Once again we are new to the neighborhood. Moving isn’t new to my kids, but that doesn’t really make it any easier.

Everything seems new.

Everything seems different.

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My kids keep turning into the wrong driveway on the way scooting home from school.

Exploring your new neighborhood is one way to start feeling at home in your new space.

You notice things that seem the same as your last home.

You start to feel like things aren’t so new and scary.

It helps you feel at home.

Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

I created this Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt for my kids when we moved to Mississippi (3 moves ago) and we have re-used it every time since.

Read Also: 4 Steps to Help Prepare Your Kids for a Move

The good news, is you don’t have to have just moved for your kids to find this fun. The Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt is also just a way to turn your next walk on its head.

Materials:

• Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt (download for free below)
• Clipboard
• Pen or Pencil
• Walking Shoes
• Camera (optional)

Download FREE: Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

Activity:

Put your scavenger hunt on a clipboard. You can decide to either give each kid their own clipboard and scavenger hunt or work on it as a team.

I put one on a clipboard for us to do together. (Family bonding is also part of moving survival.)

Before we left the house, we read the items listed on the scavenger hunt together. I also gave them each a camera. This part is optional, but my kids love taking pictures and it helps them slow down a little when we’re walking.

We took our scavenger hunt on our clipboard, cameras, and walking feet out into the neighborhood.

You May Also Like: Spider Web Hunt with FREE Printables

My twins had a blast running up and down the new sidewalks finding the things on our scavenger hunt.

It also encouraged them find familiar things like mailboxes and fire hydrants that helped them see how our old neighborhood and new neighborhood have things in common.

This was a fun introduction to our new area.

It’s a small thing – but when you’re moving with kids it is small things like this that slowly help a new place feel like home.

Download FREE: Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

Get More Fun Scavenger Hunts Here!

On January 5, 2018 our family started our move from New York City to San Diego.

After school, we loaded up the car, said some final goodbyes, and road across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge out of Brooklyn NY headed to San Diego with tears in our eyes.

New York City is a hard city to say goodbye to, but in truth saying goodbye to any place we’ve lived is always hard.

Our little family kicked off the new year by moving from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast. Our 5th move in 7 years.

We were prepared as we could be – my tips for getting kids ready to move are in this post – but moving is hard. Every single time.

This is our story of getting from one coast to the other.

Warning: This is a long one so grab a cup of tea or mug of cocoa before you dive in.

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The Road Trip Plan

This is the map that hung in our kitchen for about a month before our move. It always looks so easy when it’s drawn out on a map, doesn’t it?

This is the longest road trip and most continuous time in the car we have ever attempted with our kids. They have a lot of practice at traveling, but I was still a little nervous when we mapped out our plan.

Due to Google Maps suggestions and Winter in the North, we decided to swing South pretty quickly as we headed West.

Our route took us:

• Ocean to ocean
• Into 13 states
• 45 hours of driving
• 3,097 miles
• and 9 days

Activities for the Car

I had a massive tote bag in the car filled with all kinds of toys and activities and games for us to play in the car. We ended up only using a fraction of what I packed. Below are the items we actually used in the 45+ hours in the car with two six year olds.

• Kids Amazon Kindles with these Headphones
• DVD player, same headphones, and DVDs of Bambi and a few favorite TV shows.
• Melissa and Doug 50 States Game license plate game (We found ALL 50 plates!)
• Melissa and Doug Magic Velvet activity books
• BrainQuest activity books (mostly to make me feel less guilty about all the time in school they missed during the move.)
• National Geographic Road trip activity book
• Coloring books and crayons and colored pencils
• Highlight Magazine
• Mom and Dad listened Ready Player One on audiobook (the Mom’s Nook Bookclub book for January)
• Audiobooks: Our favorite was How to Train a Dragon.

Read Also: Quality, Engaging, and Creative Activity Books to Bring on Family Trips

New York to Pennsylvania

The first day we left immediately after their last day of school and we drove to Harrisburg PA.

There we pulled in around bedtime so we quickly got everything set up and the kids in pajamas. We read them Baby Monkey Private Eye and then all quickly fell asleep.

If you have more time I would highly recommend stopping in Philly for a day or half day.

Cincinnati OH

The next morning we got up early to drive the rest of the way across Pennsylvania. This was when I lost any remaining doubt about our decision to head South soon.

