Obama gets ready for the big move

There's a lot to get organised when you're about to become the next president of America.

Barack Obama won't officially move into the White House until January, but he's getting everything ready to take over in a complicated process called the transition.

A new school

Obama needs to find his daughters a new school

One of the first things he has to sort out is where his daughters Sasha and Malia will go to school. They're going to have a new home town and that means changing schools.

They need to pick one that won't mind the round-the-clock bodyguards they now have to have. Obama and his girls have already been checking a few places out.

New friends

It's a new city and Obama is going to need quite a few new friends around him. He has 4,000 official government jobs to fill! Rumour has it that one of those might go to his old rival Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton may get plum job

She's expected to be put in charge of America's relations with other countries. That's a big job.

Obama's met with another big rival John McCain. He was runner up in the race to the White House but Obama wants them to try to get on.

Internet

Lots of people will want to talk to him so it's pretty important Obama gets his broadband sorted. Obama is internet savvy. He's already become the first presidential type to post an official video message on the web. He's promised the American people he'll do this every week.

But he might have to give up his blackberry mobile gadget. From now on, his emails are public property. Imagine if some embarrassing forwards came out!

The housewarming party

The White House

He'll be having a huge party! Obama officially becomes the president in a special ceremony on January 20th called the Inauguration. It's a good job he'll have a big house - one million people are expected to come to Washington DC to celebrate.