How to Help Long-Distance Grandparents Get Involved

Here are some suggestions to help draw grandparents and grandkids closer together, even if they live far apart.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Blank Videotapes
• Photo Albums
• Scrapbooks
• Camcorders
• Cameras
• Tripods

1. Send lots of photos, videos, drawings and craftwork so grandparents can keep up with milestones in their grandchildren's lives.
2. Ask grandparents to tape-record or videotape themselves reading a bedtime story, singing a lullaby or telling a funny, well-loved family story.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.

Tips & Warnings

• Make simple thank-you notes a fact of life for your children, even before they can write. Even toddlers can scribble with crayons on a card, and preschoolers will be able to tell you what to write for them in a card or letter. Prepare for visits by showing your children photographs of their grandparents and telling them stories of your own (or your partner's) childhood; this will help the children feel comfortable when their grandparents actually arrive.
• If there are certain topics you would like grandparents to avoid during phone conversations or in other correspondence, discuss it with them ahead of time.