Saturday, August 11, 2012

Back To School

Once again, it is about time for the kids to be heading back to school. Heather Sweeney in her post on http://spousebuzz.com/blog/2012/08/back-to-school-tips-for-military-families.html?ESRC=family.nl has some wonderful tips for preparing for the kids heading back to school. Some of the most important things to keep in mind as our military kids head back to school.

Keep Important Documents In One Place:
As military we move or transfer schools often. If we have one central location for all orders, power of attorney (if needed) birth certificates, social security cards, current copy of each individuals immunizations, physical report, most recent report card, and or school/college transcript. Make sure to keep these documents separated so these are not packed if PCS’ing.

Emergency Contacts:
Schools and the base CDC or Youth Programs all require emergency contacts for your children. If you are new, make sure to find someone to fill in the emergency contact. This can be a new neighbor or someone from church. Simply knock on your neighbors door, ask if you can exchange contact information for your children for emergency contact info for the school, CDC, and/or Youth Program. (This can be changed later if needed)

Start New Routines:
Once settled in, and at least a couple weeks before school starts, begin the new, or return to the normal bedtime routine. For children in a new time zone, their bodies need to adjust. If you move during the summer, visit the school and take a tour before school starts. Attend the Back to School/Open House Night before school begins. Finally, if your child rides the bus, let him or her ride the bus starting on day one. If your child walks to school and you walk with your child to his or her classroom, say good-bye and the door and leave. Do not linger. The teachers are prepared for all moods of kids on their first day back. Not lingering inside the classroom, sets an atmosphere of trust between you and your child.

Special Circumstances:
Does your child have special circumstances the school needs to know about? Letting the school in advance is important. If you are moving after the school year has already started this may delay your child from starting school however, behavioral or medical needs are very important for the school to know about and address.

Other important circumstances the school needs to know about is if a parent is deployed, when homecomings are scheduled, recent or upcoming divorces, (longer area families) upcoming PCS moves, behavioral  changes in the child due to normal military life stressors. Keep a proactive approach with the school/s and open communication.

For families in the area, with medical needs, behavioral, or disabled children, the summer time is the perfect time to prepare with the school nurse, or nurse of the next school. This is the perfect time to make sure adaptive PE forms are filled out if needed, additional medication forms, medical device usage forms. Does the school nurse need to be trained on any medical devices, equipment, implanted medical devices your child uses? Does individualized training for your child’s equipment and/or devices need to be updated or reviewed? Has anything changed for the current school nurse concerning your child?

As parents of medical needs, behavioral, or disabled children we are our children’s best advocates, especially when we take a proactive approach instead of a reactive approach.

Military Life
Unless we let others know what military life is like, our kids attend a school with strong military presence, most teachers, or school staff members will not understand the customs and traditions within the military families. For most looking inside the military family and trying to understand, it is like trying to understand what a child with cancer is experiencing. Until information about the specific kind of cancer, treatment, and prognosis is given, everything is unknown.

Through books, articles, blog posts, and videos, others can use these resources to gain insight into the military life. Two great resources include:

Military Kids Connect