Dear Parent,

Like any parent, you place a high priority on your relationship with your child; a relationship built on love, trust and meaningful communication. But, along with thousands of your fellow service men and women, your commitment to your country has created an unavoidable obstacle to cultivating that relationship. Long deployments not only affect the amount of time you can spend communicating with your children, but the meaningfulness of that communication suffers as well.

MyChildMyMilitary.com offers the solution. MyChildMyMilitary.com provides an opportunity for you and your child to spend quality time together through real-time, interactive activities. You and your child will read, draw and play games, seeing and hearing one another as though you were sitting together.

Explore, create, play and learn together. mychildmymilitary.com lets you get closer to the ones you love, regardless of how far apart you are.

Take a tour of the site and learn how mychildmymilitary.com brings families together. »

General Questions »

1. About MyChildMyMilitary.com »
2. What does mychildmymilitary.com offer my children? »
3. Is mychildmymilitary.com appropriate for my child? »
4. How do I introduce my child to mychildmymilitary.com? »
5. Tips for scheduling meetings »
6. How mychildmymilitary.com promotes and enhances learning »
7. Tips for reinforcing mychildmymilitary.com meetings »
8. How mychildmymilitary.com protects your child’s privacy »
9. What Is MyChildMyMilitary.com?
10. Who can use mychildmymilitary.com?
11. What kind of computer do I need?
12. Can I use only audio connection?
13. How can I check if my computer works well with mychildmymilitary.com servers?
14. What equipment do I need?
15. Where can I buy headphones and webcam?
16. Do I need to install software?
17. Privacy Policy
18. Terms of Use

• About MyChildMyMilitary.com

MyChildMyMilitary.com is an interactive environment where young children can play with their deployed parents as well as other family members, regardless of how far away they are.

The site allows users to see and hear one another while they read books, play games and do art activities together -- all in real time. An extensive catalog of reading selections and activities offers countless opportunities to engage in the kinds of interactive, imaginative and constructive play-time activities that children love.

• What does mychildmymilitary.com offer my children?

MyChildMyMilitary.com offers your children the unique opportunity to develop loving relationships with their deployed parents and other family members they do not see on a regular basis. The site’s interactive platform allows children to play and learn just they do during face-to-face visits, creating the strong familial connections that bring joy to children’s lives.

• Is mychildmymilitary.com appropriate for my child?

MyChildMyMilitary.com is geared to children aged 3-8, but any child can use it. Younger children will need a parent to get started on the site and again at the beginning of each meeting. It is recommended that children be able to manipulate a mouse to navigate through the activities.

• How do I introduce my child to mychildmymilitary.com?

It is recommended that children view the site as an enjoyable way to get together with their parent, grandparents and family members. Explain to your children that they will be able to read books and play on the site and will even be able to see and hear the person they are meeting. Let your children look through the book selections and activity lists to see what piques their interests and make sure they understand the basic navigation tools.

Explain to your children the importance of keeping their usernames and passwords a secret and never arrange meetings without your permission or with people they don’t know.

Most importantly, let your children know that the purpose of the site is to have fun with the people they love and who love them.

Click here for a site tour you and your children can view together. »

• Tips for scheduling meetings

It is important to schedule your children’s meeting at a time that is conducive to their getting the most out of their meetings. Don’t schedule meetings when children are tired or will have difficulty focusing. Make sure an adult will be available at the beginning of the meeting to help children with the setup process.

• How mychildmymilitary.com promotes and enhances learning

At MyChildMyMilitary.com, we believe that children learn best when they are having fun. That’s why all of our reading selections, games and craft activities are age-appropriate and geared to children’s interests.

Our book selection encourages children to read and explore different topics, while our trivia questions and fun facts give them additional information on a wide array of topics. Let’s Talk gives adults the opportunity to ask pointed questions that direct children reflect on how reading selections relate to them and stimulate further discussions.

Games and craft activities ask children to relate what they learned and encourages creativity, problem-solving and higher-level thinking, as well as offering further avenues for adults to communicate with children and draw out their interests.

By fostering communication, mychildmymilitary.com also improves children’s abilities to express themselves and create connections with others.

• Tips for reinforcing mychildmymilitary.com meetings

Parents can be instrumental in reinforcing their children’s meetings through discussions and activities that enhance and expand upon the online experience. Ask your children what they thought of the book they read, what they enjoyed, what was the most fun and what they learned. Children can draw pictures or do craft projects related to what they read and learned or plan for future meetings by choosing books from our extensive reading selection.

