If you enjoy talking with your grandchildren on the phone, you will love video chatting even more! It’s video conferencing software you run on your computer that lets you talk with and see your family. It’s just like in the Jetsons cartoon—live audio and video.

What could be worth more than seeing the grin on your grandchild’s face when they see you talking with them on the screen? They’ll be proud to show you how much they’ve grown and to show off their first missing tooth. Even grandbabies will respond to your voice and smiling countenance.

Somethings are just better communicated face to face, where you can see expressions and gestures. Compared to letters, email and even telephone calls, video calls can make conversations much more interesting and intimate. You’ll have more to talk about, and your grandkids will more easily remember you or your face.

Now watch this video. It’s full of examples and cool ideas for you.

A grandparent’s job is to give positive encouragement; to be a cheerleader and a talent scout. ~Grammy Tanda Packer

Fun things you can do on your video chat: read storybooks and show them the pictures, make up stories, sing, dance, play games, help with their homework, be playful, play peek-a-boo, make funny faces, and tell knock-knock jokes.

Ask your grandkids to sing and read to you, and tell you jokes and stories. Have them show you their drawings, crafts, homework, new clothes, acrobatics and somersaults.

Options for free video chat software

You’ll need a computer, a webcam with a built-in or separate mic, and a broadband Internet connection. Different programs use their own protocols, so you and your family will need to use the same software. Each of the following programs allow you to make video calls worldwide.

iChat from Apple is an application that comes free with every Macintosh. If you have a Mac, iChat is the best software for video chatting. You can even have a video conference with up to 3 other Macs at once. Since it uses the AIM protocol, iChat works well with AIM on other computers.

AIM is an application you can download to your computer. It uses the same protocol as iChat.

Skype is another popular program for making video calls. Download the program and sign up for a free account. Computer-to-computer calls and video calls are free.

Google voice and video chat is integrated into gmail in your web browser. It’s a great option if you and your family have gmail accounts. Anyone can sign up for a free gmail account.

How to get started

1. Choose an application and install it. (Consider what your family may be using.)
2. Launch the program.
3. Create a screen name and password (first time only).
4. Share your screen name with your family.
5. Arrange a time to call.
6. Turn on your webcam.
7. Log in to your chat program.
8. Initiate the video call by clicking the appropriate buttons, or click “Accept” if your family initiates the call.
9. Click the video icon by their name to see their video. (Note: Some programs make you click a button to allow them to see your video.)
10. Enjoy!

Videophones are another option for video conferencing. These are special phones with an LCD screen. No computer is needed, but they need a high-speed Internet connection. You and your family both need the same brand of videophone.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then live video is worth ten 10,000 words. ~Grandpa Shayne Packer

We know you’ll love video chatting with your grandkids! So go try it.

Enjoy – Grandpa Shayne

Announcement: This post is part of a blog carnival hosted by Susan Adcox, About.com’s Guide to Grandparents.

We’d like to hear from you. Please comment below to tell us about your videochat. What fun things did you do on the call with your grandkids.

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“You’ll never get me on one of them newfangled computers!” Have you ever heard a grandparent say that? Are they intimidated by the Internet? Not willing to give today’s technology a try? We’ll show you what you can do to get them online.

Who should read this

• Grandparents who are privileged to have one or more of your parents still living.
• Parents who would like to facilitate a healthy relationship between your children and their grandparents and great-grandparents.
• Anyone who knows a grandmother or grandfather who is reluctant or afraid to dip their foot into the internet.

Technophobia: the fear or dislike of advanced technology. Why doesn’t everybody welcome new technology? Fear of the unknown? Afraid they will ruin or break something? They don’t understand and don’t remember?

One problem is that many senior grandparents just don’t know what they are missing — photos of the grandbabies, emails, family blogs, Facebook, text messages, video chats, sharing their life story. They are not enjoying all the new opportunities to communicate with their families; sometimes from their own stubbornness.

The benefits outweigh the fear

A friend shared a story about a coworker, a grandfather who refused to learn to send text messages using his mobile phone. My friend encouraged the grandfather to learn so he could send text messages to his grandchildren. “Just try it.” Two weeks later, the grandfather reported that he was having a wonderful time texting with his grandkids.

Grandparents need to keep up with the times and communicate with the younger generations on the media the kids are comfortable using. This will enhance the quality of the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren when they may not actually see each other for many months.

Grandparents should realize that being “computer smart” is a way to get closer to their grandchildren. Also, the World Wide Web is a wonderful way to find ideas of things to do with grandkids when they visit.

