Counting down the days until mommy or daddy is home from deployment is one way to keep the families eye on the prize, the homecoming. There are a few different ways to have a countdown. We are going to go through our favorites today.  

1. A Kiss A Day while Mommy or Daddy is away. In a jar, decorated, place Hershey Kisses for every day your service member will be gone. (If you have more than one child, it would be best to have more than one jar so the jars can accurately reflect how many days are left and the kids are not fighting over the kisses.) Either every morning or every night, depending how your family decides to eat the chocolate. (Don’t worry, we will have sugarless options as well.) It’s like getting a little kiss from the deployed parent!
2. Patriotic Day Down, Days to Go! Set out two flower vases or jars, in one jar place American Flags, toy soldiers, or other symbols of patriotism. The items should equal the amount of days your service member is gone. It will help your child visualize how many days are left. The visualization can make it easier on them instead of just hearing a number, 50 is a large number to a child, but seeing 50 toys isn’t as scary. It is also a good way to visualize a half way point or when the days are closer to the service member being home. (Disclaimer, you can do this with any thing, doesn’t have to be just patriotic)
3. Sticker board! On one wall of your home, place either a poster board or laminated sheet with the number of days on it. For each day your service member is gone place a sticker on the number or box. You can do this one of two ways. You can go reverse as a count down to how many days or left or you can count the number of days he or she is gone. Either way works, we like the count down method though. 😉
4. Mommy or Daddy Wall. Choose one wall in your house to dedicate to your service members safe return. Have two clocks on the wall, one with their time and one with your time will be helpful the kids to understand why your service member calls at weird hours or isn’t always available to Skype before their bed time. This is also a good place to hang a welcome home banner that you and your children work on through out the whole deployment. It will continue to build excitement for the home coming. We also like the idea of pockets on the wall to keep pictures, drawings, or other things to show the parent when they return. Another pocket for things the children want to send to mom and dad is a good way to encourage them to write letters or draw pictures for mom and dad to have over seas. (We also like to add a map, who says we couldn’t make this a learning experience for everyone involved!)

We understand that there are many other ways to count down the days! Feel free to comment here and add your favorite way!  t