Originally I had pushed to drive straight west and then South. We haven’t been to the western part of the US much yet and I am eager to explore it, but Winter is not the time to drive across the northern part of the country.

Our wiper fluid froze. We had to stop a few times to clear the windows so we could proceed safely. It was frigid cold outside every time we had to stop.

We finally made it to our friends’ home in Cincinnati a little before dinnertime.

We stayed an extra day to enjoy the weekend with friends.

They took us to the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky just outside of Cincinnati. The highlights for us were the touch tank and the shark walk which is one of the oddest things we’ve ever done and yet fascinating to my kids.

Afterwards we had brunch at Taste of Belgium which is incredible. I had the Nutella crepe and it was one of the best I’ve ever tasted – Paris included. Our Dairy Free allergy kiddo had eggs and bacon.

Nashville TN

On Monday morning we headed South through Kentucky towards Nashville. We stopped briefly at Carmichaels Kids in Louisville, Kentucky.

This is such a cozy little children’s bookstore. There is a quality collection of all kinds of books for kids and some games and toys.

We arrived in Nashville to spend the afternoon and evening with dear friends. There are a million family friendly things to do in the area so even if you don’t have people to visit I highly recommend a stop in Nashville.

Jackson MS

In the morning we headed a little further South through Memphis to Jackson MS. This was our home before New York.

We stayed with dear friends near Jackson MS and they gave our kids the best gift – time outside. It was our first rain free few hours and they took full advantage racing around outside. By dinner time they were covered in mud and completely delighted.

Read Also:  20+ Best Things to do in Jackson MS with Kids.

Dallas/Fort Worth TX

We were now about halfway and we turned West towards Texas and the West Coast.

From Mississippi we drove to the Dallas – Fort Worth area.

It is a long, flat drive across Louisiana and into Texas. We’ve made this drive many times because when we lived in MS my Cystic Fibrosis doctor was near Dallas, but that probably only made it a little more dull.

We stopped at a playground near our hotel to run around a bit.

Note to Self: packing a football in the car to throw around was a genius idea. It got us all running around and laughing.

El Paso TX

The next day was one of the longest. We drove from Dallas to El Paso across the rest of Texas.

We saw endless sky and cattle farms and long freight trains and listened to several audiobooks.

That night we all went to bed super early. The time changes were started to catch up with us.

The flip side of the time changes of course is that our kids were waking up SUPER early. The bonus of this is that we got on the road before the sun rose the next day.

We saw this gorgeous sunrise from the first rest stop inside New Mexico. Desert sunrises are now one of my favorite things.

New Mexico was a lot more endless flat desert and big skies, but the drive to Phoenix was quicker.

This was one of my favorite days. The sunrise was spectacular. The drive wasn’t too long and when we got to Phoenix we still had plenty of time to explore.

Phoenix AZ

My sweet friend from high school lives near Phoenix and she recommended hiking at Papago Park. We loved it.

The path itself is pretty easy and gives you a nice view of Tempe and Phoenix. My kids of course “needed” to climb up the rocks so our hike was a little more strenuous, but a ton of fun.

Then we met my friend and her family for dinner at a fun little spot in Tempe called The Lodge Sasquatch Kitchen. The food was good (and had good allergy options) and there were fun things to do on the outside patio for our kids which the grown ups chatted.

finally onto California.

The next day we were up before the sun again and headed West one last time.

This drive was fascinating. We had never driven through this part of the country at all and the hills and rocks and mountains were so cool.

It took us about 6 hours to weave through the mountains and desert, but it felt quicker despite our serious desire to be out of the car once and for all.

Also Read: Family Road Trip from Portland to San Diego

and we have arrived in San Diego CA!

Finally, around lunch time, we pulled into San Diego. We found tacos and walked a few blocks to the beach. We all looked around kind of in disbelief.

We are here.

If you’ve made it all the way to the bottom here – wow. Thank you!

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for all the comments and love on Instagram and Facebook and everywhere as we made our way across the country.

We can’t thank you enough for your support of our little family.

Preparing kids for a move…honestly I feel a little silly writing this because even though this is our 5th move with kids in 6 years I still don’t feel like I have answers.

Moving is hard.

I’m a grown up and moving is still really hard for me.

That being said, since this is the 5th time we’ve moved with kids I do feel like I have learned some things that make me feel more prepared this time around. Hopefully they will be helpful for your family too.

