Mother Father Children and Grand Children Family Tree Keepsake

Artistic Ideas for
Giving Gifts to Your Grandchildren

Here are some excerpts from the Gifts and Keepsakes capacity in
Susan Five. Bosak's new bestseller How to Build the Grandma Connectedness, which has won a Parent'south Guide Accolade as one of the best books of the year.

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GIFTS

Giving gifts is part of the magic of the grandparent/grandchild connection. You don't have to give big or expensive gifts. Gifts only demand to be thoughtful and given with love. The nigh of import cautions are: don't overwhelm your grandchild with too many gifts; don't try to buy their affection; don't become against their parents' wishes; and never buy a big souvenir or one that will crave special intendance or arrangements (due east.thousand. pet, trip) without first consulting parents. Yous may also desire to stay away from clothing since children's sizes and tastes are so variable. Gifts can stimulate your grandchild'southward imagination, entertain, educate, or just offer pure delight. In full general, there are two kinds of gifts: formal gifts for birthdays and holidays; and "petty things" you give just to make your grandchild feel special.

Toys

Children today have so many toys, many of which apace become discarded or broken. Endeavour to focus on toys with lasting value, or things children can use to be creative (due east.chiliad. art supplies, building sets, board games, a microscope). The more flexible and unstructured the toy is, the more lasting information technology tends to be. Information technology's okay to indulge your grandchild one time in a while with an improvident or "fad" gift they simply "have to have." But, consult with parents first to ensure they don't have any strong objections. Try to break the toy stereotypes. Don't just give girls dolls and boys trucks. There's one woman I know whose parents, when she was little, would never buy her a train set -- despite her pleas for one, Christmas after Christmas. Finally, it was Grandma who took her seriously and bought her the prepare. Today that woman is 47 years old, and still has and cherishes that train set.

Get Artistic

Gifts are limited only by your imagination. Employ these ideas to get you lot started:

• Play detective. What are your grandchild's interests and blooming talents? Give gifts that encourage and support them -- tickets to events/plays/concerts; lessons; musical instruments; sports equipment; a mag subscription; posters or paintings; calendars; videos; computer software.
• Purchase your grandchild things "big kids" need -- like a radio, clock, camera, desk, bookcase, or bags for carrying things to school, for sports, or for travel.
• Books are ever in fashion, and won't break (see Books to Share with Your Grandchildren).
• Your junk post can be a source of stickers, labels, and pages that can exist painted or colored. Wrap them upwardly with a bow and they get something fun.
• Programme a treasure chase with clues your grandchild follows to find items subconscious around your house.
• Give your grandchild a disposable camera with a list of places and things they can find and photograph.

Collectibles

Help your grandchild beginning a drove and then add to information technology over time. It can be cards (baseball to dinosaur), rocks, stamps, coins, comic books, miniatures or figurines, etc. There are also sticker and sticker book sets on the market you can use with younger children. For example, give your grandchild an animal sticker book and purchase packets of animal stickers over fourth dimension for them to stick in the right spot and learn about animals. Whatever the collection, it becomes a mutual involvement you share.

Playful Gifts

One adult female told me that during her four years in college she most looked forward to letters from her grandmother, which always independent a little "surprise" -- a stick of gum, a cartoon clipped from the paper, a funny sticker, a lucky money. Yous tin give or mail your grandchild a little something every once in a while every bit a surprise. It'due south not the souvenir itself that'southward important, only the connection it makes. It says, "I'grand thinking about y'all." Ship something minor and inexpensive, perhaps in one case a month or then (just don't experience pressured). You can start when your grandchild is around three years quondam. Arts and crafts shops and "dollar" stores are great places for these kinds of piddling gifts. Be creative and imaginative. You might ship a finger puppet, modest stencil, funny socks, a airship with a message on information technology ("accident upward this balloon to read a surprise message from Grandma"), a musical toothbrush, a pen in the shape of a snake (there are some wild things in dollar stores!), or even a magazine advert or photo cut up like a puzzle. You tin can also send things your grandchild tin experiment with, like a magnifying glass, magnet, or bloom/vegetable seeds. Sometimes information technology'southward a nice idea to enclose a annotation with playful gifts suggesting things your grandchild tin can practise. For example: "Hither's a magnifying glass that's particularly for you lot! If yous hold information technology up to your eye and wait through information technology, information technology makes things await bigger. Have it around the house and await closely at the wooden railing forth the stairs, the carpet, a banana pare, a raisin. What do you see? Expect at your brother's olfactory organ. Does information technology look bigger? Permit me know what else y'all see with your magnifying glass."

