Grandma Karla sent me a follow up P.S. to the idea of art at grandma’s house. She has such enthusiasm. Such energy. So many ideas. I know that I shouldn’t compare myself to others. But at times like these, the blah-ness of me pales in the sparkling sunshine of the likes of Karla. It’s a good thing that my grandchildren will never know Karla so I won’t have to compete with all of the wonderful things that she does!

Here are her additional ideas that she uses:

• A drawer of scratch paper within easy reach of the children
• A drawer of coloring books
• A file drawer with plain and patterned scrapbook paper in hanging files according to color.
• Plastic shoe box of various flash cards – symbols, learning words, as well as math concepts.

“Organization is the key to enjoying life with grandchildren,” she said. “They tend to fly in, interact, then fly out, so you don’t want to clean up mess after mess, but to be able to do a “quick clean” after they leave.

“I also purchased boxes and filled them with the items (like I mentioned in my previous email) such as crayons, colored pencils, glue sticks and scissors, etc. and gave them to my daughter. She keeps them above the refrigerator. These items can be mailed to a distant child. They are relatively lightweight (except crayons, which could also melt in very hot temperatures while going through the mail). The boxes mailed could even be labeled “Grandma’s Art Box of Colored Pencils” so the far-away grandchild will feel a connection to grandma each time he or she does art work.

“Some studies have indicated that a child who can free-form color has more creativity. Some children however, like the occasional idea of coloring within the lines. In class yesterday (note: remember Karla is a university professor) we had student presentations on art and music in the home. (They were tremendous!) One girl said one of her favorite childhood memories was when her mother would color one side of the coloring book two-page spread and she would color the other. It was a magical bonding time for them. That idea could transfer to grandparents.”

Thanks for sharing these additional thoughts, Karla!

Digi-Gram

I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that today’s grandmothers are not the white-haired, gum-soled-shoe-wearin’, baby-bootie-crochetin’ grandmother from yesteryear. They are the cell-phone-tottin’, day-planner-usin’, Gap-shoppin’ woman. And one of those grandmothers has shared a little bit of what she does for her grandchildren. But first, a funny experience.

When we were on the zip line adventure in Costa Rica, there was a lady in our group who said that she was a wee bit nervous to go down the zip line by herself. There were eight different lines that we would go on. Some that were 600 feet above the ground. We would travel up to 44 miles per hour. And the longest line was half a mile long. It’s easy to understand why she was concerned.

So, one of the workers hooked his pulley behind hers, put his arm around her, and then off they flew together the line. After going down three of the eight lines, she jokingly said, “Does this mean we are going steady?” The Americans laughed at her joke. Those from Costa Rica didn’t understand what she meant.

I tell you this little story because this lady was 70 years old! (My husband thought she was 80.) Which ever age she really was, she wasn’t doing what you expect typical grandmas to do. She definitely isn’t a grandmother from days of yore.

There is a professor at the university where I work that shared a little bit of what she does with her grandchildren. But first, let me tell you a bit about her. She and her husband have 10 children (6 boys, 4 girls); five are birth and five are adopted. They have three married children (fourth almost married). The four younger children include the last birth child , a daughter (14), and the three younger adopted children — adopted from Kazakhstan in 1999, a Russian Tatar boy (13) a Kazakh girl (12) and a Russian boy (11). The youngest boy has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  This family is tremendously supportive and loving toward the boy. He is a very smart, artistic, wonderful boy. All children are healthy, happy, smart, and contributing members of their family, their schools, their own professions and society.

This grandmother has four grandchildren who live nearby. The son nearly married is commissioning into the US Air Force as 2nd Lieutenant and will begin medical school in August at the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. He will raise his children far away from from her as he serves in the Air Force.

She is assistant Professor of Interior Design in the School of Family Life teaching and nurturing her 150-200 students each semester. She has authored three major textbooks and countless articles for Draperies and Window Coverings Magazines. She has so much energy, vitality, ideas, and enthusiasm. She almost makes me tired just talking to her!

Her name is Karla, and this is what she wrote:

“Often when grandchildren come over, they want to do something, but not necessarily leave their grandma’s side. In my kitchen I have a cupboard above the desk which is filled with clear plastic shoe boxes (available for about $2.00 each at home improvement or department stores).