My oldest sister is a great example of someone who has embraced internet technology to connect with her family. When her daughter recently encouraged my sister to get Facebook, she quibbled, “Why would I want on Facebook?” Here daughter simply replied, “Because that’s where the photos of the grandbabies are!”

So her daughter got on the computer and set up a Facebook account right then. Now my sister has really enjoys Facebook, as well as other websites, email, etc.

God gave us loving grandchildren as a reward for all our random acts of kindness. ~Janet Lanese

3 steps to get grandparents online

1. Sit together at the computer and give them a tour around the Web — all the fun family stuff they’re missing out on. First, you drive. This is especially important for the reluctant grandparent. Do this before you let them know you intend to help them get online. Let them get hooked first.

2. Set up one website at a time for them, and let them know what you are doing (in simple terms). See the Recommended websites below.

3. For each website, put them in the driver’s seat. Let them try things one click at a time. Go slow. Be patient. Go through it twice: first for comprehension, second to create written step-by-step instructions. If needed, go through it a third time to help build their confidence.

You can help enrich a grandparent’s life. Now go do it!

Enjoy! – Grandpa Shayne

Action Items

• Help them choose a computer. I recommend an Apple Macintosh laptop because it is so easy to use and comes with cool, free software.
• Set up a free gmail account.
• Collect a list of family websites and blogs.
• Create accounts on Facebook or other sites where the family posts stuff.
• Create easy-to-remember login names and passwords, and write them down.
• Bookmark all websites. Show them how to access these bookmarks.
• Set them up a free blog or their own on WordPress.com or Blogger.com. (optional)
• If they have a digital camera, show them how to post photos online.

Recommended websites

• Gmail.com
• Facebook.com
• MyFamily.com
• StoryOfMyLife.com
• ScrapBlog.com

More resources

• Our other blog posts about connecting with grandchildren
• Another post “How to help grandparents get online“
• Many senior centers, libraries, colleges, etc. offer classes in basic internet and computer use.

If you know someone who is not online, please print and mail this to them.

Do you have more ideas for helping more grandparents get online? We welcome your comments.

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Using the Internet to stay close to family and friends at home and abroad

How do you raise your children and grandchildren to enjoy the full benefits of the extended family, if grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends are scattered around the world. This is a problem I have lived with first hand!

When I was a young teenager in the 1950s

My family emigrated from the UK to the USA, settling down in Florida. We left almost my entire family back in the UK, My uncle’s family had crossed over before us and had settled in Winnipeg. My parents stayed in touch with the rest of the family through the occasional “Blue Flyer” — a flimsy, hard to read, light weight aerogramme. While it was relatively expensive, it was far quicker than surface mail which could take up to six or eight weeks. Phone calls were very rare and only used for family emergencies. No wonder we had no real ties with the larger family remaining at home. Sadly some would pass away before we returned to see them.

Adding to the problems

Returning to the UK in the 1970s, I further complicated my communications difficulties by bringing my American wife and children to live in England. Now I was closer to my English relatives, but my brother and his family still remained in Florida and all my wife’s family lived in the US Midwest.

So many more letters and a few more phone calls were needed. Transatlantic phone calls still cost a few pounds to make so they were only used for special occasions. Over the next few years we made friends with many locally based US Air Force families, all of whom returned to the US to live and retire, further increasing our web of international friends and family.

Technology to the rescue

Just when we were beginning to feel the burden of high postage costs, especially around Christmas, transatlantic phone calls became more competitive dropping to ten pence (16 cents) per minute. Our letter writing just about stopped, but the greeting cards continued to flow and we still limited our phone calls to a small number of family and friends and tried to keep them to a short duration. This was still not the way to stay in touch although it seemed the solution. In the mid 1990s, we started using email but found that few of our friends in the USA were hooked up to the Internet and even fewer in the UK. Most of those emails went to family or friends via their work email addresses until the wider spread acceptance of the Internet in the early 2000s.

Now it works!

Just about everyone we know now has personal email so it is very easy to stay in touch worldwide. We have even used ship board web connections via satellite to read and send messages via our own web email service — quite costly however! As most of our contacts have moved to broadband (ADSL), exchanging photos is now quick and easy. One downside however, is the proliferation of email jokes with huge attachments (and absolutely no personal news). This hardly constitutes keeping in touch in my books but at least we know the senders are still alive!

Free International phone calls

We now use Skype, one of several Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) services, with excellent results. (I have also used MS Messenger but I find Skype the best for me.) This enables us to talk to any other Skype user (almost) anywhere in the world through our PC mic/speakers, free of charge.

