August 18, 2008
Grammy is back from visiting the grandkids
My wife, Grammy Tanda, is back home after playing Grammy for a couple of weeks! She’s a high school teacher, and loves to go spend time with our grandkids for a few weeks at a time each summer 
On this trip, she went to see two of our young grandsons, 3 and 6 years old.
If you’ve read our About Shayne & Tanda page, you’ll remember that 7 of our 8 grandchildren live in 3 different areas of the country. Since it’s too far to drive, this means lots of flying. But Grammy Tanda doesn’t mind because it’s so fun being with the grandkids. (Oh, and I think she might like seeing our daughters and their hubbies too, but this blog is about grandparenting.) We enjoy going together whenever possible. But when only one of us can get away, we feel that it’s important enough, so we don’t let that stop us. Sometimes one of us is traveling on business somewhere close to where some of our grandchildren live. So we try to schedule in a little detour for even a day or two. If you plan it right, it doesn’t cost that much more to add an extra city to your flight plans.
Our grandchildren love Grammy! She is so fun and has so much enthusiasm in her role as a grandmother. Grammy is very creative, and is always prepared with fun ideas to do with the grandkids. She is aware of their short attention spans, so she watches for their queues, and is ready to shift directions when they start to get bored or distracted.
Now let’s see, on this trip, Grammy and the 2 grandsons went on nature hikes, swimming, fishing, crafts, cooking together, reading, playing fun games, just to mention a few things. She also also enjoyed helping with meals.
Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~Alex Haley
I miss her while she’s gone, but we chat on the phone a few times each day. Sometimes she’ll call after being worn out or emotionally spent. Maybe you’ve noticed that young’uns can do that to you. 
Tanda teaches Family and Consumer Science (what used to be Home Ec, but it’s so much more now days). So she is very good at connecting with high schoolers, and kids of all ages. And after helping me raise after raising five children (with my help), she’s had lots of experience communicating with children of all ages.
Now that she’s back home, she’ll keep the memories fresh by calling them on the phone often, and by video chatting using iChat on our Macintosh or with our VoIP videophone.
We’re interested to know what fun things you enjoy doing when you spend time with your grandchildren. We welcome your comments.
Thanks, Shayne
Filed under Grandchildren, Grandparenting by Grandpa Shayne
Comments on Grammy is back from visiting the grandkids
Thank for those kind words. I want to mention a few more details about my time with the two grandsons.
We made mickey mouse pancakes and stacks of silver dollar sized pancakes. We went fishing and swam in the lake. We went hiking. We collected branches and then put the branches in a pot filled with dirt. On top of the dirt, we planted grass seeds and sprinkled the seeds with water. Then we strung the tree branches with lights shaped like dragon flies. And we made little pom-pom dragon flies and birds and bumble bees and ladybugs with kits from Walmart.
We caught fireflies and swung on the swings. We went for evening walks. We made huge bubbles 5 feet long!
We made a little magical tree that stands in the corner of their bedroom that they could light up. It’s like a little night light and has a little fantasy forest. We swam, we read books, we made paper airplanes, we painted little wooden cars and had car races, we read stories, we practice Flap Jack with site words, and played War with kids’ play cards to review the value of numbers.
@Grammy Tanda -
It sounds like you had a wonderful time! Making Mickey Mouse pancakes is a favorite of my grandchildren as well. They also love bears and anything we can place chocolate chips for eyes, nose and mouth. lol
We too love hikes together, for collecting of important stuff:-) I could go on and on, but you have described the visit of a Nana, or Grammy beautifully. Truly, these grandchildren of ours, are the joys of our lives.
I have a very similar situation with my soon to be eight grandchildren, who also are spread out in three different states. It really requires creativity to keep in touch. I love the ichat or video phone idea… I must learn how to do this soon.
Thanks for sharing your experience, along with that of Gramps:-)
tDMg
LdsNana
My husband travels for his job (he’s a pilot … ) so we really take advantage of using Skype. I have a pc laptop and he has a macbook, and it works for both of us. My kids absolutely LOVE talking to Daddy on the computer and they always kiss my screen to give him his goodnight kisses. My son also likes to try to put the mouse arrow up Daddy’s nose.
I remember watching Back to the Future as a kid and thinking how amazing it would be to have video phones. And now we have it and it really IS amazing. Luckily all of my kids grandparents live close, but we definitely are able to use technology to stay in touch with Dad.
Golly Tanda, You made me realize how young I’m not! It almost made me tired reading everything you did!
