A rock and a hard place (a missing school question)

[lovemygoofy]

You don't tend to give advice about kids because you don't have any and then begin to do just that Well, I have three that's been through that age and above, understand the first few days of K. very well, helped the teachers and I say leave the OP to what she feels is best for her family. Her son will not suffer the loss, I've seen it first hand whereas she feels like he will feel the loss if they don't get away and reconnect without the daily home life struggles for the first week. I haven't been in her shoes, but ONLY she knows what's best from past experience for her son and family. Enjoy OP

I should have said I don't give personal opinons about child raising because I don't have children. However, I do work with military families and children everyday of the year where I have to give my professional opinion.

The OPs situation isn't a unique one even though it is new to her. I've talked with thousands of families that struggle with reunion and reintegration issues. I was simply trying to give her a point of view from a professional that deals with these issues day in and day out. She will ultimately do what is best for her family.

OP, another resource I didn't mention this morning. Every state has something called a Military Family Life Consulatant. It doesn't matter if near installation or in now where Kansas. These are trained therapist that help with all sort of family issues to include deployment, family and children issues. They do not take names or ranks or anything specific to you and report to no one at all. They simply want to help military and their families.

If I can be of any help please let me know.

 

[littlezar]

My husband just came home from a 10 1/2 month deployment and just started 2 weeks leave on Tuesday so we are currently going through a lot of changes now that Daddy is back. I would take my kids out of school for a few days to go away if I didn't have 2 in high school - way, way too much going on there.

Is this your first child starting school? Would he be nervous or upset if he's not there on the first day?

Is his current pre-K class in the same school as his K will be? Might be easier to adjust if he's already in that school and knows the routine. Editing to add I just went back and saw it's a new school. Will there be some sort of orientation before the possible cruise? When I did all the paperwork for kindergarten registration last April, a few teachers assistants took the kids on a tour of the school so they could see the kindergarten classrooms, the playground, the nurses office, they took a bus ride (entire school rides the bus unless the parent drops off and picks up) and they ended in the library with a story being read to them by one of the librarians so the first day of school wasn't completely new since most had been there for that.

Is it half-day or full-day K? Will he worry about the lunch routine if it's full day?

Will he be riding a bus? Probably not an issue if he's already riding one, definitely not if you drop him off.

Definitely check with the school to see if they have the calendar yet and if not, ask what the expected start date is and what the chances are that it would be off by more than a day or two. The schools that my boys are in now start the day after Labor Day but we've been in schools that started 1st, 3rd and 4th weeks in August prior to this. My boys have missed school (public school) multiple times for homecoming days and have been late on deployment days and we've never had an issue with it being excused. I just send in a note saying "will be absent on this day because of homecoming. We hope it will be excused but understand if it is not."

That said, we have flat daddy (poster sized pic of Daddy in uniform) that we pull out and keep in the livingroom during deployments and my youngest has a daddy doll. You can find both online. We've never been lucky enough to have a deployment where he can skype or IM but we've had email the past few deployments and that's been awesome. This past deployment I sent my husband a CD with all the pics & videos I had taken every other month or so. With 4 boys, I had a lot of stuff especially the end of school year awards, school concerts, spring, summer & fall sports, museums, visits with family, trips to Busch Gardens....all sorts of stuff. He really enjoyed receiving it and I felt like it kept him more in the loop. The ship he was on did the United through Reading program (I think affiliated with the USO - I'm sure you can google that, too) Maybe you can video him reading to your son (sons? I'm thinking you said you had more than one child?) before he leaves and you can play it on the computer or put it on a DVD.

Hope your hubby's deployment is uneventful and flies by for you!