Moving is hard on all family members and sometimes it can be especially hard on children who may not understand why you are moving and don't want to leave their friends. Even if you are transplanting to a bigger house in a nicer neighborhood, adjusting is difficult.

Small children rely on predictability and their sense of security is closely tied to familiar faces, places and activities. Older children are likely to feel the social impact of a move most. They will miss old friends they have known and worry about making new ones. For pre-teens and teens, having to re-establish themselves in a new and possibly very different social environment can be a scary prospect.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to make the move easier on your kids. Try some of these tried-and-true methods, geared to different age groups:

• For all children, especially pre-schoolers and kids in primary school, follow established home routines faithfully for the first few months after you move. This means having dinner at the same time, serving familiar foods, watching favorite TV shows, going to bed at the same time and observing the same bedtime rituals on a day-to-day basis. You should also try to observe special occasions like birthdays and holidays the same way as always.
• For all children, consult with your child about the look of their new room. Let your child pick the colors,curtains and bedspreads if possible and let them be creative and choose posters for the walls. Younger children can often resist change of any kind. It may help to replicate the look and feel of their old room as closely as possible.
• For school-age children, help your child keep up with old friends - email, text messaging and cell phone calls are a great tool these days.
• For school-age children, make it easy for your child to make new friends by opening your home to other kids after school and encouraging your child to invite new Friends along on special outings.
• For school-age children, reinforce your child's confidence by enabling him or her to participate in extracurricular activities. Whether it's soccer or music lessons, continuing a favorite activity or starting a new one gives your child feelings of competence and self-esteem that don't depend on how well he or she is fitting into the social order at the new school.
• For school-age children, particularly pre-teens and teens, give your child a head start at the new school by doing some advance scouting.
  If possible, contact the principal, the head of the PTA, the guidance counselor and the new home-room teacher to find out everything you can about the school:
• For school-age children, stay up with how your child is fitting into their new environment. Ask your child how they are doing and feeling in school and the new environment.