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The Move

Are you thinking “Wait, you’re moving…again?”

Then yes! – we are moving! My husband got offered an awesome job in San Diego so we are headed west to sunny California in January.

It will be really hard to say goodbye to New York City – especially so much sooner than we had planned. Living here has been a completely unique experience and I’m so grateful we’ve had the past year and a half to explore one of the greatest cities in the world.

More than anything, it will be hard to say goodbye to the fantastic people we have met. You hear so many awful things about rude New Yorkers and while yes the pushing on the subways during rush hour and the alarming amount of honking for little reason is hard to explain, New Yorkers in general are wonderful, welcoming people. We have made great friends here and that makes moving away so sad.

However, moving we are so we need to prepare.

4 Steps to Prepare Kids for Moving

Does anyone have the perfect answer to this? I still struggle with how to prepare myself and generally exist in a state of denial for much of the prep time, but I do try hard to talk to the kids about what is coming up and how they are feeling about it.

Here are the things we have found to be helpful in easing the move for our kids.

1. Children’s Books about Moving & Conversation

I have found reading books about moving really helps start conversations about their fears and other emotions involving our move. This is the list of books I use.

Asking open ended questions also helps to open a dialogue about the move and what they are concerned about. Some questions we have found helpful are;

• What are you wondering about (new city)?
• How are you feeling about our move today?
• What are you going to miss the most about this home?
• You seem sad today. Can you tell me about it?
• How do you think we could stay in touch with {insert important friend’s name}?

2. Here and There: Mapping Our Move

A dear family friend heard about our move and sent us a huge map and guidebook about coastal California from AAA. I paired this with our 50 States book.

• First we found New York City on the map and San Diego California.
• We found San Diego in The 50 States Book.
• As we figured out the route we were going to take to CA we started mapping that and also read about the places we would be stopping.
• When their Dad went out to San Diego to hunt for a home we also mapped his trip. We found their new school and home on the map and added little dots. We talked about other things like where the closest library is, how we might drive to the zoo, and best of all the shortest route to the beach.

3. What to Pack in the Car

If you are moving across town or in a U-Haul then your belongings are all coming with you – but in our case our things are getting put in a huge semi and then disappearing for somewhere between a few weeks to a few months.

With this type of move in mind, here are the things I recommend packing in the car although I think some of it would be comforting to a kid no matter how short or long your move.

1. Clothes. I pack like we are going on a week long trip. This gets a little more complicated when you’re moving from Winter in New York to warmer weather in San Diego, but I try to cover a week’s worth of clothes and pajamas and such and then plan to do laundry. (Bringing some detergent is also helpful – a few of these pods is easy to pack!) Don’t forget swim suits – there is at least one perk of living in a hotel for a while!
2. Activities for the car. (In this case a LOT of activities for the car)
3. A box of children’s books to rotate through over the next couple of months.
4. A box for each child with their absolute favorite stuffed animals and toys. I let them help fill this up. This is whatever is most important to them so they are comforted by the fact that it is in the car with and not disappearing onto a truck. The box stays in the car until we get to the hotel or new home and tides them over until the rest of their toys arrive.
5. A backpack of a few things they want to use in the car and then I sneak in some other surprises the night before.
6. Food. Snacks for the car and some basics to start our pantry stocking when we arrive. I also pack a case of water.
7. Pillows, blankets, and sound machines. We find it comforting to have our own pillows and blankets with us when we’re living out of a hotel for a while.
8. Scooters, soccer ball – some kind of active outdoor gear to pull out of the car and get in a little gross motor on long car days.
9. License Plate Game – if there was ever a time we might get all 50 I think this is our shot!

4. Saying Goodbye to People & Places

This is the hardest part. I hate goodbyes and I’m generally pretty terrible at them. I am however good at staying in touch with people after we move, so I feel like “see ya later” is a pretty truthful statement and I prefer it.

Make a list with your kids. What do they want to do one more time before you leave?

What’s on our list this time?

Places and People to Say Goodbye to in New York

• Playdates with friends.
• Central Park. Narrowing down which playground to play at was hard!
• Play at the playground down the block.
• Ride their bikes on the Coney Island Boardwalk again.
• Fingers crossed – getting to see snow one more time.
• See their uncle one more time.

And here we go…

You can read about our coast to coast road trip as we moved from New York City to California.

Follow me on Instagram to keep up with us as we explore our new home.