Loving mothers and grandmothers give of themselves unselfishly. However, in the back of their minds they may sometimes wonder, “Have I taught them enough? Do they know this or that?” Sometimes on a discouraging day they may think, “Oh, I haven’t really made any impact on the world. I’m just a mom. I’m just a grandma.”

All I really need to know I learned from my Grandmother. ~Charles E. Smoot

One of the favorite gifts I have received from my adult children took me be surprise. The gift was a journal titled “Lessons I Have Learned.” They pointed out the kind of impact I had had upon them. They had filled in the first few pages — each of them writing about lessons they had learned from me that have been valuable to them — with the idea that I would finish filling in the journal with lessons I’ve learned. You know, preserving some of that hard earned wisdom we adults are always claiming we have.

Even though of my own grandmother died when I was young, I remember visiting her. I remember feeling her love for me. She always made me feel accepted for who I was and made me feel welcome and wanted in her home.

This year, I encourage you to take a few moments and write down some of those gems of wisdom you have learned from your grandmother. If she is still alive, you will surprise and delight her. Or share them with the special people in your life: your grandchildren, children, or parents.

By sharing the lessons that you have learned from your grandmother, you will not only validate her, but you’ll also let her know of ways she has helped you that she may never have realized. This can be a more personal and touching gift than a dozen roses or another knickknack.

What are some of the valuable lessons you have learned from your grandmother? We look forward to reading your comments.

Wishing a happy Mother’s Day to each of our dear readers, mothers, and grandmothers.

- Grammy Tanda

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A fun part of the holidays are family traditions. I want to share some tips for celebrating Thanksgiving to give you ideas for establishing your family traditions. Then Shayne and I will share our favorite Thanksgiving webpages with free resources for grandparents. Because as you know, the web is a world of discovery.

The first thing I think of about Thanksgiving is families getting together, sharing food, fun, and laughter. Food often reminds us of our favorite memories of Thanksgivings past. Relationships are being built while taking time to share favorite memories. Small activities give us opportunities to connect with our grandchildren in comfortable ways — while we’re setting tables, eating, cleaning up.

Take time to share memories with your grandkids of Thanksgiving when their parents were little, or when your were little. How it’s the same, how it’s different. Tell them what your parents and grandparents were like so they feel a connection with their heritage. Reminisce what their parents were like as children, and things you remember about your grandchildren as babies. Share family stories. Everybody has favorite family stories that get past around, embarrassing moments, silly times. Often, repeating those stories over meal times becomes a family tradition and builds fond memories.

Many families have traditional activities they share together — a family football game, a walk in the crisp fall air. One of the things my family did when I was a child was watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.

One Thanksgiving tradition I started when our family was young is to set 3 kernels of corn by the side of each place. Each of person takes a turn telling 3 blessings they are grateful for. This idea represents the friendship the Native Americans extended to the Pilgrims in teaching them how to survive in this new land of America. They taught the English colonists how to grow corn and thus helped them survive their first year in Plimoth Plantation in New England. This led to the first Thanksgiving feast.

So, enjoy your family and your traditions. If you can’t all be together, use the blessing of modern technology to connect with your family this Thanksgiving. It’s all about making memories!

A happy family is but an earlier heaven. ~John Bowring

Grandpa Shayne and I have so much to be thankful for. We will be enjoying Thanksgiving with 3 of our married children and 5 of our grandchildren. Even though it will take us all day to get there, it will be well worth the trip. ♩♬♪ Over the river and through the woods to our grandchildren’s house we go. ♪♫♩

We express our gratitude for you, our dear readers and friends. We wish you a delightful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and loved ones.

- Grammy Tanda

Now, enjoy these links to our favorite Thanksgiving web pages. (Hint: right-click or command-click the links to open them in a new tab so that you can refer back to this article.)

