Welcome to a place where we can share ideas about grandparenting, especially ways to pass spiritual values and family stories to the next generation.

Mary is the co-author of The Grandparent Connection: 365 Ways to Connect With Your Grandchild's Heart.
Visit www.legacyconnection.org
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Co-author of The Grandparent Connection: 365 Ways to Connect With Your Grandchild's Heart

Friday, January 10, 2014

Let's Make a Birdhouse




I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. —Psalm 50:11

Hope that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed New Year's Day!

A couple of years ago Pops gave our grandkids birdhouses (one for each family) at Christmas. Although we thought that the kids would like them, we were surprised at how excited they were about them.

Now, they weren’t just ordinary birdhouses—they were designed for children to custom decorate with outdoor paints. (I purchased the birdhouse kits, complete with paints, from our local Knowledge Tree.) Our out-of-town grandkids decorated their birdhouse the day after Christmas, and our local grands decorated theirs a day or so later. They were all thrilled with their creations.

You may want to decorate a birdhouse with your local grandchildren on a bleak winter day or mail one to those who live out-of-town. Just looking at a birdhouse reminds us that spring will soon be here.

A birdhouse can also provide a great topic for ongoing conversation with the grands. I plan to checkout some library books about our feathery friends to read with the grands who live nearby.

With out-of-town (and local) grandkids we can google “birds” and find all sorts of information and activities that we could send them by e-mail or snail mail. Here are just a few possibilities:

Just color the critters (National Audubon Society—just for kids)

Birds of America (you can search by state—National Audubon Society)

Wild bird treat (National Geographic for Kids)

Have fun!
Mary May Larmoyeux
www.grandconnection.org

Post and Photo Copyright © 2009, 2014 by Mary May Larmoyeux. All rights reserved.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea, Mary! I'm hunting for a birthday present for my six-year-old grandson, and I think he'd love to make a birdhouse like this. I'll check it out! kj

Anonymous said...

Great idea! Will look for birdhouses for birthday gifts.
--Rita

Mary May Larmoyeux said...

Hi, KJ and Rita, thanks for your comments! Hope that your grandkids enjoy their birdhouses as much as ours did. By the way, Pops decided to make a birdhouse for us. :) He's putting the finishing touches on it today. -- Mary

Anonymous said...

The birdhouse idea is a great one. - Rita