Changing schools — planning ahead

[Mom2014]

Hi, our son is 9, has ADHD, he is an extrovert but like most ADHD kids at this age, doesn’t have any close friends (just acquaintances he calls friends until he realizes they aren’t). His friends are the characters of the books he reads and us.

we will be moving to a different state and would love to hear about your experiences with changing schools. What worked, what didn’t, main positive and negative points, any regrets and advice for things we need to put in place early on.

[STEM_Dad]

Kudos to you for thinking proactively about this!

~~~~~

It would be better to tell you what I wish I'd done.

I wish I'd signed my kids up at the YMCA as soon as I moved into my new town.

(I had plans to sign my son up for martial arts and my daughter for dance class...but it took me months to find a good job, and then I couldn't afford those activities.)

The town I moved to has a lot of kids, but the neighborhood that I moved to turned out to be mostly retirees up and down the street. (I'm a renter, and based on my budget and time time I moved here, my options were limited.) The nearest kids are teenagers, but my kids are 8 and 11.

Their mom and I are divorced. She lives in another town 20+ miles away. (She moved here first, and I wanted to be close for co-parenting, but far enough to respect her space.) The kids in her neighborhood so seem to be younger than my kids. They only befriended one boy there.

My kids were homeschooled up until now, and they've been too isolated for too long. I'm hoping that they will make friends their new school. (School starts next week here. My 8 y.o. daughter has a positive attitude that she'll make friends. My 11 y.o. son seems doubtful that he will, but I've been trying to be encouraging, even though I had few friends as a kid.)

[Mom2014 in reply to STEM_Dad]

Thank you so much!!! These are all good suggestions that I will use as we plan the moving.

[Mom2014 in reply to Mom2014]

Also, what are your kids interested in? Our 9y old is most interested in books (he could read all day) and digital devices. He is great on building stuff and very creative. If they have similar interests we could try to get them together online. What part of the country are you in? We are in the Midwest planning to move PA.