By
eHow Relationships & Family Editor
Difficulty: Moderately challenging
Things You’ll Need:
Step1
Send lots of photos, videos, drawings and craftwork so grandparents can keep up with milestones in their grandchildren's lives.
Step2
Ask grandparents to tape-record or videotape themselves reading a bedtime story, singing a lullaby or telling a funny, well-loved family story.
Step3
Plan regular phone conversations, especially if you have very young children. Let children know the sort of questions Grandma or Grandpa may ask, and get them to think of some interesting things to tell their grandparents when the call arrives.
Step4
Encourage grandparents to write stories or letters in installments, to send interesting postcards or letters from trips abroad, and to call "just because" 'not only on birthdays and special holidays.
Step5
Suggest that grandparents work on a scrapbook or memory book, including stories they want to tell their grandchildren, pictures from their own childhoods and favorite family traditions.
Step6
Let your kids work on a scrapbook for their grandparents, perhaps as a holiday or birthday gift; this can include photos, artwork and even journal entries if the children are old enough.
Step7
Ask grandparents to turn a photo of themselves into a jigsaw puzzle ' this can be done at home or professionally. Kids will love putting together the pieces to find out who sent them the puzzle.
Step8
Inform grandparents regularly about the activities, hobbies, likes and dislikes of their grandchildren; this will stimulate communication, as well as help them choose appropriate gifts.
Step9
At holiday times, ask grandparents to suggest special holiday traditions or provide recipes from their family or ethnic backgrounds. Even if they can't be there to share in the activity they suggest, it's one way to get children talking about their family history.
Comments
Anonymous said
on 9/14/2006 Establish a regular routine when you visit. Take your grandchild to see a movie, get a haircut, go to a favorite kids place, the zoo, or take a walk. If you stay at a hotel, stay at the same place each time. The staff will get to know the child/children.
It worked for us! Now when we visit, our 4 year old grandson will have a movie picked out, be ready to stay overnight at the hotel, have his mini-pancakes in the morning and be ready to have special time with Grammy and Grandpa.
This can also work with multi-grandkids, start a special plan with each child as soon as possible!