My first-grade reading adventures were dominated by Dick, Jane, and Spot.

I saw Dick.

I saw Jane.

I saw Spot.

I saw them run.

Funny Dick. Funny Jane. Funny, funny Spot.

Oh my . . . it’s amazing that people who used these books to learn how to read ever developed a love for reading! Why in the world didn’t my first grade teacher ever introduce me to Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown instead? Was it because I was probably in the fifth grade when the book was published . . .??

Well, I’m glad that I am aware of Flat Stanley now because as a grandmother I can have great fun with this book! I recommend that you check the book out of your local library so that you can read how poor Stanley became flat. (A bulletin board fell on him while he was asleep.) You can read how he retrieves his mother’s ring when it fell down a grate. How he went to California in an airmail letter. How he saves the day by stopping a gang of thieves from stealing paintings from a museum. You might want to buy your own copy so that you can read it to your grandchildren when they come for a visit. Or, if your grandchild lives far away, you might want to mail her the book, have her read it, and then explain the Flat Stanley activity that the two of you will do. After all, if your granddaughter isn’t familiar with the story, your activity won’t make much sense to her!

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown is for ages 6-9. Older children still in elementary school will get a kick out of the Flat Stanley activity even though the book might be easy for them to read.

Flat Stanley Experience
After reading the book, have your granddaughter draw and color a picture of herself on a piece of paper. This is her ‘Flat Stanley’ figure. (She might want to cut her face out of a school picture to glue on her Flat Stanley figure. You might want to laminate her figure. You’ll see why in a minute . . .) You need to draw a picture of yourself, too. Then, exchange figures.

Have your granddaughter take your figure with her to her various activities throughout the week. Have her take a digital picture of your Flat Stanley figure at her activities. (You might have to solicit the help of your granddaughter’s parents to take the pictures depending on the age of your granddaughter.) Example: She could take a picture of your figure sitting by her at the breakfast table, at her desk at school, by her lunch tray at noon, on the piano during piano lessons. Then, she can e-mail you the pictures that she took so you can see where the two of you have been during the last week.

You, of course, will take her Flat Stanley figure with you to your activities — going to work, going on a zip line in Costa Rica, going to the grocery store, working out in the yard, watching the 6 o’clock news, doing water aerobics, shoveling the snow on the sidewalk. (This is where it might help to have a laminated figure.) Then, you will e-mail your pictures to your granddaughter. It will be great fun to see where each of you have taken the other person’s Flat Stanley figure.

I can imagine taking my grandson’s ‘Flat Stanley’ on the bus to work — and the look on the other commuters’ faces. Or seeing it sitting by my computer at work. Or on my elliptical machine. Or by me on the couch as I write a post to my grandma site . . . I just have to wait for him to grow up a wee bit before we can do this activity . . . As a two-month old, his fine motor skills just can’t quite hold a pencil to draw with . . .

Be creative in the pictures you take of your granddaughter’s Flat Stanley figure. Even if you think you aren’t doing anything exciting, make it exciting by where you put her figure. If you use humor in the placement of your granddaughter’s Flat Stanley figure, your granddaughter will love seeing the pictures.

A very creative and artistic college student recently received her nephew’s Flat Isaac (that was the name of her nephew). You can see her pictures and read about her experience to help you get an idea of some of the things that you can do.

There are also some variations that you can do. You could make a little booklet for your granddaughter with the pictures you have taken instead of just e-mailing the pictures to your granddaughter. If you have a movie camera, you can make a movie with your granddaughter’s Flat Stanley figure instead of just taking still pictures. If your granddaughter lives nearby, you could do this as a joint activity where you go out together and take pictures. You could even create a little story or skit and take pictures of both of your Flat Stanley figures in key locations. (In my story, I think I’d have to take the Flat Stanley figures to Shirley’s Bakery to get some orange rolls . . . YUM!)

If you’re interested, you can read how Jeff Brown came up with his idea for the story.

Flat is where it’s at!
Digi-Gram

What colors come to your mind when you think of baby blankets? Pastel pink? Sky blue? Mellow yellow? Soft green? How about black?

Black?!?! No way!

I found the cutest fabric in a store that specializes in material for babies. And the fabric was black. I debated and debated whether or not to get it. Would I be seen as a morbid mother-in-law? Possibly. But I would hope that those seeing the blanket would not mind the blackness because the design was so delightful.

The design consisted of a variety of brightly colored cats. Cats with an attitude. Cats smirking. Cool cats. Fuschia pink cats. Fire-engine red cats. Lime green cats. Golden sun yellow cats. The coordinating fabric was black with paw prints out of the same colors as the cats.

Our daughter-in-law loves cats and so I immediately thought of her when I saw the fabric. After much internal debate, I couldn’t resist it. Spencer, our grandson, may be wrapped up in the black blanket but I’m hoping it will tickle his mother’s fancy whenever she uses it.

I finished it this week. Here are some pictures of the blanket.

Front Side	Back Side
Up Close

I used a slick method for making it. I sewed the batting to the wrong side of the material with the cats on it. Then, I put the right sides together of the two pieces of fabric. I sewed around the edges leaving about 16 inches. Kind of like sewing a sleeping bag. Then, I turned it right sides out. All I had to do then was to hand stitch the last few inches of it and tie it. This is a faster method than hand stitching around the whole blanket.

This brings the number of blankets that I’ve made for Spencer up to 3. He’s not even 2 months old yet . . . I can’t believe that I’ve made this many! And, I have a sneaking suspicion there will probably be yet more to come . . .