• Plimoth Plantation for Kids - coloring pictures, stories, recipes…
• Disney Family.com – crafts, recipes, printables, decorations, games…
• Disney Famliy.com – how-to videos
• SandwichINK.com - Thanksgiving fun making handprint wreaths, trees…
• SandwichINK.com – more Thanksgiving ideas
• GrandmaIdeas - Fun Thanksgiving games to play with your grandchildren
• GrandmaIdeas – Make cute Thanksgiving holiday decorations (edible)
• GrandmaIdeas – More activities to do with grandchildren on Thanksgiving
• Joan Adams – Fun Thanksgiving Songs
• BeTheWeightYouWant - make pumpkin bowls and dip, eat with ginger snaps
• Peggy George – Thanksgiving Scrapblog and inspirational online movie link
• The story of how a Thanksgiving Prayer became a Family Tradition
• Nana – Gratitude, The Power In Being Thankful For Life!
• Thanksgiving Day photo greeting cards create memories for grandchildren
• Teddy Bears should be Given to All Children

We welcome your comments. Tell us about the Thanksgiving traditions your family share.

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Technorati Tags: celebration, connect, grandchild, Grandchildren, grandkids, grandparent, gratitude, technology, thankfulness, thanksgiving, TLC

Snapfish.com is offering The Oprah Winfrey Show viewers a free 8″ x 11″ photo book! It’s a 20-page custom-cover book, printed from your own digital photos. You upload photos to Snapfish, organize them the way you want. They print the book and mail it to you.

Here’s a quote from Oprah’s website about what to do with the growing piles children’s art projects. “Take digital photos of their artwork, upload them to Snapfish.com, and they will send you back a beautiful, bound book of the kids’ artwork. So, over time, you can build a library of your children’s artwork—let the pieces go, but keep them in this form forever.”

Now I’m putting my “Grandparent glasses” on, as Shayne likes to say. I’m thinking, “What’s in it for me as a grandma?” You know all those digital photos of your cute grandkids you get by email or on family websites? Why not create a photo book from those photos? You could give it to your grandchildren’s parents or your spouse as a Christmas present — or give yourself a gift. You could also use Snapfish’s suggestion to create a photobook of children’s art. For me, that means grandchildren. I’m making a photobook this weekend.

If God had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn’t have given us grandmothers. ~Linda Henley

So grab your computer, have fun, and be creative! Here’s how to proceed…

1. Collect the best digital photos you’d like to use for the project. If you like, you could create a temporary with a copy of them, and trash the folder when you’re done.
2. Sign up for your free Snapfish account. (Other services work in a similar way.)
3. Read Snapfish’s tips for working with children’s art.
4. Start your project online and choose a page theme.
5. Upload your photos.
6. Create your book online.
7. Preview it and check out. (You pay for shipping.)

There you are! You’ve just made a one-of-a-kind photo gift.

Now, to receive this free offer, you need to act fast and sign up before midnight (PST) tonight, November 14, 2008. Then you need to create your book this weekend, by Sunday, November 16, 2008, before midnight (PST). *

So click here to over to Oprah’s site and read the (short) details. Then click on the “Get your free book” link there to create a Snapfish.com account or log in to your existing account.

Have fun! – Grammy Tanda

[ * UPDATE: Receive this notice from Snapfish: Due to the amazing popularity of our free book offer, we've extended the time you have to create your free book to 11:59pm PST on Saturday, November 22nd.]

Technorati Tags: artwork, creativity, grandchild, grandparent, oprah, photobook, photos

Do you like surfing the web to find articles and tips about grandparenting? There’s a lot of useful information on the WWW. Grandpa Shayne and I are always looking for fun way to connect with the grandkids. We’ve collected some of our favorite Halloween web pages for grandparents.

Halloween is a wonderful time to share with the family. It’s especially fun to see the grandkids all dressed up in their favorite costumes. Here’s a photo of our 6 month old grandbaby in the cute costume I bought at 60% off. Hey, I’m like my mom, always looking for a bargain!

A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween. ~Erma Bombeck

I teach family and consumer science, I’ve always admired Erma Bombeck. She was such a practical homemaker.

Shayne is a Cub Master, and one of his Weblos is a budding artist named Zac Willberg. He draws comics and publishes them on Zac’s Cartoon Cave blog. Shayne commissioned Zac to draw a special comic strip for today’s Halloween post. Boo is the main character (a ghost). Ancient is his girlfriend (a mummy). Today, there’s a special guest appearance by Boo’s Grandma.

Halloweenies by Zac Willberg

One of our favorite cartoons by Zac is his Charlie Brown Halloween.

Before you leave, be sure to subscribe to our Grandparents TLC feed.

