Helping your kids to adjust in a changed environment

While moving to Canada, this may be a very difficult problem you need to face. Kids react to change in environment in different ways. Some of their ways may be really weird. Some of them lose their appetite over the fear of being in unfamiliar surroundings. Others are thrilled. You have to be there for your kids when it comes to settling down at a new place. Canada was our destination as a family, and it was a tough decision, for once we landed in Canada, we realized that we are not in Pakistan. Being away from the country we have spent all our lives in became too real a fact for us after that. In this situation, every family has to be supportive to each other. You need to be close to each other. Although all of the family may need time to adjust with the new surroundings, the kids are the most vulnerable ones. Give them the support they need.

The kids come back to their routine life once they have settled down. Talk to them often, until they are back to their normal state. Discuss the changed life here in Canada with them. One of the very positive approach is to brief them about the new place even before they have actually come. This will help in building a confidence and a wish to see that place. Tell them that they will now be going to a new school. Give them a good picture of the new place but don’t tell the miles. Let them face the facts, but do that slowly. Once they actually move to Canada, and they see the extremely cold place, and the sounds and smells of the well developed countries, they will start settling down in a few days. Your briefing and talking to them is the key to the solution of this problem. If you do not brief them, you may lose the confidence of your child in this case. You can be of great help to your kid by asking him and helping him in his or her school. Guide him or her. The way elementary education is handled in Canada and in Pakistan are poles apart. If you want your kid to produce good results and to learn from what he or she is being taught at school, you need to be with him or her at this crucial stage. Give the confidence of being there with your kid to him or her.