Comments on: Connecting with grandchildren: Technology brings instant gratification

By: Edna Henke

Edna Henke — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:47:13 +0000

Thank you for your replies! We are currently visiting (face to face) with our Seattle kids and keeping up through technology with the Utah ones. Since my husband retired we’ve decided to be snow birds.

By: Edna

Edna — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:37:59 +0000

This is so true. That is exactly how I had to teach my mother to use the computer and not only that, we had to do it over and over. She did learn to use her email well and also used it to write her personal history. She was able to use it up until she was about 87 years old. With most of her family living more than four hours away it brought a great deal of pleasure into her life.

By: Nina Lewis

Nina Lewis — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:47:17 +0000

Over the years, I have taught many beginning computer for community education classes. I have noticed there are three common threads: fear they will break or ruin something, they don’t understand and don’t remember, and the person teaching goes WAY too fast.

Fear of breaking or ruining something. Time will help overcome this — in addition with loving assurances that they can’t really break anything. The assurances need to be lovingly and gently given — and not with impatience or frustration.

Not understanding or remembering. Almost everybody I have taught that has been a senior citizen would write every single step down to what they needed to do. That was because they felt like they were sitting in the pilot’s seat of a 757 jet — lots of buttons, flashing lights, and odd sounds — and they didn’t have a single clue as to what any of them did!

And, everything is so strange and new. They don’t have any previous ‘hooks’ on which to hang their information to make sense of what they are trying to do. Again, time and more exposure using a computer helps to overcome this.

And, many times the person training takes control of the mouse and goes too fast. The person receiving the training should be in the driver’s seat and control the mouse. The kinesthetics will help to solidify what they are doing.

And the trainer needs to go VERY slow. Because everything i so new, they can’t assimilate what is happening. The ’show and tell’ needs to be slow and with good explanation to help them understand what they are doing.

I think that these are some of the reasons that fewer older people don’t jump on the technology bandwagon. Sometimes it’s just too overwhelming . . .

By: Grammy Tanda

Grammy Tanda — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:06:46 +0000

Grandma Henke – Thank you so much for being a guest blogger! I know exactly how you feel about the miles and miles that separate us from our dear little, and not so little ones. I would never be able to stand being a 1,000 miles from family without the power of technology. I have found that the cousins enjoy keeping in touch this way too.
Thanks again,
Grammy Tanda

By: Grandpa Shayne

Grandpa Shayne — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 03:09:47 +0000

@Kim – Your mom is a gifted writer for sure. Thanks for mentioning the Presto printer and service. I am going to be writing a review of it shortly.

@Beth – Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I enjoy reading your blog.

@Connie – That’s a great story about using digital photography to get fast photos of your newborn grandbabies. (We love your poetry, by the way.)

@Edna (aka Grandma Henke) – That’s good, “the Tech Set”. By the way, I hear you are starting your second book, a novel. (FYI, her first book is titled. Aunt Nellie, an Unheralded Angel).

By: Edna

Edna — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:40:47 +0000

I just received an email with a darling picture of my 7 year old grand daughter in her new glasses … she is darling. It’s nice to read how other grandparents are making such good use of modern technology. We may not be the Jet Set but we are certainly the Tech Set!

-Grandma Henke

By: Connie Arnold

Connie Arnold — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:00:26 +0000

Great article! Since my chidren and grandchildren live so far away, it would be awful not to have the modern technology to connect us. My daughter is good about e-mailing pictures of the kids. We were not able to be there for any of their births, but my son-in-law took pictures with his digital camera of the new little ones in the delivery room, so we could see our new grandchildren right away. It’s also great having movies of them as they are toddling around and beginning to talk. It makes me realize how much my parents missed out on their grandchildren without these things available.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:11:04 +0000

Great post. My son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren lived in Oklahoma City for one year, while I was back here in Seattle. Thank goodness for my cell phone and the internet–we kept in touch with lots of calls and some emails. I visited once, and considered moving to OKC, but decided to stay put due to being broke.

When they announced they were moving back to Seattle, I cried for about three days.

Like you, I scoured the internet for cheap airline tickets, and visited them in June–two months before they moved back to Seattle! It was my first airplane ride in about 12 years.

By: Kim N

Kim N — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:45:53 +0000

That was fun to read Mom! I have been extremely grateful for all the technology we can use to keep in touch. The move would have been unbearable without it.

Don’t forget the Presto service that the great grandparents have used! Brett’s grandma tells us all the time how grateful she is for it so she can keep up on the great grandkids.

By: Grandpa Shayne

Grandpa Shayne — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:01:31 +0000

@Grama Barb, Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us all.

@Clint. Thank you for your comment. It is fun to keep in touch often.

@Jodi. I always enjoy your comments as well. Tell you hubby to fly over and show them how!

- Shayne