Favorite family-friendly web pages with ideas for grandparents

Nana’s Corner – Halloween recipes and poems

Nana Finds – Special halloween books for grandchildren and Ideas for homemade Halloween costumes

Joan Adams – collection of fun Halloween songs and lyrics. (Joan says “I hope you all have as much fun with this site as I have! We love to sing with the grandchildren! Our two are 5 and 6 years old, so they are the perfect age for learning all the fun Halloween favorites! Enjoy!”)

Grandma Ideas – Halloween ideas for grandchildren

Grandmother Wren - Family Alternatives to Halloween

SandwichINK – Sharing God’s Love on Halloween

LoveMyGrandchild – Halloween ideas

FamilyCorner – Lots of Halloween ideas

ParentHacks – Best Parent Hacks (tips and ideas that work for grandparents too)

GroupCard – Free Halloween ecards (the whole family can sign an ecard)

Bluemountain – Free Halloween ecards (free month trial)

DLTK’s Crafts for Kids – Halloween Activities for Children (halloween coloring pages, printables, worksheets, craft projects, games and puzzles, online games, pumpkin carving patterns, recipes)

Babble – Just in Time for Halloween: How to Make Your Own Slime

Radiant Ideas – Tips for going green this Halloween

What are some of your favorite Halloween web pages? You are welcome to add your family-friendly link in your comment.

Have a fun Halloween! – Grammy Tanda

Hey, I’m on twitter now!

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Photo by kreg.steppe

Hi. Grammy Tanda here. I love being a grandparent. I just wish that my grandchildren lived closer. A curse of our modern culture I guess. I often long for the Norman Rockwell days of having the grandkids down the block and spending lazy summer afternoons on the porch playing with them. So much for fantasy. So how does a long distance grandparent keep in touch and have a close relationship with those precious grandchildren? One way I keep in touch with grandchildren are weekly phone calls. Even the youngest smile when they hear grandpa’s or grandma’s voice. Each grandchild’s age has its own unique challenges, but the important thing is just do it! One of the challenges is our high tech, multitasking world is to keep the grandchild’s attention. The following are some of the best suggestion we have tried and received from other grandparents.

1. Make it a routine. Kids love routines, knowing things are predictable, and that they can count on a call from grandpa or grandma each week. This also allows you to build a personal relationship with each grandchild. If possible, set up a standing date to call at a certain time every day or certain days depending on your schedules. It’s something the kids can look forward to.

2. Have a few knock knock jokes ready to tell each time you call.

3. Make up funny stories like mad libs (word game) together, or make up stories with your grandchild as the main character. My kids always like making up stories over the telephone with their grandparents. Usually they need some help getting started, but then they like adding details to the story (like what the color the super-hero is wearing, etc.). It’s a special treat when they get a call at bed time and can make up a bedtime story together. You’ll find your grandkids have great imaginations and you learn a lot about how they see their world. Great fun!

4. I love to sing silly songs to the grandkids. I begin when their born. These songs become favorite memories. So when I call we often sing their favorite songs. Sometimes they sing with me other times they just want to listen. But it always seems to bridge the miles and a remind us of favorite times together.

5. We absolutely love talking with and seeing our grandchildren on our videophone. They loved showing off, doing somersaults and being silly. The videophone is so fun and you don’t even need a computer. It’s just like the Jetsons. Live video and audio. Another service is Skype, which is a carrier that shows your picture with your voice on your computer. You can talk to anyone in the world who also has skype for free. The ultimate video chat experience is iChat, an easy-to-use, full-featured communications program that comes free on the Macintosh. Video chatting is the next best thing to having grandma in a rocking chair on the porch to talk to any time you need her!

Everyone needs to have access both to grandparents and grandchildren in order to be a full human being. ~Margaret Mead

Grandparenthood is the best. It is kind of like the teenage years all over again. We get all of the fun and none of the responsibility. One a the blessing though is the opportunity to connect and enjoy those wonderful grandkids. Don’t let miles keep you from the close relationship you always dreamed of. Try a weekly phone call and share you experiences and tips with the rest of us.

What things do you enjoying talking about with your grandchildren? What other suggestions do you have to keep their attention?

Grammy Tanda

Technorati Tags: grandchild, grandparent, macintosh, skype, technology, telephone, tip, videophone