved back and forth a couple of times between the US and Europe. Even the most scheduled kids adapt very easily, it seems. The language will likely not be any problem whatsoever for the kiddo. Kids have a way of finding their niche in these situations - my own dd had no problems but we are a multilingual family. Sit back and enjoy the experience and don't worry about preparing for anything. You can't anyway unless you've lived there before. I'm assuming you'll be around Zurich. It's a nice area. Lots of things to do and very kid-friendly (we didn't live there, just visited often, but I think there are some MDC members that do live there). Have fun!

 

[eepster]

When I was around your DD age, we moved (just about 5 miles, so slightly different.) The one thing that was an issue was that I kept having nightmares about what would happen to our house when we left. So, I would make sure she understands that a nice new family will be moving in to the house.

 

[lalaland42]

Thanks, that is really reassuring. DD is one of the slowest to adapt kids I've ever met. She cries on Christmas morning because the sight of 4 additional presents is unsettling. When her preschool recently traded rooms (same kids, teacher, just a different room), she melted down for a month because the change was upsetting. Her preschool leans toward telling kids at the last minute because they think the bandaid approach is best toward new things, it just really isn't with DD.

I am glad to hear other kids did really well moving. And yeah, we are moving to Zurich. We are all very excited, I just want it to go well. I fully expect DD to learn German faster than DH and I. She is the kind of kid who listens (and eavesdrops) on everyone, I just didn't know if she'd be upset not being able to understand other people.

eepster, that is a good point about the house, I will keep that in mind.

bremen, I'd love some suggestions for cartoons. We don't do much tv, only videos, so DD is very sensitive to violence and scary. We don't know where we will live yet and I plan on keeping DD home for a while. She just turned 4 - 2 weeks ago - and as I understand it, school is optional until 7. I talked with her Montessori school teacher and she agrees that keeping her home until she settles would be a good idea. Eventually I'd like to put her back in Montessori school though. She really does need a break from school - completely separate from the moving issue.

Gotta go, she wants me to look at her sofa fort.

 

[cajunmommy]

Ds is two and we just moved. It was hard at first with the jet lag and a new place. Ds is very schedule oriented too. We had a hard time with eating and sleeping, but I just kept on thinking it would pass and it did. Almost two months to the day, he is well adjusted here and back on his schedule. Now I just need to prepare him for the new baby.

I imagine with an older child that missing her friends wand family will be a little harder. Ds asks for his family and friends all the time, but my husband is Swiss so he has family here too.

 

[proudmomof4]

Our family has moved from Germany to the U. S. (MI), back to Germany, and now to China.
We are Germans (although, the 2 youngest family members are Americans

), and the language has not been a problem in our case. I don't know how comfortable you are speaking German, but probably there will be someone in a preschool / kindergarten setting who speaks so much English that you can communicate. In case you don't speak German yet I would definitely recommend to try and learn some ASAP - it'll make things a lot easier.
About our latest move: my 8y old son is our "not fond of transitions and changes" child and it was definitely hardest for him, but it's getting there. It helped to have books in German and to stick to domestic routines as far as possible.
Good luck to you and your family! As we say in German, this is a chance "über den eigenen Tellerrand hinaus zu schauen (to "look beyond the brim of your plate").

 

[Marylizah]

Hi, we just did an international move with DS (who is just three). He's adjusting really well, but the hardest things were:

1) Missing his friends and family. He's very, very sociable. Life was better for him once he'd met a little boy at the playground who spoke some English. Now they are buddies and he's SO happy to have a friend

2) Living without furniture, toys, familiar objects. Our stuff arrived almost 1 month to the day after we did. It was hard camping out, and I know DS felt very odd without his normal things around him.

It's not hard to re-settle into routines, once the jetlag has passed. We even got library cards, and while there's no toddler story hour, DS was thrilled to get to the library and pick out books again.

The language thing will be a breeze for your child. They pick stuff up AMAZINGLY quickly. Within three weeks of being here, DS already has a lot of playground vocab down pat: "That's mine!" "It's not yours" "I want up" "I want down"... And now he's progressed to telling me he doesn't want to sleep / eat/ get dressed in the new language! Lol, not exactly scintillating conversation, but enough to get his point across.

Good luck with your move!