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Military Kids Learn Best With STARS

Without a doubt, most Red River Families have seen the school readiness public service announcements urging us, as parents, to Sing, Talk, Ask questions and Read (STAR) to our little ones in order to help prepare them for Kindergarten. According to experts, early childhood is the most critical period for speech, language, literacy and brain development. So how does culture play in to this equation? And more specifically, how does military culture influence what we Sing, Talk, Ask and Read? From my experience as a family wellness coordinator, quite a bit.

Military parents sing military songs to their kids. And I'm not just talking about the patriotic standards like Yankee Doodle, You're a Grand Old Flag, This Land is Your Land and America the Beautiful. I'm talking about the truly military songs like Anchors Aweigh, Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder, the Marine Hymn and the Caissons Go Rolling Along. Not only do our kids know the songs, they know the branch-specific words.

The talk category is very similar. Military kids know military words and terms like commissary, humvee, jet, Soldier, BX, and deployment. Sometimes those syllables come out a little funny, but our kids know the words, nonetheless. They also know the meanings of all these words and phrases. I realized this years ago when our little one asked if she had to help do "police call" on the backyard one Saturday morning.

Truthfully, how many non-military kids do you know who can call cadence?

When it comes to asking questions, military parents spend time on target extending vocabulary. "Where did you put my cover?" "Did you eat Daddy's pogey bait?" "What kind of jet was that?" "Have you seen my kevlar?" and "Will you please go get me the 550 cord?" are just a few of many military phrases kids know.

Perhaps my favorite though are the books we read to our military kiddos. I love kid's books. I especially love the illustrations, rhythm and rhyme of early childhood books. I Miss You, Night Catch, We Serve Too and We Serve Too 2, My Dad's A Hero, The Kissing Hand, and The Soldier's Night Before Christmas–the list goes on and on!

There is no getting around it. Growing up in a military family is cool, and it only makes sense that we'd want to celebrate that fact with our young children in what we Sing, Talk, Ask, and Read to them.