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Tuesday's Grand Connection Thought
Although long-distance grandparenting is easier in today's electronic world, it's still hard when our legacy lives hundreds or thousands of miles away. E-mails and web cameras are great, but there's nothing like one-on-one visiting with those we love.
My friend Rita has 17 grandchildren and is busy all year long remembering birthdays and holidays. "Often, we’d send photos of them taken on our last visit," she says, "or a drawing with a made up story."
Thanks, Rita! Those are some great ideas! Now, let's have a little fun with them:
Take pictures with the grandkids when you visit them or when they visit you. Then mail (or e-mail) the grands the pictures. For an extra touch, you or I could send the pictures with a letter reminiscing about our time with the grands. Or, we could put the pictures in a magnetic frame (that can be displayed on the refrigerator) before dropping them in the mail. We may also want to have a matching photo displayed on our fridge.
Draw a picture of something you did with a grandchild when he/she visited. For the artistically challenged, like me, we could have fun with the drawing by asking our grandchild (over the phone) to answer questions about it until he/she correctly guesses what the picture represents.
It might be fun to ask our grands to also write stories about their visit and compare their stories to to ours.
Record a made-up story for our grandchild—using his/her name and places that you visited together. For very young children, we could ring a bell at the end of each page.
Here's another idea:
Pizza's on Pops Once Pops and I ordered pizza for our son and his kids who lived what seemed like millions of miles from us. We paid for the pizzas with a credit card and had them delivered to their house. Our children and grandkids thought that was a really special treat.
What are some things that you do to connect with your long-distance grandkids?
Have a great weekend,
Mary
http://www.marymaywrites.com/
co-author of The Grand Connection: 365 Ways to Connect with Your Grandchild's Heart
© 2009 by Mary May Larmoyeux. All rights reserved.
Photo © Tasnadi Erika Dreamstime.com
4 comments:
Hello Mary -
While on the "sending photos" theme I'd like to offer something we do frequently. Take a photo of you and your grandchild when you are together and then when apart, paste it onto a cardboard backing. Cut it into puzzle pieces making the difficulty of the puzzle appropriate to the age of the child. Then send the pieces in an envelope with the words, "Put this together and see who loves and misses you!" These and two whole chapters of wonderful long-distance ideas can be found in our new 5th edition of Grandloving: Making Memories with Your Grandchildren available from www.grandloving.com or 804 462-0884.
Thanks for sharing the fun puzzle idea!
I LOVE ringing a bell at the end of a page. That is adorable. -- Rita
Always good to hear from you, Rita!
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