• How mychildmymilitary.com protects your child’s privacy

MyChildMyMilitary.com is devoted to your children and their safety is our top priority. MyChildMyMilitary.com will never distribute or sell your child’s information to a third party. We only request information necessary to use the site effectively. Read our privacy policy for further details on the site’s extensive safety measures.

To help protect them, it’s important to discuss internet safety with your children. Here are a number of recommended precautions:

1. Never give out real information, such as your name, address or phone number.
2. Never give out your username or password. Never let anyone log on to the site pretending to be you. They could give out your personal information or obtain the information of others.
3. Always tell your parents if someone you don’t know tries to schedule a meeting with you or contacts you using the site. Never schedule a meeting or send or accept messages from people you don’t know.
4. Do not use your real name as a username and try to choose a username that is not like your name. Instead, use the name of a beloved toy or pet, a game you enjoy or book or character you like.

MyChildMyMilitary.com complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Visit the following sites for more information about COPPA and children’s safety on the internet:

http://www.ftc.gov/kidzprivacy.
http://www.loveourchildrenusa.org/parent_internetsafety.php
http://www.safekids.com/
http://www.netsmartz.org/

• What Is MyChildMyMilitary.com?

MyChildMyMilitary.com is an interactive environment where young children can play with their deployed parents as well as other family members, regardless of how far away they are.

The site allows users to see and hear one another while they read books, play games and do art activities together -- all in real time. An extensive catalog of reading selections and activities offers countless opportunities to engage in the kinds of interactive, imaginative and constructive play-time activities that children love.

• Who can use mychildmymilitary.com?

Anyone seeking a stronger, more loving relationship with their children or grandchildren can use the site. The site is specifically designed to alleviate the geographical boundaries that limit the vital relationships between young children and their deployed parents by providing a platform for interactions that mimic face-to-face communication.

The site is available to parents, grandparents and relatives of young children who are looking for ways to strengthen their relationships. The site is geared toward children aged 3-8, but can be used by children of all ages.

• What kind of computer do I need?

The program requires a PC with high-speed internet access.
You can use both PC and MAC. There are some minimal requirements for hardware:

• Pentium III or higher
• 128 MB of RAM
• High-speed internet
• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista
• Microphone and Speakers. We recommend using headphones for better quality of user experience.
• Web cam (recommended)
• Browsers: Internet Explorer 5 (or above) or Firefox 1.5 (or above)
• Macromedia Flash Player 7 or above

MAC requirements:

• 733 MHz or higher
• 128 MB RAM
• High-speed internet
• MAC OS X 10.2 and above
• Microphone and Speakers. We recommend using headphones for better quality of user experience.
• Web cam (recommended)
• Browsers: Firefox 1.5 or above
• Macromedia Flash Player 7 or above

These are the minimal requirements, which are needed to use mychildmymilitary.com.
How much bandwidth do I need to participate?
You will need high speed internet connection. You can check your connection speed here.

• Can I use only audio connection?
Yes

• How can I check if my computer works well with mychildmymilitary.com servers?

• What equipment do I need?

You will need a microphone, speakers and webcam to enable you to see, hear and speak to the other user.
If you and your child both want to see each other you will need web cams. When buying one, make sure it will produce good quality video (you can often judge quality of video by webcam price).
Although speakers and microphone are enough to use MyChildMyMilitary.com, to improve sound quality we recommend using a headset (headphones with a microphone), but you also can use regular headphones and a microphone.

• Where can I buy headphones and webcam?

The equipment can be purchased at most computer shops.

• Do I need to install software?

NO, in most computers in the world.
All you need is a regular browser and Macromedia Flash 7 or above. If you can read this page, you probably already have the right browser. To check if you have Macromedia flash installed on your computer, please visit out check page. If you don’t have it yet, don’t worry. Flash is free software which can be downloaded and automatically installed on your computer.
I get "this script is running slowly" when joining the meeting - What can I do?
There are two primary reasons for this error:

1. Your PC or Mac hardware is outdated, or
2. You are running and older/wrong version of Flash Player.

• Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us and we are committed to protecting it. As part of this commitment we describe our online information practices in this Policy.
To serve you better we sometimes need to collect certain information related to your use of the Website or the Service. To ensure your privacy, we use and disclose such information only in such manner and for such purposes as are described in our Privacy Policy.

• Terms of Use

You can read our terms of use here.

Thank You!