Moving to Poland with kids

We moved with three young children (4, 2 and 1 at the time). We were very fortunate that my company made it as easy as possible to move, and so our experience with the actual move was as painless as could be. Since they were so young, acclimating wasn't really an issue, fortunately.

We live in a small town, and for their ages, it's been perfect for us to be in a small town. Always easy walking distance to a local park, and safe, quiet roads. It's not very crowded, so finding parking close to the store isn't too difficult, etc.

My kids are outgoing - very outgoing, so each time we go out, they help us make new friends. Children are great icebreakers in all situations! I always make sure the kids say hello and thank you in Polish, which goes over very well.

We enrolled my eldest in a private Polish Kindergarten last year when he turned 5. That was a little scary (both for us and the Kindergarten!), but thanks to his open/outgoing nature, and good communication between us and the school before and during his first semester, his kindergarten experience was a great success, and he's learning Polish at an accelerating rate. We made an effort to show his teachers that they could communicate any issues they were having with him, and that we'd support them by working with our son on those issues (not eating food he didn't like, hitting, etc ;-) Now they feel like we're allies, and they feel they can be open with us, and we're not going to react negatively towards them. That's important when their English (and our Polish) is limited.

Visitors to our home are often appalled to see my kids running around on the tile floors without slippers. "Won't they get ill?" they ask. Polish parents do a good job of bundling their children for the elements. ;-) So if your kids have a Daniel Boone streak, be prepared for some raised eyebrows. ;-)

Hi, that's fantastic to hear that your move to Poland went well, i am considering moving there myself with my polish partner and our 2 year old daughter. I lived in Poland before for around 3 years, so I know what it is like and enjoy the country. However, we now have a young child, we moved back to uk , but would like to move back there.
Is your partner polish?
I was just wondering how you are managing with doing the things like school meetings, homework, doctors appointments , paperwork etc all in polish?
I know it takes time to learn the language, but when it comes to reading letters or formal conversations etc in polish it can become quite difficult!

Hi, glad the info was helpful :-)

We're both Americans, and came basically knowing 0 Polish. The company I work for has been fantastic though, and although we enjoy learning to do as much as we can for ourselves, or we just call in a favor from friends, the company has made a point to manage any of the move-related paperwork for us. So that's a huge plus for us - if it's going to be a headache, they handle it for us.

We've been very friendly and sociable in the small town where we live, and have made many good friends. So when the school meetings/doctor appointments come up, we always have someone happy to come along with us or make the call. My wife teaches English, and has made a lot of contacts that way as well.

But we do try to do as much as we can ourselves. We're taking Polish lessons and practice constantly. Google Translate is our best friend at the bank ;-)

My 6 year old is going to a private Preschool. He's done very well, and is learning a lot of Polish on his own. We're not sure what we'll do next, because he should go to regular school this next fall. He'll probably do fine, and I know other foreigner kids go as well. However, the school director made it sound like it was going to be a major headache for them, and suggested we might want to try the homeschooling route, which I talked to the school officials about and found out is pretty straightforward. It's simply not common because not many people can afford to have one parent stay at home. In our case it might be an option we pursue.

Hope that was a little helpful. Feel free to chat further about any questions you have. We're located near Konin.