Skype also offers a “Skype Out” service that allows you to make cheap international calls with Skypeto telephones and mobile phones. We use it on a pay-as-you-go top-up basis. This service allows me to talk to most overseas land-line phones for about 1.5 pence per minute (about 2.1 cents) — about 25% of current international phone rates. Even better, with an inexpensive webcam, we can now “video conference” our family, provided they too have a webcam connected via Skype. While voice multi connections are possible via Skype, I do not believe it is yet possible to have a virtual video family reunion on the Skype service, although I am sure they are working on it! Skype now offers “Skype” phones which can provide an enhanced home phone that combines all the functions of land line phones, mobile/cellular phones and web phones for a fraction of traditional day to day phone costs. My friend and technical advisor is currently “checking” this out so watch his blog on www.richardfarrar.com.

Sharing Family Photos

We have tried using Flickr to share our photos around our family via the web but the uploading times are slow and not that easy. We have also found that many of our friends and family found the viewing service hard to use so we have opted to use our own web site. Currently I load the photos quickly and easily via FTP and my audience can access them at their leisure. The hard part for me, is cataloguing and labeling each photo, a process involving ASP code writing and therefore not too user friendly. I will move my photo library to our blog site soon, automating the process and making maintenance and access much easier.

Family Blog Sites

On the subject of blog sites, that seems to be the way ahead with the “family communication network”. What has started out as a hobby hopefully will get more of my friends and family commenting and contributing content (see www.thegrandparentsblog.com).

Publishing Deadlines

Creating content can be fun but is time consuming, however it is a great way to keep in touch. We use WordPress software and that makes blog site management easy. It also brings plug-in benefits — extra little tools to manage the site and to improve the communication process and content value.

Twittering

One such plug-in displays a link to twitter — an internet communication tool that takes short messages and posts them automatically to your subscribers. I use twitter, but have only a small following — my fault, because I am not yet used to adding news items and so far not many in my family/friends network have signed up.

In Summary

Thus far, we have been able to find old friends we thought we had lost touch with forever. We can stay in daily contact with brothers and sisters and other family members, between our sadly, far too infrequent visits to each other. It is getting better every day as web technology improves and our grandchildren now have a much greater appreciation for our global family.

Sadly too late for me, I saw my grandparents only twice in their last twenty years because of the transatlantic divide! I am so grateful that our own grandchildren will not have the same regrets.

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future. ~Alex Haley

Find me at

• The Grandparents Blog
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Email

- Grandpa Davison

[Tell us how you use the Internet to stay close to your family. We enjoy reading your comments.]

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I started a blog as an older grandparent, to express to my grandchildren my beliefs, and the family stories. This is a wonderful way to share with them, since everyone is so busy. They all have very little time. I try to add to my blog every Sunday. I currently am talking about miracles I have seen. This has been a journey for me. In pondering and thinking about miracles, I have come to appreciate the world so much more.

Expressing my thoughts has required I think about those I am writing for, and also those I am writing about. I try to write just two or three paragraphs and keep it to one subject, so that it isn’t too much reading at any one time.

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children. ~Charles R. Swindoll

I still work, but we have 5 wonderful children, grown grandchildren and we now have one great grandchild. When I was growing up, I knew my grandparents, and one great grandmother, plus much more extended family. This is not so with the younger generations, so a blog is a great way to connect. I encourage other grandparents to jump in and blog too. It is work and takes some study, but get started and watch it grow as you grow and learn. My blog is rgkaiserfamily.com. Visitors are welcome!

Grandma Kaiser

Visit Grandma Kaiser’s blog.

We want to here from you. Tell us about your blog our family website where you share your life with your grandchildren? Please leave a comment below.

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Connecting with grandchildren: Technology brings instant gratification

Technology-Love-Connection – “Reaching out” using the internet – part two

One reader tells of her 93 year old friend “who is on her computer everyday emailing her family.” Another reader reports that her “94 year old mother will not allow anyone to [help her get] on a computer. If she would, she could see her great-grandkids.”

Perhaps you are a grandparent who is privileged to have one or more of your parents still living. Or maybe you are a parent who would like to facilitate a healthy relationship between your children and their grandparents and great-grandparents. In any case, it’s a fact that many older grandparent are left out when it comes to using the latest communication devices. Sometimes this is of their own doing.

Why doesn’t everybody welcome new technology?