Handmade Gifts

Something handmade makes a special gift in the nowadays and tin can become a treasured emblem over the years. You might make your grandchild a quilt, a special blanket, a sweater or scarf, a fancy T-shirt, a stuffed doll or bear, or doll clothes. If sewing, knitting, or needlework is new to you lot, start with a kit from a needlework or arts and crafts shop. If you don't have the time or skill to make your grandchild the "traditional" things, try your hand at more than playful handmade crafts. Information technology's the thought and creativity you put into information technology that counts. For example, brand a picture out of pennies stuck to a canvas of colored cardboard (you lot can even spell out your grandchild's name). Your grandchild can admire the picture for a while, and and then put the coins in their piggy bank. Another idea is to make shapes and animals out of the fuzzy "wire twisties" bachelor in arts and crafts stores. You might make a giraffe out of a yellow twistie, and send it to your grandchild with another yellow twistie to playfully "challenge" them to make the same animal.

Money

Money is always welcome, even in pocket-sized amounts. You just don't desire information technology to be the just souvenir you lot give, or employ it every bit a way to "buy" your grandchildren. My grandmother would frequently permit me take the alter after I went to the store for her, or would give me a dollar when I helped her out with something. Information technology didn't happen all the time, and I didn't perceive it equally payment for services rendered. I just felt special when she would give me "a niggling something" that was all my own. Y'all can be creative with money. For example, you lot tin can make the penny pictures described above. A roll of quarters can even exist magic. Some other twist is to give your grandchild a sum of money with the proviso that they give it abroad to a charity of their choosing. This can spark some good conversations with older grandchildren, teaches them about helping others, and helps them think about what they value and why. If y'all choose to, you lot can practice something bigger and fancier over time, like buying savings bonds or stocks, or contributing to your grandchild's college instruction. Instead of waiting until y'all're gone, you might also consider making it known to older grandchildren that you have money available for big wishes or needs, such equally helping to buy a motorcar or getting special medical handling. A word of circumspection: if you lot give money to your grandchildren, or to your adult children for your grandchildren, be careful nigh putting restrictions on its use. If you can afford it, and information technology's coming from your eye, give it -- with the assumption that it volition exist used wisely. To do otherwise is to put a strain on your relationship.

Fourth dimension

Time is the greatest gift of all. Time coupons are a artistic way for both you and your grandchild to conceptualize a fun, shared experience. They as well give your grandchild power in "redeeming" the coupon. You might have coupons for baking cookies, reading a story, going shopping, or learning how to do woodworking.

A Notation about "Thank Yous" Notes

Parents have an important role to play in encouraging bonds between their children and grandparents. One of the easiest means to exercise this is to assistance children write a uncomplicated "thank you" note for a souvenir from a grandparent. So many grandparents I talk to say this is THE biggest complaint they have -- they never get a "give thanks you" notation. They often don't even know if a grandchild has received a gift safely, let alone whether or non they like it. If grandparents don't get feedback, how can they know what to become grandchildren? A "thanks" note doesn't take to be fancy or long. Information technology can but admit receipt of the gift; have a line describing what the grandchild likes nearly the gift, or what they're going to exercise with it; and then end with a "thanks" and "I love you lot." "Thanks" notes teach children an of import social skill, and make grandparents experience loved and appreciated. They get two-way advice going. What can a grandparent do to encourage "give thanks you" notes? You lot can talk to your adult children about how important acknowledgement is to y'all. You can also talk to your grandchildren and use this as an opportunity to teach a social grace. