Calling all mums who have moved overseas

[nuthouse]

and kept homeschooling through the move. What did you decide to put in your airline luggage(arrives with you), your air shipment(arrives 10 day later)and your shipping container(arrives 5 weeks later)?

So far I've decided that Math, Rosetta Stone, and a two or three new read alouds go on the airplane. History, more read-alouds, and Language arts are in the air shipment. Everything else is in the container.

What did you wish you had earlier than 5 weeks?

[Kate in Arabia]

We moved in the middle of our school year (January). I had all the immediate school books we needed, plus a handful of extra books for general reading and only a few toys packed in our airplane luggage. We didn't do an air shipment, everything else we packed into our container. We got a 40 ft container that we packed ourselves, and crammed everything in there, lol.. we had our car, mattresses, books, legos, shelves (tons of shelves), etc.

I don't really think I would have done anything differently, it was a pretty smooth move for us, aside from the packing and unpacking issues you always have with a move.

Kate

[nuthouse]

going as hand luggage on the plane. The suitcases will hold clothes and books. We're getting a 40ft container also and I'm worried about not getting everything into it. May I ask how big was your family/house at the time of the move and what size car did you move inside along with all your stuff?

[Lorna]

I would make sure you have the next books on in your maths and language arts if it looks like a possibility you will finish them. Any language cds for listening are good (they will get done on a journey!), as are audio books.
I missed our encyclopedias (Kingfisher History and Science), which I thought were too heavy, a decent dictionary and science books. Make sure you are well stocked up on read alouds and reading books for the children if you are travelling to a non-English speaking country.
Then again we thought we would only be a few months without our things....it has been nearly a year.

[Volty]

What I miss most is books. I can find toys, clothes, most anything else, but books are the big void in my life. Classic books (pre-1922) can be found online free since their copyright has expired. I'd focus on books after that. Really, I'm allowed to take 100 lbs of luggage on each trip back from the US... 95 pounds of that is books.

[Kate in Arabia]

May I ask how big was your family/house at the time of the move and what size car did you move inside along with all your stuff?

At that time we had two kids, boys 5 yrs and 1 yr, and were living in a 3-bedroom duplex with a basement.

We moved from a house, but a lot of our furniture was pieces that were family items, they had to go back to my mom, or dh's auntie, etc. We looked into several moving companies, the deal breaker for us was always the books. We have a *ton* of books, and they wanted to charge us just ridiculous prices for moving them, even if we boxed them ourselves. This is why we went with a "do-it-yourself" approach.

What we brought:

Our car, a mini-station wagon (don't know if that is the "official" term, lol)

Our bed and bedframe, the kids' mattresses

full-size futon + frame; one set of upholstered chairs; a set of 10 floor cushions

About 25 full-size bookshelves (near floor-to-ceiling, 5-shelf, abt 2.5 ft wide, metal frames with particle board shelves). About 6 more different shelf sets: metal, duraplast, etc. The shelves were mostly dismantled.

Close to 200 boxes of books (uh, dh and I have a *slight* book addiction)

Outdoor equipment (sand/water table, pots, some gardening tools, tricycle/bikes)

L-shaped computer desk with hutch (we bought it new from Office Max and packed it without even taking it out of the box), desk chair on wheels

full kitchen equipment - dishes, pots, pans, etc. I didn't bring any appliances because of different voltage.

Full-size Proform treadmill (man, that sucker is heavy!)

Books/toys for the kids -- we have a large train set (Brio), plus legos, books, games, puzzles, etc. Some larger toys, like plastic shopping cart, etc. All my homeschooling stuff, maybe six of those Iris plastic drawers on wheels, more books, kits, craft supplies, etc.

All our clothes, linens, certain toiletries to last for a year. A few carpets. Tools, tool boxes, etc. several boxes of odds-and-ends

Computer equipment; dh is in the IT field, he had a collection of maybe 10 old CPUs, a few monitors, some old printers, cables, etc. etc.

Remember that especially if you pack yourself, you can fill the car as well. There is no "official" way you have to pack your container, other than there is a certain way you anchor your car inside so it won't roll around, lol.

The danger, of course, is that something might get damaged in transit; particularly something could fall onto your car and break a window or dent/scratch it.. The moving companies we talked to were trying to tell us that a 40 ft container wouldn't be enough, and maybe it wouldn't if we packed the way they did, but when you do it yourself you can use linens to cushion computer monitors, etc. We also "cushioned" our car by putting the mattresses over the windshields, etc. To my recollection, nothing broke in transit.