Lack of desire? Lack of knowhow? Lack of money? Fear of the unknown? It couldn’t be stubbornness?

Would you agree that much of the problem has to do with fear? What is it about technology that is so intimidating to some folks?

Throughout history, some folks have been slow to embrace new inventions — the horseless carriage, the automatic washing machine. (Do you know anybody who still had an icebox years afters the refrigerator was invented?) I’m not trying to be critical here, just pointing out human nature.

Is it important for grandparents to accept new technologies for communicating?

We’re not just talking about conveniences that make life a little easier; we’re talking about communicating with our family, with our grandkids! Hey, isn’t that what life is all about — love and family? If technology can help bring our family together, then let’s find ways to use it! Let’s help older folks see what they’re missing out on, and help them get set up.

When we refer to technology here, we mean good technology — newfangled gadgets and devices, websites and services — that can bring joy to families and bring them closer together.

Do you realize if it weren’t for Edison we’d be watching TV by candlelight?  ~Al Boliska

More readers’ comments: Jody says “Just a little hello via email can really keep your relationship alive.” Joy wrote, “Internet communication [is] great for video calls, sharing pictures, emails, etc. Grandparents need to keep up with the times and communicate with the younger generations on the media the kids are comfortable [using].” Do you agree?

The benefits if communication work both ways. Grandparents have so much wisdom, life experience and love to offer. Grandchildren crave and deserve to know them better. Don’t you think so?

What can we each do to help?

We live in a marvelous age where technology abounds. We need only to find it, adopt it, and enjoy it’s benefits. That’s our mission here at GrandparentsTLC, to help grandparents discover technology and show how to use it.

Often what I’ve seen is that folks just don’t know what they are missing. There have been times that I wanted to convince someone that they just had to try something new, but they resisted. The more they resisted, the harder I tried. (Sound familiar?) I’ve found that it’s better just to show them what they’ve been missing without trying to “sell” them on it. Pretty soon they’ll say, “I want that!” Take a lesson from the car salesman: don’t tell them about the features, show them the benefits. Then let them test drive.

Here’s an idea I was thinking: Take your laptop over to their house. Show them emails from family, digital photos and albums, family sites, etc. Imagine their delight when they say, “Oh, how adorable!”

We would like you, our dear readers, to help brainstorm solutions by commenting below. Let’s come up with ideas for helping more grandparents get online.

As always, we will continue exploring more websites, digital tools and devices that can have a positive impact on our family relations.

We appreciate you! Grandpa Shayne

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There’s a tiny little plaque sitting on my shelf that reads:

If I’d have known that grandchildren were going to be so much fun, I’d have had them first. ~Bill Laurin

Grandma Henke and family

How much better can it get than having 17 grandchildren? Being a grandmother has been the best thing since the invention of penicillin … not that I was around that long ago … but you get the drift. It took about a minus twenty seconds for me to be madly in love with the squirmy little bodies that came to this earth yelling for their NaNa. But, of course, with all the good there had to come some bad and that took place when two of my children moved from Utah to Seattle with half of my litter. I don’t think I would have survived the empty feeling in my heart had I not had the powers of the Internet, cellular phones, and a new digital camera that didn’t even take film!

The magic of those three items has taken an unbearable situation for this Grandma and sort of (not quite but sort of) erased some of those hundreds of miles that separate us.

When my son and his wife had their first little baby girl (six weeks early) while students at the University of Utah I was in the middle of an audit at work and there was no way I could dash up there in time for the welcome to our family celebrations. I sat at my desk anxious to hear everything was fine with mother and baby when I got a flash indicating I had mail. I clicked on the box and suddenly there before my eyes was a moving, true to life picture of our little girl kicking her arms and legs and crying loudly. I can’t begin to explain the thrill that went through me just before the tears of gratitude started pouring down my cheeks. I didn’t have to miss it after all.

Nothing thrills me more than to get a beep from one of my grandchildren – an instant message on my computer. The older kids and I have real life conversations. With the younger kids it goes something like this:

Luca: Hi Grandma, XOXOXOXOXO HAHAHAHAHA

Me: Hi Luca! I love you too, XOXOXOXOXO, HAHAHAHAHA

[XOXO = hugs and kisses] Luca then sends me all kinds of icons of smiley faces, dancing pigs, and broken hearts.

I love it … we are communicating and having fun. Sometimes we tell knock knock jokes.

My older grandchildren from Seattle have also talked me into adding text messaging to my phone so they could send me little messages. (They are now unaccustomed to talking on the phone as their fingers are so used to doing the walking). Typing on a cellular phone keyboard isn’t my favorite mode of communication but you have to keep up if you want to stay in touch with on the go teenagers.