“Each box contains a set of art supplies that can be set on the small child’s table we have, the kitchen table or counter top where the child perches on a bar stool. Each one contains one set of media and is clearly marked on the end of the box: Crayons, Watercolors, Play Dough, Markers, Colored Pencils, Stickers, Glue Sticks, Scissors (child safe with cutting patterns). I typically hand them a sheet or two of paper that has one side already used (from junk mail, for example), or if the child really wants to create an art masterpiece, I given them printer paper and patterned paper for scrap book projects. If the child selects water colors, he or she is required to don an artists’ apron, kept in a bottom kitchen drawer. I learned from sad experience that mother’s don’t like permanent water color stains on their children’s clothing, and children are not inherently careful with paints.

“This activity is always very satisfying for grandchildren. They can freely express their artistic side without demanding undue attention from this busy grandma. Often the art work must dry, so I leave it on the counter for a while, and if its really good, I tape it to a “show off” door for children’s art work – in sight of the kitchen. If its just a bit of scribbling, I drop it into the recycle can, where it was destined to go in the first place. The child never asks, but is often delighted to see it posted. Sometimes I send the art work home with them, but only if the parent approves of it first.”

Great ideas! I’m going to get some of those types of boxes for when our grandson comes over. Let’s see, if he just barely turned three months old, how long will it be before he will be able to use art supplies. . . .???

Here’s an extension to Karla’s idea. With your grandchild, print some coloring pages off the Internet. (A fun place to go is Coloring Book Pages.) Fasten the pages together to make a coloring book of pictures personally selected by your grandchild. Then, give them the crayons or marking pens and let them color away!

Happy coloring!

Digi-Gram

Since I wrote about helping your grandchildren develop creativity, I have been thinking quite a bit about it. Throughout the years when my children were growing up, I have watched how (in general) children’s opportunity to think creatively slowly wanes. Is it because parents or teachers squelch children’s creativity in an effort to help them mature and grow up? Is it because as children get into junior and senior high school they think creative activities aren’t cool? Whatever the reasons, there are several things that grandmothers can do to help their grandchildren develop creativity.

First, a little bit about creativity. Creativity is important because it allows scientists to make discoveries, inventors to develop new inventions, and parents to solve problems. Creativity isn’t just the ability to draw or paint a lovely picture. It is far more.

I used to teach a gifted and talented class at a local elementary school and was able to learn about creativity. Creativity is based on four things: originality, fluency, flexibility, and elaboration. Originality is the ability to think fresh or unusual ideas. Fluency is the ability to generate a large number of ideas or responses. Flexibility is the ability take a situation or problem and change the way it is perceived, approached, or dealt with. Elaboration is the ability to expand on one idea and make changes or add details.

So what does this have to do with grandmothers? Plenty. You can provide opportunities for your grandchildren to develop their creativity — and have fun in the process. And, if they enjoy the activities you do with them, you are strengthening your relationship and building a strong family unit (which is the ultimate purpose of this site) all the while you are helping them develop creativity.

I think that one of the most important things a grandmother can do is to praise those instances when she see creative thinking or creative problem solving. Verbal praise demonstrates to your grandchildren that you value creativity and that creativity is important. Another important thing you can do is to provide your grandchildren with a wide variety of activities in the four areas of creativity that I mentioned above.

So, let’s first talk about the element of originality. Have you played the game Scategories? That is an excellent example of an activity that encourages originality. (It could also fall under fluency.) Scategories would be a great game for a grandmother to stock in her game closet to play often with her grandchildren. There is a junior version for younger children and then the regular one for older players. As you play the game, praise your grandchildren for all of their original and creative ideas. (You might want to give that game to your grandchildren as a gift so you can play it with them when you visit their home.)

Here is a list of other activities that develops originality:

• Creature Creation. Have your grandchild select any two letters of the alphabet. Give them old magazines to go through and cut out seven or eight examples of these two letters in a variety of colors, sizes, and styles. Then, give them a sheet of paper and some glue. Have them create a creature from the letters that they have cut out of the magazines. They can use crayons or marking pens to add details such as facial features. You might want to suggest that they come up with a name for the creature. Hang their creation on your fridge or send it home with your grandchild so they can display it on their fridge.
• Door Design. Give your grandchild a piece of paper and crayons or marking pens. Have them select a door from a place of their choosing (such as a laboratory, a pizza place, a car repair business, a mansion, or clothing store). Then have them design a door that would be appropriate for the place that they chose.
• Disney Ride. Have your grandchild design a new ride for Disneyland and draw it on a piece of paper. Depending on your grandchild’s age, have him think about how to make the ride safe, how to make it visually appealing for a certain age, or how to make it fit in with a certain theme that is already in Disneyland.

