This week’s OneOp blog post is a guest blog contribution from Christine “C.C.” Gallagher, Founder of Military Quality of Life Consulting LLC. C.C. is no stranger to the major life changes and often unexpected transitions that comes with living in a military family.
As a mother of two and a spouse to an active-duty Army soldier, C.C. has experienced many obstacles and successes in her journey as a military spouse, mother, and professional. You can read more about C.C. and get a list of her collaborative efforts with us on her bio page.
5 Ways to Celebrate Military Children during the Month of April
By: C.C. Gallagher
April is widely known and designated as the Month of The Military Child. Our military-connected children are some of our youngest heroes and deserve to be recognized for their daily sacrifices.
Making sure that your children feel appreciated and supported, especially in this military lifestyle, is important. Military children are strong, resilient, and courageous and oftentimes were volunteered for this life.
Here are five ways you can celebrate our military-connected children this April.
Purple Up!
One of the easiest ways to support our military children is to Purple Up! for Military Children on April 15th! It’s simple…wear purple and spend extra time recognizing military children that day!
Download the Military Child Education Coalition Toolkit
Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) has created free downloadable content for you to use to help show your support for military children throughout your home or area of work. Download it here! If you work with children, you can use the Military Child Certificate they have created to highlight and show your appreciation to your military-children students.
Sign-Up for The National Military Family’s Association Operation Purple Camp
Sign your children up for the National Military Family’s Association Operation Purple Camp. Not only is it free, but it also gives military children the chance to connect with other children that can relate to what they go through. Connecting with people who go through similar experiences is so important. You can learn more here!
Share Their Story Project
If you work with children, encourage your military students to create a small project to present to the class that tells their military story. They could present where they were born, how many places they have lived, and what their service member’s job is. This can teach other children what military children and their families experience, but also give the military child a moment to reflect and be proud of who they are! Our almost 7-year-old has lived at 4 different military installations and our 4-year-old has lived at 3.
Show Your Appreciation To Children Outside of Your Family
Most of us know how important it is to feel appreciated and acknowledged by those around us. This doesn’t always have to be a grand gesture, but it can be as simple as saying “thank you.” During the month of April, take the time to let a military child know that you appreciate the sacrifices they make every day.
Military children deserve to be celebrated all year long, not just in the month of April. Thank you to all the military families raising amazing children, and all the children who sacrifice so much!
If you are looking for additional resources for your military children, please reference Useful Resources for Our Military Children: Month of the Military Child.
We want to thank C.C. for contributing to our OneOp blog posts! Stay tuned for more potential guest contributions from her in 2021. For access to all of OneOp blog posts, see a list of all our blog posts here.