The cat’s meow,
Digi-Gram

Do your grandchildren live far from you? Are you missing out on seeing them grow up because you live miles apart? I have an idea for you that can help them feel that they are a part of your life and that can help strengthen your relationship with them. It’s called ‘When I Was Your Age.’

Here’s the deal. Send an e-mail to your grandson or granddaughter. In your message, ask him questions like who his friends are, what is his typical day like, what are his favorite foods, what classes does he have in school, what is his favorite toy, and what pet does he have. Also, ask him to scan a picture of himself (that year’s school picture) and send it to you. (Be sure to print out the scanned picture.)

Call your grandson’s parents (without your grandson knowing) and ask them to tell you a funny experience or two that your grandson has recently had. Or possibly an example of a recent accomplishment (like his soccer team winning a tournament game) or having a 4.0 GPA in school. Or when he showed kindness or did service for someone.

Once you have collected the picture and the information, the fun begins. You are going to create a scrapbook page comparing his life at that moment with your life when you were his age. If you don’t scrapbook, you can just create a document using a word processing program. This page/document will be called ‘When I Was Your Age.’

Divide the page into two columns. In one column, you will put your grandson’s information. In the column opposite his, you will put in your corresponding information.

Start out by gluing his picture in his column. (Or use the adhesive picture corners to attach the picture to the page.) In your column, put a picture of you when you were his age.

Then, depending on the questions that you asked him, write appropriate headings (i.e. favorite food, friends, toys, etc.). In his column, put down the information that he sent you. In your column, put down the corresponding information about you when you were his age. For example, if your grandson wrote that he has a pet dog named Spunky, enter that under the heading for pets. If, when you were his age, your family had a cat named Butterscotch, you would enter that information in your column.

As you write up the experiences that you got from your grandson’s parents, be sure to write in your column about your experiences in that category. If you don’t have a matching experience, mention that and possibly explain why. (Example: your grandson is on a soccer team but you weren’t at his age because there weren’t any teams in your school/city.)

Make two copies of your scrapbook page. Get two scrapbooking binders and some plastic sheet protectors. Put the page (or pages) in the sheet protectors and place a copy in each binder. You can create a title page called ‘When I Was Your Age.’ Send one binder to your grandson. This way, he will be able to compare what he is like with what you were like at his age.

This can become a tradition that he looks forward to. Create one page each year and send to him to put in his binder. This will help bring your hearts together even though many miles might separate you physically.

Keep one binder for yourself at your home. When your grandson comes for a visit, spend a moment or two together going over the pages that you have created. Giggle over how silly your hairdo or the style of your clothing was compared to his. Have him tell you more about his pet or his friends. As you share this information, you can learn more about each other.

If you do a page for all of your grandchildren, put those in your ‘When I Was Your Age’ scrapbook. All of your grandchildren will enjoy seeing each other’s pages — and this can be a favorite book for them to read when they go to grandma’s house.

A grandmother who had a goony looking hairdo in the second grade,
Digi-Gram

Since I am now riding the bus to work, I have about 40 minutes in the morning and 40 minutes in the evening for reading. It’s amazing how much more I get read — more than in the past when I would climb in bed, plump up my pillow, snuggle the covers to my shoulders, and read before I fell asleep. For about 3 minutes (on a good night!). I have read about 2.5 books in the last 2 weeks. At this rate, I might finish reading all of the books on my ‘to read list’ in about a year and a half instead of a life time and a half.

One of the books I finished was Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. I highly recommend this book!

Now, when you first pick this book up and start reading it, don’t be deceived by the apparently simpleness of the writing. Its strength lies in the simplicity. There is power in its simplicity. It is profound! At times, I wiped away a tear from my eye. One mustn’t be caught crying over a book on the bus. One must appear collected, put together, dignified while riding public transportation. I learned to blink rapidly and swallow quickly to squelch any sign of outward emotion.

Set in apartheid South Africa , the main character, an old black rural priest, searches for his son in the big city of Johannesburg. He finally locates his son but . . . . but I don’t want to tell you much more because I would give the plot away.

( What?! you exclaim. You, Digi-Gram, are worried about giving the plot away? You? Who ALWAYS reads the last few pages of the book before you start at the beginning? You who knows the end before the beginning?) Yes, dear reader, even though I read the last of the book before the beginning, I don’t want to ruin anything for those who proceed naturally through a book from beginning to end. Can you trust me that it is worth it to read this book without giving you much info about the plot?

But I will say this about the book. Pain, suffering, redemption, forgiveness, love. It’s all there in the book. Especially the forgiveness. This is a moving story about segregation and its affect on the people in South Africa. Its about how one white young man — and ultimately his father — learns to go outside the expected apartheid norms to reach out to improve the situation of the Blacks.

I read a review by a young girl who read the book for school. She said it was an OK book. (I bet no tears surfaced on her tear ducts . . .) She thought that there should be ‘more’ to the story. I think in her naivety and youth she totally missed the point of the book. She hasn’t had a child so she cannot understand the pain a parent feels because of his children’s actions. She probably hasn’t seen too much suffereing. She probably has never done anything seriously bad in her life that needs to be rectified or redeemed.

So, if by any chance that you read it, please pay attention to what the white father does. Ponder it. Considering that this book was printed in 1948, his actions are pretty amazing.

A becoming well-read,
Digi-Gram