Here is a list of ideas that helps to develop fluency:

• List as many creative ways to use gum other than chewing it. (An example could be to mend a hole in a tennis shoes.)
• Think of as many creative reasons for NOT cleaning their bedroom.
• List as many creative ways as you can think of to transport a tiger that is not in a cage from one zoo to another.

Here are ideas for activities that develop flexibility:

• Create a costume for Halloween with items found only in grandma’s home (or their own home).
• Think of as many ideas as possible for different ways to use a bucket.
• Come up with creative ideas of ways that a nine-year old could make money during the summer.

Here are ideas that help develop elaboration:

• Design a personalized phone (not a cell phone) for a rock star, a doctor, a chef, or a diesel mechanic.
• Think of ways to improve a playground in a city park.
• Select a TV ad that you don’t like and explain what you would do to improve it.

You could also play the ‘What If’ game. Give your grandchildren ‘what if ‘ situations and have them say what they would do. (You could even challenge them to give YOU situations!) Make them wild and wacky and challenging situations. You could do this while rocking a grandchild on your lap, as you ate lunch together, or were in the car while running errands. Here are some examples:

• What if you woke up one morning and your skin was blue with yellow polka dots?
• What if you opened your front door and there were cannibals in the yard?
• What if something that you ate made you grow a horse tail, have elephant ears, and speak in pig Latin. (You might have to explain what pig Latin is!)

I’m extending a challenge to all of my readers. See how creative you can be. See if you can come up with an original idea of an activity to do with your grandchildren. Or, see if you can take an activity and change it, improve it, make it more fun. See how many ideas for activities you can think of for a holiday that does not normally have lots of celebrations connected to it (like Ground Hog’s Day, Flag Day, or Veteran’s Day). Or take one activity that you have gotten from someone else on this web site and see how you can change it or add details to personalize it and make it fit your situation.

Then, please feel free to share your ideas and experiences here! I’d love to hear how creative your grandchildren are — and how creative YOU have been.

Creatively yours,
Digi-Gram

A couple of months ago at work, I had the opportunity of meeting a wonderful woman named Sharron who just also happens to be a grandmother. We chatted about some of the things that she has done for her grandchildren and I absolutely loved her idea of the book she has created for them.

The book is about her so that her grandchildren can get to know her better. This is a wonderful gift to give those grandchildren who live far away.

She purchased the software Scrapbook Factory (I believe at Office Max for about $40) and used that software to create scrapbook pages.

She gathered motivational thoughts, sayings, scriptures, and pictures of things that she enjoys or that are meaningful to her.

Then, with the Scrapbook Factory, she designed cute scrapbook pages around the sayings, thoughts, and pictures. She printed the pages up at a local Kinkos and also had Kinkos cut the pages to the size she needed. She went to a local scrapbooking store and purchased small photo albums and plastic pages. She put the printed scrapbook pages in the plastic sheet protectors and put the plastic pages in the small photo albums.

She gave each of her children and grandchildren a copy of the book for Christmas. She showed me one of the books that she made and I was very impressed with it.

As I look at the specifications for the Scrapbook Factory software, it sounds like it is a neat program. It has templates galore (6,000), 60,000 graphics, 5,000 photo realistic embellishments (whatever that means . . . ), and over 1,500 fonts. (I’m a font freak so just having this many fonts available would be worth the price of the software package and never mind about the other features!!!)

Since I don’t do scrapbooking, this software program will do it for me by designing the pages. I like that. I’d MUCH rather use technology than spend my time snipping little designs out of paper, gluing them on a page, arranging stickers and creating a page that cost $5 to make and holds less than 4 pictures! (I don’t mean to offend those readers who like to scrapbook. I’ve seen amazing scrapbook pages. That’s just not me . . . .Wait! Since this software is so amazing, maybe this it will convert me to scrapbooking . . . maybe . . .)

Happy  digital scrapbooking!
Digi-Gram