My ggrdkids are mostly grown now but I still have a few young ones left. Luckily they live close by so I don’t have to travel to see them. I’m getting all my granddaughters into scrapbooking (sense I have more than 50 years of pictures that need to be done. My granddaughter-in-laws really enjoy SB and are really good at it.
I have 3 great grands that live in Japan because Daddy is in the A.F. I love talking to them over the phone. (They have Vonage with a local number. Problem is, there is a 16 hour difference in our time so planning is essential). They have so much enthusiam. The 6 year old really likes to send and get email. They were here for a few days at valentine’s and we made cookies. I have little rolling pins and cookie cutters that all my girls and gkids have had so much fun using. Candy sprinkles are really a big hit when making cookies. I took lots of pictures and scrapbooked them.
I have 2 ggrdsons due in Oct. One will be in Phx.(maggie) and the other in Utah (meghan). This will be both their firsts.
Well, it seems this website is a good idea
I just found out that I get to go see these two grandsons next week!!! Grammy’s going to be a hard act to follow.
Maybe I’ll take them camping. That’s always fun.
I also think it is so important to have someone represent the family when everyone can’t visit together. My daughter just spent a week with her sister’s family. I was so jealous that I couldn’t go too, but the important thing was to just keep the links polished in our family chain.
Thanks for the continuing ideas everyone.
@Janet, I like the way you put that: “keep the links polished in our family chain”!
I think this site is a great place for all of these ideas. I love it when my parents come to visit because my children have so much fun. I just wanted to make a quick comment about the grandparents that are lucky enough to live close by to their grandkids. Don’t take it for granted!!! We have one set of grandparents that live close by, and honestly I think that their other grandparents (that live on the other side of the country), talk to them more often! We have weekly video chats set up with them, and when they are lucky enough to make it out for a visit, they really make each moment count! But when you live so close, you can include all of these great long-distance, high tech ideas, but you can also include more frequent traditions like sleep overs at grammy’s, weekly fishing trips, evening walks or bike rides, or even just taking one of your grandkids along while you run some errands can be an enriching experience for both of you. Kids love personal phone calls and letters even if you live close by.
I am delighted to discover this site. I am the mother of 4 grown daughters and the sister of 5 younger brothers. I have one 15-month-old grandson; I commute on the train from Long Island to Manhattan to take care of him three days a week. So that the whole family can watch him grow, I have a blog about him. . It is possible to prevent family blogs from appearing on search engines.
Another granddaughter is due the end of August and another the beginning of December. My grandson Michael (pseudonym) absolutely seduced his aunts, who decided they wanted someone like him right away:)
I am a librarian, social worker, and internet educator. It is vitally important that all grandparents learn to use the web and technology to stay close to their grandkids.
HI there!
I just discovered your site and have loved reading about the fun things that Grandma Tanda has done with her grandchildren. Great ideas. Maybe you could share some that I could post on my site GrandmaIdeas.com
Hey,
Did you used to live in Salem, Utah???
@Kristi: Thanks for the insight about grandparents who live close by their grandkids not taking them for granted.
@Redstocking Grandma: I wholeheartedly agree; “It is vitally important that all grandparents learn to use the web and technology to stay close to their grandkids.” Well put! Regarding search engines: yes, you can set your blog settings as to whether to “Let search engines find your blog”.
@Nina: Yes, we lived in Salem, UT from 1987 to 1994. We had a mini-farm on 100 E. & 100 N. and a 100 year old pioneer house we restored. Our five children have fond memories of growing up there, collecting eggs, gardening, grape galore, 23 fruit trees. Those were the days! I still get tired just thinking about all the hard work!
[My wife, Grammy Tanda, made me fresh blackberry cobbler last night! Having some for breakfast. I did good when I married a girl majoring in Home Ec in college
Life is grand!]
This is great inspiration for when we get to be grandparents. We are looking forward to it
Jumping in here – my grandson just moved six hours away so his dad can finish college
It is all good, but i am still struggling along with it. I get to go up there in two weeks – think I’ll grab him and go drop in on the great-grandma! Thanks for starting this blog and the invites!
My kids love it when their grandparents come for a visit. It like Christmas, but better. They look forward to reading books, going on walks, going to parks, making crafts, playing games, etc. Some of their favorite memories are simple ones like taking a walk with Grandma and seeing the firefighters washing the firetrucks on the way, or walking to the beach park and playing in the sand and water for the afternoon. Taking pictures with our digital camera is a must so the kids can remember these fun times. It also helps to be able to “see” their grandparents (at least in picture) whenever they want to.
@Slices, Heather, Emily: We appreciate your encouraging comments and ideas!