We send photographs back and forth all the time, by email, instant messenger, or telephone. It keeps us in close contact and helps so much with the homesickness on both sides. I was unable to attend Luca’s 3rd piano recital after having been there for her first two. As soon as they got home her dad sent me the video and there she was … just as pretty and proud and smart as can be … playing her little heart out. I was so proud of her!

When my first baby was tiny my husband was stationed in Georgia in the Army. It took two weeks to send a letter and get an answer. I wished so many times Mom could see the cute and unique things he did every day. We took pictures but had to wait until we’d used the whole roll, then send them off to be developed … then make doubles of the ones we wanted to send. It wasn’t a very fast turn around. I feel so lucky to have instant gratification when it comes to staying in touch with my children and grandchildren. My motivation for learning about the new technology is because it keeps me close to my family but there are many other benefits as well. Nothing like trying to learn a new trick even if you are an old dog.

There is one more thing I do for my grandchildren that I probably would not do otherwise. I get on the Internet and find the cheapest airplane tickets I can find that will take me from here to there with no layovers.

Grandma Henke

Visit GrandmaHenke’s blog.

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Photo by lyzadanger

Reaching out to family through the use of the internet has been one of the biggest blessings of this age of technology online. All grandparents should be online just for the ease and speed of communication. The internet certainly is a big factor in my life for staying connected and reconnecting with family and friends. I am not a very good telephone communicator and therefore email has improved communications in my family whether it is just across town or half way around the world.

Sharing family pictures is a really important activity in my life as a grandmother, especially when you factor in the other piece of technology that is a must – the digital camera! That little camera is perfect for all photograph-fanatic grandparents. Now we can take 100 pictures without going broke developing them. And the best part – we can share them almost instantly on the internet. Case in point – my husband’s sister just became a great grandmother to twins. I already have seen an adorable picture of them!

Don’t forget that by being online, you are making it much easier for your children and grandchildren to reach out and share with you. A few weeks ago there was an open house event at my granddaughter’s school that I was looking forward to going to, but my health was not very good at the time and I had to stay home. My son had his cell phone with picture taking capabilities with him and he took really cute pictures and sent them “instantly” from the school. It was almost as good as being there! Talk about experiencing TLC – Technology, Love, Connection! Reaching out is a two way street.

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.  Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. ~Jane Howard

Technology, Love and Connection is a great way to ward off depression that often accompanies growing old and the feeling of being left out – cut off from friends and family. I see it here where I live at a seniors assisted living complex all the time. Those who have a computer and are online are doing much better as they are busy emailing family and friends all the time. Those who don’t are often sad that they don’t see their grown grandchildren very much anymore as often they are now living in other parts of the world. Even one “You’ve got mail” a day would cheer a grandmother and grandfather’s heart! It takes so little TLC to Reach Out!

Grama Barb

Part one: Technology-Love-Connection - How it all began in Grama Barb’s life

Read Grama Barb’s informative article on digit cameras and digital photo frames.

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To all grandmothers, whose wisdom, courage and love have paved the path for future generations – we thank you!

Grandmothers are voices of the past.

Role models of the present.

They open the doors to the future.

Technology and Grandparenting go hand in hand – a perfect blend of the old and the new. As a grandmother of 4 ranging in ages of 8 to over 26, I have had to learn the language of technology just to be able to keep up and carry on conversations with my grandchildren.

I bought my first computer back in 1991 and it wasn’t long before I saw an opportunity to use this new tool to bring to life the voices of the past for my children and grandchildren. My love of genealogy had been confined in a cardboard box for many years. I would take it out and work on it for a time each year but I couldn’t seem to get it organized into anything I could pass on to my family. Then one day I read an ad for Family Tree Maker version one. I immediately bought it and went to work.

After many months, I finally had all the data I had at the time in book form for my grandchildren and for the grandchildren of my siblings. This book included the “voices” of the past in the form of my great-grandparents’ stories and of old diaries which all the children can learn from. Stories of hardship and love that everyone is proud of; that make you stand tall when faced with a life crisis and say, “I can do this just like my Great-Great-Grandma did!” Truly our ancestors are still role models for the present.

Grama Barb

Read part two: TLC: “Reaching out” through the introduction of the internet

Learn more about the wonderful role grandparents play in the lives of young children at A Grandmother’s Love.

Click here to get your own copy of Family Tree Maker - excellent genealogy software!

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