My Very Exciting, Sorta Scary, Big Move

So you have orders. Your military-family is once again PCSing. The children have been told and there is excitement, worry, dare I even say some anger? A mixed ball of emotion from your grade-school children. Emotions they can’t quite vocalize. Feelings that are all jumbled up inside. Tension that you can see in their eyes, their shoulders, down to their toes. I know. I have been that child.

I recently reached out to Lori Woodring, Ph.D., when I read she put together a workbook for children ages five to eleven titled, “My Very Exciting, Sorta Scary, Big Move“. (Pretty darn perfect title if I do say so myself.) Wow, there are thousands of military-children experiencing a PCS (“moving” in civilian-speak) every year. Thousands of children ages 5 to 11 that could benefit from a book like this!

The book starts with a note to the parents from the author, “Moving is among life’s biggest stressors.” As military-spouses we know this statement is true, for us and for our children. Not only the stress of the unknown, but the stress of saying good-bye, the stress of saying hello for the first time and the the stress within the family associated with getting all the pieces of the puzzle put together.

The workbook is over 60 pages of creative mechanisms for a child to cope with an upcoming move. I loved the page where the child could draw how they want their new room to look like. How fun for a child to imagine the good things that are to come! Then there is the page where they can use crayons and a color key to draw how they are feeling where on their body. Their brain may be saying one thing but their belly another and putting different colors to all of that? Brilliant! There are coping-methods and more. This workbook covers it.

The best part of this workbook? A child cannot do it on their own. They shouldn’t. Just like they can’t PCS on their own, they can’t get settled into a new place on their own, they can’t pack up all of their belongings on their own, they also can’t do this book on their own. They need you, the mom, the dad, the one that they can confide in, to ultimately share their feelings with. You are the person that they need support from and when you sit down and work through this workbook with them your relationship will grow and morph. They will learn you are there for them. Always.

With all of that being said I have one of these books to giveaway! If you know a five to eleven year old that is moving this summer from a military family you are eligible to enter.

All you need to do is…

Leave a comment on this blog post with one way you help your child cope with a PCS.

(Important! use the Rafflecopter widget below so that we can be sure to count your entry)

Plus here are some great ways to get extra entries including,

Like http://www.Facebook.com/MilitaryAvenue, follow @MilitaryAvenue, or follow our Pinterest Boards: http://pinterest.com/militaryavenue/
Like https://www.facebook.com/MovingwithChildren or Follow @drloriwoodring

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway ends March 31st so enter today.

A disclaimer: I read an electronic copy of this book. I haven’t been compensated. I have received nothing from this review except for (a) the ability to give a workbook to a fellow military family and (b) a huge smile to think of all of the children who will find this workbook helps them un-jumble the big scary emotions that can be associated with a PCS / move and how they can apply this to so many other hurdles and bumps that they will experience the rest of their life.