I don't recall whether you have said where you are moving; when we moved here, I had in my mind Saudi Arabia. I visit Saudi frequently, and I know many people who have moved there, so I was preparing for that.. there, when you move in often the only things already there are the bathroom fixtures and a kitchen sink. That's it. No closets, no wardrobes, no kitchen cabinets, etc. Also, it is hard to come by some items, like crayons (colored pencils are the norm), so I stocked up on certain things.

It wasn't quite that bad when we got here (UAE), we did have kitchen cabinets, lol, but no closets. Dh's employer gave us a moving-in allowance, much of that we used to buy our appliances like refrigerator, stove, washing machine, etc. (not included when you rent here). Everything we brought was so so helpful in getting settled in and not having to spend a lot more money.

hth!

Kate

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

First-not all shippers will let you combine your car and household goods in one container. If the car is shipped alone many reccommend that you strip it of everything including the floor mats. Anything left in the car may be put in one small box for shipment.

Second-can you post anything to yourself? I have been mailing all my books from place to place. Ok-not all the books but what is immediately necessary for lessons that won't fit in luggage.

Third-Don't bank on the time it takes for your thing to arrive. They may be early and waiting for you. It could take longer or run into difficulties.

Luggage/Carry Ons-Personal documents, prescription meds, laptop, cameras/video, ipod, cell phones, kids #1 favorite stuffed toy/doll, clothes, coats, umbrella, jewelry, books as needed.

Air shipment-Sheets and towels, necessary dishes, pots, kitchen gear, TV and VCR/DVD, ipod speakers, more clothes if needed, car seats if needed and not on airplane, some videos/dvds, always more books and school supplies, sometimes computer.

Much needs to be based on what is available where you are moving and what you intend to purchase there.

Hope that helps!

[Kate in Arabia]

First-not all shippers will let you combine your car and household goods in one container.

I would definitely ask that up front. We had three companies we interviewed, and all of them allowed dual use for the container; good that you mentioned it here, because it was never even brought up to us as a possible issue, I wouldn't have thought of it.

Third-Don't bank on the time it takes for your thing to arrive. They may be early and waiting for you. It could take longer or run into difficulties.

The timing for sure, and you should also check into what you have to go through to get your things once the container arrives. Especially the car, what requirements are there. Dh had to go to the docks when our container arrived; there were separate inspectors for the household things and for the car. The car had to conform to a list of standards, some reflective of the change in climate, some emissions issues, they had an age limit (which we didn't know about in advance, thankfully we made it past). There were tests it had to be put through before it could be removed from the area; it was not a simple matter of driving the car out the container and putting a new license plate on, lol.

More to think about...

Kate

[Sebastian (a lady)]

and kept homeschooling through the move. What did you decide to put in your airline luggage(arrives with you), your air shipment(arrives 10 day later)and your shipping container(arrives 5 weeks later)?

So far I've decided that Math, Rosetta Stone, and a two or three new read alouds go on the airplane. History, more read-alouds, and Language arts are in the air shipment. Everything else is in the container.

What did you wish you had earlier than 5 weeks?

What will you be running the Rosetta Stone on? If you're taking a laptop, you could also load books like The Handbook of Nature Study, or the Famous Men series from sources like Google books or The Baldwin Project. You could have audio books (SOTW, fiction set in the new country) or podcasts loaded onto iTunes and play them enroute or once you get there.

Otherwise, it will depend a lot on the age of your kids. Mine are still elementary aged. When we moved to Germany, I had just our reading book and sent our math in our air shipment. We mailed several boxes of books and small toys (like bags of legos). One box got very wet and damaged many of the books. Since then, we've lined boxes with large trash bags and/or wrapped the books themselves in grocery bags.

When we came back from Germany and then moved to Hawaii, I did a lot of workbooks (Singapore Challenging Word Problems, Hamburger Hut Math, History Pockets) and lots of books for the kids to read (I packed several big books that neither of the older kids had read so that they could switch). I also had a binder with a collection of Jim Weiss stories on CD.

We're planning another move this year. I will probably again go for traveling with lighter workbooks (They are self contained. Our math covers an entire table with all its books. They are also a change of pace from our normal stuff. And if we finish a book enroute, I'm ok with leaving it.) The books that I think I need right away will go into an air shipment. The rest in the big move. (Caveat, these are military moves that haven't had to process through local customs - or at least process quickly. We know other people whose shipments were impounded for months or lost for months. If I were going to a country where this was a possiblity, then I might pack differently.)

I have a unit study on the country we're moving to. I also have the Create A Culture unit study that I'm planning on using. Challenging Word Problems. Abeka Language. I will probably also add some language resources for the country we're moving to.

[nuthouse]

Oh my that's alot to think about. I hope a few of our questions will be answered on our "get oriented" visit next week. Thanks again for all your help.