Thoughtful, useful care packages can help ease the transition from home to school, while making life a little more fun for busy, cash-strapped co-eds.

At first blush, homeschooling seems perfect the military family: no worrying about the quality of public schools, no stressing over continuity of curriculum after a PCS.

When Christie Pickard’s husband deployed last year, her family faced a familiar situation for those in the Guard and Reserve: they were the only ones in their area experiencing deployment.