Deployed Parent
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Support for Children
When a parent is deployed with the military it can be very traumatic for the children left behind. Having things for them to do, that makes them feel a part of the family and helping the parent who is gone, is really important. Here is a list of things you can plan that should help ease the pain of having mom or dad gone.
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Table of Contents
Important!
The Most Important Thing
That kid stationery
My parent's going to war
We all have happy and sad feelings about our parent leaving. It is important that we talk about them with our families. Have the child (children) make two lists. One with YOUR HAPPY FEELINGS and one with YOUR SAD FEELINGS. Sit down and discuss these lists and explain the feelings that they don't understand or answer questions.Get a map and place it on the wall and show the kids where mom or dad has gone. They can stick a pin in it or place a small flag on the map. They might get a sheet of stickers and put them where the parent is, where they are, where the grandparents are, etc.
Get the kids a tablet with lined paper and show them how to write letters to the parent. Here they can also use stickers and draw pictures.
Make a list of things that kids can do to cheer the family up like: do some chores, write letters, sing a song they wrote, tell their best joke and add your ideas to the list.
You might want to take a calendar and mark special days and holidays that will be happening while the parent is gone.
If the child (children) are old enough to write, suggest they keep a journal (see journals below in Amazon). Then when the parent comes home they can share the journal with the parent. That gets the parent caught up on events and thoughts the kids had while they were gone. Another thing you could do is tear out the page and send it to the parent each week.
You might have a cookout and invite other friends whose mom or dad is also deployed. You could also invite a new family that just moved into the neighborhood.
If you have a major holiday, i.e., Thanksgiving, while the parent is gone, turn on the tape recorder during the dinner so mom or dad can hear the conversations. Have the kids make a list of all the food that you had to eat. Take lots of pictures to send. Have everyone say a special message to the parent.
Have the kids write a poem and send it. To add even more fun have them make a secret code, write a message in the code and send both to the parent. Another neat letter to send would be made of words cut from the newspaper or magazines.
Take pictures of important events: new haircuts, birthdays, parties, etc. Let the kids take pictures. Have them take pictures of the family pets and tell a story to go along with the pictures.
Always remind the child that whether it is mom or dad that is at home or away....they are always a family.
Books for kids whose parents deploy
Free printable stationery for children
Let's write to mom or dad
To make writing letters a little more special you can let your child pick out some stationery and you can print it out. They will have fun choosing the design they want.
- Mini Printables
- Here's a bunch of stationery including many styles of writing paper for sending had written letters to your friends and family, as well as some handy list pads like to-do lists, reminder notes, shopping and grocery lists etc. These can all be printed out for free with your home or office printer.
- Free printable stationery
- FreePrintable.net is more than just printable stationery! It offers thousands of free printables including business cards, letterhead, resumes, award certificates, kids' coloring pages, and much more -- and we add more almost every week.
- Kids
- Looking for a way to create themed writing paper? The next few steps will allow you to choose a theme for the top and bottom borders of your paper as well as choose a custom image to dress it up. You can also choose from a few different types of lines depending on whether you are a beginning printer or prefer to write on blank paper.
- Keep and share
- Welcome to KeepandShare's printable writing paper. Each is a gorgeous PDF that you can download and print as many times as you like. Try our other free printables:
Four sizes of Graph Paper
Colorful Scrapbook Backgrounds
Primary & Elementary Writing Paper
Beautiful Color Stationery!
Mobilization and Deployment Sites
Lots and lots of good information.
- Deployment Tips
- Today's military family faces a lifestyle that is comprised of frequent deployments, which results in increased family separations. This often proves to be a stressful challenge for military families. To assist the military's efforts to keep both troops and their families prepared, there are several programs which support the readiness of families. The information in this section will assist service members and their families in preparing for and coping with deployments. This site contains family support links for each of the services, as well as information for children, locating service members and deployment entitlements.
- Military Children struggle with parents' deployment
- The current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in extended and repeated deployments for American soldiers. New research out of UCLA shows that the families back home and especially children can experience long-lasting problems. WHYY's Behavioral Health reporter Maiken Scott spoke with psychologist Dan Gottlieb about this new study:
- Deployment Kids
- Things for kids to do and information for adults.
- Armed Forces Crossroads
- Lots of deployment information and sites to inform
More books on deployment
Holiday Letter Hints
If you are writing at holiday time check out this site for some really great ideas:
http://www.squidoo.com/family-christmas-letters
Check out these books
Even more great books
Wow I found you some more books
Let's see what else I found
If the kids need some help
Helpful links for writing
More Ideas for writing a journal or diary to share with their loved one.
- 10 Ways to Keep a Great Diary
- With today's busy lifestyle, it has become hard to keep a diary. This seemingly insignificant task is constantly pushed to the bottom of your to do list and is usually neglected. It's a shame that people don't realize how important a diary is. It keeps your sanity by allowing you to release your frustrations.
Journals for the kids
Send a Gift to Deployed person
A way to pass time
Calendars
Help to count the days till someone special comes home
Ebay cameras
new items
Share pictures with mom or dad. That is really a great gift for them to receive. Give them your best pose.
For Grins
- Ann Tucker Blog - The Blogging Granny
- That Garage Saleing, Internet Blogging, Googling Granny.
- Memoirs Of A Sneaker Wearing Daddy Blogger
- That Sneaker Wearing Entrepreneurial Cartoonist Internet Guy's Daddy Blog
- Talk, Listen, Connect Deployments, Homecomings, Changes
- In recognition of the contributions made by the United States Armed Forces, Sesame Workshop presents this bilingual educational outreach initiative designed for military families and their young children to share.
We are proud to offer support to help military families as they face challenging transitions.
Great Stuff on Amazon
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My Lenses
Are our ideas helping?
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aesta1
Apr 22, 2012 @ 6:07 am | delete
- This is where grandparents can help and your lens shows that you are being part of your grandkids lives.
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AnimalHouse
Apr 11, 2012 @ 6:14 am | delete
- Great ideas. It is really difficult for kids when their parent/s are away.
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alwaysjules Feb 22, 2012 @ 4:42 pm | delete
- I remember growing up with my dad going to Vietnam three times. These are some really great tips. I hope one day we won't need to use them anymore. Thank you for sharing.
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laporter79
Feb 16, 2012 @ 12:08 am | delete
- Wonderful
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KathyT
Feb 10, 2012 @ 11:46 am | delete
- Excellent tips! :)
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Take pictures of important events: new haircuts, birthdays, parties, etc. Let the kids take pictures. Have them take pictures of the family pets and tell a story to go along with the pictures.
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Engaging and easy to read, this book is personalized as the child develops his or her own self-calming strategies. -- Lori Shery, President and Co-Founder ASPEN® (Asperger Syndrome Education Network, Inc.)
