Books, videos, and websites for Third Culture Kids
This book focuses on how to make moving overseas with children a positive experience for everybody. The primary focus of the book is on understanding how living overseas affects your children. It addresses pre-field preparation, transition, establishing yourselves overseas, educational decisions, and re-entry issues. The book is written from a Christian perspective.
The only book of its kind, this focuses, as the title suggests on preparing TCKs for the transition to university/college after high school graduation. Writing primarily to university-bound TCKs, the author devotes approximately half the book to an in-depth look at transition process using Dave Pollock’s Transition model, as well as some typical TCK challenges (e.g. relationships, identity, etc.). The second half of the book covers practical matters related to life on campus, financial and physical health, etc. plus a chapter on personality differences based on the Myers-Briggs Temperament Inventory. The final chapter is for parents, addressing how to prepare and support their college-bound kids.
This compilation of articles on various MK issues is a great resource. It covers developmental issues that MKs face a various ages, educational issues (including preparation for college), parenting, and MK care. This is book gives one of the best overviews of MK issues, and saves you looking for all the articles yourself.
Based on a survey and interviews of over 300 TCKs, this book describes the impact of living overseas during childhood and/or adolescence. The description of overseas life, reentry into the U.S., and the long-term effects of their experiences will resonate with older TCKs and can help parents better understand their children, especially their teens and young adults. The author grew up in overseas with her parents who were in the Foreign Service (Diplomatic Corp).
This interactive book for teens (especially older teens) gives practical advice on things like getting organized for moving, packing, getting established in a new school, and making new friends. Activities for this age group including checklists, places to journal about feelings, space to note different greetings, gestures and phrases for the new country, and pages for regular and e-mail addresses. The first section of the book is for any move, and parts of it will not apply to those moving overseas (though it may be appropriate for those returning to the U.S.), but the second section is very helpful for moving to a new country. The book also has two plastic pouches for holding papers, and a sheet of packing labels.
Ministry hazards can take their toll on children of missionaries and pastors. Sanford, both an MK (missionary kid) and PK (preacher’s kid) speaks with candor and honesty about the faulty conclusions kids raised by parents in full-time ministry may have internalized about themselves, God, or their world. This book has been embraced by many adult MKs, who find themselves described in its pages. Sanford doesn’t address cultural issues in this book, so it isn’t applicable to all TCKs, only those whose parents were involved in ministry.
You may need a box or two of tissues while you work through this book, and maybe a journal to record the lies that you believed growing up that still affect your life. I was amazed by the insightfulness of this book and felt like Sanford had looked into my head to understand me so well!