Moving to a New Home (Same Area), Need Help to Transition 5 Year Old.....

Some kids are just more sentimental. My own son is a lot like that. He even wanted to keep our old dining/breakfast table (that the surface of was ruined from his toddler antics) instead of getting the nice new one. When we finally got ready to take it out of the house, he laid on top and asked me to "at least take our picture with it" and succeeded in getting his younger sister to whine about it, too. They were 10 and 7 years old!

This is what I would suggest: Take your son on photo shoot of your current home, and let him take pics of whatever he wants (or let him direct what YOU shoot photos of, lol). You could even take pics of the view out of his bedroom window! Then help him organize it into a little scrapbook that he can keep in his new room.

He may just not like letting go of things. With a scrapbook, he won't have to let go completely. My son is very sentimental about such things, and 'worries' that he will "forget" them. Having photos can help a LOT with that worry.
(FWIW, I did take 2 or 3 photos of my kids with the dining table... and they have never asked to see them. When they came across them one day while scrolling thru my digital photos on the computer... they both laughed hysterically about the whole thing. But the act of taking the pictures alleviated their sense of loss AT THE TIME).
Good luck. He will be fine... just the anxiety of the "moving process" might be more to blame.

We built our current home when daughter was 4 (soon to be 5). SHe was excited about the house but some things did change for us for a little while.

The last home we built (one we were moving away from) is about 3 miles from this current home. The other home we built was a lot smaller, around 2500 sq ft and this new home is a little over 4000 sq ft.

All bedrooms in the old home were upstairs and daughter always slept in her room. With the new home, the master is downstairs on 1 end of the house and daughter's bedroom is upstairs on teh opposite side. Although she was excited about teh new big house, she did not sleep in her room for about a year and a half. My hubby travels a lot so I let her sleep with me because I knew she was a little frightened of the bigger areas.

In the end, it has worked out wonderfully. Now at 15, she has the entire upstairs to herself and adores it. Sometimes I think if there was a kitchenette up there, we'd never see her, LOL Her friends love it here as well. They have all the room they need, privacy and a good place to hang out.

She adapted well, although it took a little time. I believe your son will adapt as well. We let daughter pick out her room color and gave her choices about the upstairs decor.

GOod luck and congratulations on your new home.

we just moved and also have a son who was 5 when we moved, just turned 6- he is a little slow to adapt to new things. he was kind of excited, but some of the things that concerned him, we didn't think about like he'd ask questions like "can i bring this/that with me to the new house?" -- so we started to ALSO point out the things that would be the same, and like "where do you want to put your legos" or other stuff. Also, he went from sharing a room with his two sisters to having his own room, and he kinda freaked out the first couple of nights, so to help the transition, we set his room up, but let him sleep in the girls room for a couple of weeks while he adjusted to the new house, then we moved him to his own room and he did much better.

My grandson is 4 years old and he was the same way when they moved last year before Christmas. I think that some children are just more sensitive and nostalgic and he just feels like he will be losing all his memories if he is not at the house that he considers "Home".
I would just reassure him that he will make new memories and new friends and that it is an exciting change. I really think it is a good idea to celebrate the event and maybe you should also take a moment for remembering past events when it is time for you leave the old house.
Congratulations on your new house!

When we moved into our home with our daughter, she was VERY excited to get to pick the paint color of her own room. Have you thought about doing this? Take him to a paint store and explain that he can pick out the color of his brand new room. Within reason of course! :) Good luck!

Since he is getting his own room, is it within the moving budget to allow him to pick out stuff for his new room? Even if it's paint to paint the room, special curtains to hang on the window, or some pictures for on his wall. That way he has a bit more of a connection to the room when you move in and set everything up.

My only question is - is he afraid to be in a room by himself? Some kids like co-sleeping with a sibling. My kids have seperate rooms, but I find them sleeping in the same room often when I go to get them up for school. They are 4 & 5 and did share a room when they were both in cribs before we were able to remodle the upstairs and add a nother room. It might help to make a game out of the new rooms, set them up so that they can have "guess" over. That way if he needs to he can go sleep in his siblings room to begin with & have a "sleep over".

Congratz on the new house & good luck w/ your move.

I also was going to suggest the scrapbook- I think i was this kid! I woried I would forget all that I knew! Perhaps also a goodbye or last night party? Maybe acknowleding the feelings may help?