For Our Next PCS

When prepping for a PCS, you have no choice but to be organized. I wish I had a picture of the calendars and notepads and general awesomeness that were involved in our last two moves (with children), because once you have kids, you have too much stuff to just wing it. ESPECIALLY OCONUS (because at some point, you don't have a car anymore), but even moving across the state is hard to prep for.

I was trolling Facebook the other day and came across this idea on an Army spouse page on preparing a PCS binder for your kids. So, disclaimer! This is NOT my idea, (I think we all know I'm not that creative or I'd blog about something more than my boring-ass every day life...), but I just thought this was amazing and wanted to share to help friends with upcoming PCS moves. :)

So, here we go.

You need a binder
You need a 3-hole punch
You need a printer
You need 2 zip-up pencil pouches
You'll need a moment to yourself to actually do something not directly move related, so start early!!

Find/Create:

*A map of your route (laminate?)
*Coloring pages for where you're moving to (http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/places/us-states-coloring-pages/), and perhaps for any major stops along the way.
*Number and letter activity sheets (if you don't have a laminator, I hear the plastic sheet protectors can be written on with dry erase markers, but I've never tried this because my kids are like 12 years too young for markers of any sort in my car)
*Mazes
*I-Spy or Hidden Picture pages
*Scavenger Hunt or Car Bingo games
*Drawing prompt pages ("I saw a truck I liked," "I think Texas will be like....," "I can't wait to visit Grandma, and..."
*Photos of the place you just left and where you're going (maybe all the places you're stopping on your road trip, too!)
*Pictures of child's favorite things at current duty station and then some fun things at the new one (IE: a great park, Chuck E. Cheese, zoo, etc. This way the child can remember what he/she loved, and look forward to trying it in other places.
*Photo sleeve of family members or friends they'll see along the way/who live at the new duty station
*A zip up pencil pouch for utensils
*Another zip up pouch for brochures, air tickets, cool rocks (oh, that's just Piper??) and other things kids "gather" along the way
*Calendar with the weeks/months you'll be traveling and when you're doing what (or even just a checklist on the way to x)

One of the ladies who posted the idea said her daughter used it several months after the PCS and that it helped her kind of connect where she came from to where she is and I just loved that idea. For months after we left PA, G would ask questions about his classmates and our house, etc. I can only imagine that gets tougher as kids get older.

Another suggestion is to not put everything in the binder at once. Maybe if you're road-tripping you could do it by state (more work for mom, I know...) but I personally have found that a steady stream of new entertainment trumps a big bag of new things to do all at once.

Apparently Pinterest has a similar offering called a travel binder or travel notebook, which I'll definitely be trying on our next road trip, and certainly there's a wealth of other binder-ready activities out there, but I just loved this military specific idea. I hope it earns me some extra quiet over our next move!