I am a military spouse with four beautiful kids who are growing up way differently than I have. They are all under 9 years old and have lived in five different states. It’s crazy to think I never even left my home state until I was 27 years old, and they were halfway around the world before they were 5!

This month, we honor the sacrifices these kids have made, most without even knowing they have sacrificed anything at all. We wanted to share a bit about some of our kiddos as we celebrate all of the military kids for the Month of the Military Child?

Kristyn: I asked my kids what their favorite snacks are?

• Anabelle (9 years-old): “I’d say… Oreo Cakesters! Or ice cream…It’s hard to choose.”
• Bubba (8-years-old): “Sour Warheads are my favorite snack ever!”
• Tricia (5-years-old): “My favorite snack is Watermelon.”
• Helena (2-yrs-old): “I love Mac n’ Cheese!”

Cassi: Cassi asked Jack to draw what it is like to be a military kid and shared his creativity with us!

Jenn:

Being a military family can be an amazing and yet, totally challenging experience. Our kiddos have to be so resilient for all of the opportunities that the military may place upon us as a family.  However, we have to stay together and connected as a family! It takes a lot of work to make it along this journey, but it can be totally worth it!

This picture is from quite some time ago, but I think it is a great representation for the Month of the Military Child! Life may look a little different for these kiddos, but we are here for them…always!

Kate: She asked her kids what their favorite and least favorite things were about being a military child.

• Oldest:
  • Favorite: Seeing new places everywhere we move my favorite place has been London.
  • Least Favorite: Having to leave friends and make new ones.
• Youngest:
  • Favorite: Getting to make new friends and live in new houses.
  • Least Favorite: Leaving friends behind.

Military kids are so resilient, but they have a lot of big feelings about this journey too! We hope that you have enjoyed this little glimpse into who we celebrate this month!

Find Out More with My Military Savings and Military Life & Family!

Here are some interesting things about military kids:

• There are over 1.5 million children who have a military-affiliation.
• Most military children will move more than 5 times during childhood! I moved 10 times before I was 18 AND I went to 18 different schools!
• Most people don’t realize that less than 10% of military kids attend a Dept. of Defense School! The majority of military kids are at public schools, and some are at private schools, as well! We can’t forget our homeschool families that make up a small percentage too!
• Children who grow up in the military world are more likely to join the military one day! You could even say…it runs in the family! Both my husband’s father and my father served. My husband serves and so does my brother .
• With so many unknowns in their world, military children tend to carry levels of anxiety and depression. This is something to monitor for sure, and make sure to reach out to the many resources that are available to the military families for this!
• With all of the moving and having to make new friends, many military kids tend to be very outgoing!
• One of the big challenges in their world is that most military children will experience one, or even both parents, being deployed at some point. There are some who will experience this many times too.

So let us celebrate our little troops, because they are truly amazing and resilient individuals! So, Purple Up all month long!

Find Out More with MyMilitarySavings.com and Military Life & Family!

So I have to be honest, with everything going on right now, Zion has actually been doing really well. He has been doing really well with his distance learning. He meets with his teacher everyday and I write down a small schedule for him so he knows what assignment is next. I know for some this is not easy, but for us, writing a schedule works not only for Zion but myself as well. I am a teacher so I have meetings and a schedule with my own students as well. Putting it on paper for both of us has actually instilled some independence in him because he’s reading his schedule and going onto the next task without being so dependent on me for help. His assignments are not difficult and it is more of a review for him. Zion continues to read on a daily basis and he has now made it to a 4th grade reading level (he is 6 and in 1st grade). I have always been the first to tell people that I have never made Zion sit down and do academics on a daily basis, but he genuinely enjoys school and learning new things.

In great news… we had Zion’s annual ARD recently and his speech therapist said that he is now only going to see Zion 1x every 6 weeks because he has mastered all of his speech goals!!! That is very exciting, especially because I didn’t think he would exit speech services until 3rd or 4th grade. It is crazy to think that when Zion was 3, he was about 90% unintelligible to people that did not know him. And even to those that did, he was about 75% unintelligible. Zion found ways to communicate with us and it was very impressive. As he entered speech service through the school district (he got them through ECI but would refuse to participate) his speech rapidly improved. By the age of 5 we could have a conversation with him. I am forever thankful for the speech services that Zion has received. Now, he will be working more on social skills and conversation starters with his inclusion teacher mainly. Zion tends to not automatically say “hi” or “bye” to people and instead needs to be prompted. He won’t actually carry a conversation unless it is something of interest to him. Zion also lacks empathy.

We have obviously been able to have a lot of family time during this pandemic. We have spent a lot of time working on our flower bed, taking family walks, and honestly just driving around and getting fresh air. My children are used to getting up and going some place every weekend. We were always exploring new places. Parks are still open (not the playgrounds) so we have been going to exploring nature. We painted some rocks, walked along the riverwalk, and just enjoyed the fresh air. I know one day my children will get to play again and do things like we used to, but for now, we are honestly just taking in every moment we can together as a family.

Thank you for reading! Together we will get through this. It is such an odd time in our society and so many things have changed. People don’t realize how much they don’t like change until something dramatic happens. Well unfortunately, in the world of my Autistic child, this is how he feels with the smallest things in life sometimes.

HAPPY AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH

HAPPY MONTH OF THE MILITARY CHILD

April has been a super busy month for us. Between Zion participating in Olympic Fiesta, to the Autism walk, and everything in between, he’s been a busy little bee this month. We have been enjoying the beautiful South Texas spring and taking advantage of being outside before the blazing sun hits.  We had a pretty amazing time at the Autism walk recently. We participated with Zion’s school. He is part of the Academy of Social Diversity inside of his public school and I have to say they have done great things for my boy! They recently did a reevaluation on Zion for Speech and he still qualifies. They are basically going to be working on conversational speech with him. He will be 6 soon, and I still have to tell him “say hi Zion, say bye Zion” to people in general. I am hoping he continues to do well with his speech goals this next school year! Speaking of next school year, as many of you know Zion currently goes to 1st grade for his math and reading.  Well I was told in his ARD that they will be giving him an end of the year assessment (a 1st grade one) to determine if he will go on to 1st grade like his peers or he will just move to 2nd grade. That’s kind of scary, my 6yr old in 2nd grade!! But, he does better with older peers and I think it is because his mind thinks older (if that makes sense).

Zion and his sister had a great Easter.  We celebrated with family, which is a great perk to being home. The day after Easter Zion woke up with a fever. He went to the doctor the next day and we were told it was viral. He had a fever the entire week and was unable to go to school. Seeing your child like that is heartbreaking. Zion is RARELY sick, so I felt helpless seeing him so miserable. Luckily on Friday the fever broke. He has still been sleepier then normal, but he is doing better.

Thank you so much for reading! Zion really wanted to make a video this month but with life being just that…life.. it was really hard to get around to it. I told him next month for sure! We truly appreciate your support and thank you for the double child! Zion is truly a unique kiddo and we love him beyond words. The lessons he has taught us has helped us become stronger parents and a stronger family. Thank you all for what you do for Autism Awareness.