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When God was handing out wills, he must have given my daughter a triple dose. To say that she’s strong-willed is an understatement. She’s a joy and we love her very much. The difficulty with strong-willed kids is you run the risk of either caving to them too much, or being overly harsh with them to get them to mind. There is hope, however, and a wonderful parenting approach called “Love and Logic” that was developed with strong-willed kids in mind. See More
Children love to help, but sometimes it’s a challenge to figure out what they are capable of helping with. With a little planning and applying what you know about your child and what he or she can do, you can come up with a list of daily and weekly chores that even the smallest ones in the family can do.
Shyness can be hard to overcome for children. Being able to make new friends, communicate with new teachers and talk to new neighbors is an essential life skill, not just for military children.
Shyness can be part of a child’s personality, or it could be a result of something situational. Regardless of reason, shyness is simply an emotional reaction to being around people who you do not know or are not used to yet. Thankfully, there are lots of ways to cope.
A trip to Disneyland or Disney World has been a staple for vacationing families for decades. Those who think Disney vacations are too expensive may not know is that Disney Parks offer excellent military discounts on the biggest expenses.
Military Family Central’s Adrienne May visited Disney World this Summer and saved a lot of money by taking advantage of military discounts along the way. Check out this guide to getting the most out of your discounts and tips to get the most out of your trip to Disney.
This year, as I prepare to observe the anniversary of September 11, I have decided to take my solemn and respectful observation a step further from passive remembrance to actively honoring those who lost their lives and those who gave so much on that day.
I love fall. It’s my favorite time of year. But I don’t like the transition from summer to fall. I find it hard to figure out what to wear. It goes from chilly to hot most days in September, and neither my summer nor my winter clothing seems to be comfortable.
It’s not just the temperature factor either. It seems that once the leaves start their annual change, I’m ready for a change in color too. The colors of summer don’t feel as awesome as they did just a month ago. The last transition I went through with my wardrobe — from spring to summer — I tried a few new things. They really helped me and I think they will help with this transition too.
Constant relocation and tight-knit communities can make military families particularly susceptible to cold and flu viruses. One child can come home from school with a sneeze and in a matter of 24 hours, an entire household is sharing the gift that keeps on giving — a nasty cold.
But before you make a midnight run to closest Walgreens, consider taking a look in your pantry. Prior to the rise of the modern medical industry and 24-hour drug stores, “folk” recipes were standard for moms. In fact, the all-natural craze is merely a revival of an age-old way of life.
Whether your aim is to provide your family with natural solutions or just to cut costs, becoming familiar with homemade cold and flu remedies can be very helpful.
In the past six years of my life, I have been shipping care packages overseas — a lot of them. Between two deployments, being stationed overseas, a few adopted soldiers and a school supply project in Iraq, I have shipped well over 400 boxes. I have never had a box lost or horribly damaged. That’s a blessing.
When I ship boxes, I pack them myself and I use a system I’ve developed over the years. It’s not rocket science. You also learn with time to choose items you can easily fit into flat rate boxes. I’ve never even used a mail store, such as a UPS Store, until recently.
I suppose I know a lot about sleep.
Sleep habits were the topic of a research project I did in my final semester of graduate school. My test subject for the project was someone who was struggling with chronic insomnia, and my job as a social worker was to find answers that would help her out with minimal amount of intervention. The real goal of the study was to address bad habits and see if medication could be avoided all together.
First, we went over her medical history. She was in good health, and her doctor had ruled out anything medical that would cause the insomnia. Basically, she was struggling with environmental factors that were causing her to have a hard time falling asleep and difficulty staying asleep when she finally passed out from exhaustion.
Being a “military brat” is often a badge of pride for both children and adults. I know because, not only am I a military veteran, I am also a “military brat”. My father served in the Army for 22 years. We traveled to Europe and around the US, met all sorts of people and encountered a variety of cultures. Sometimes military kids can become a bit smug when they relate their life experiences to their “normal” friends.
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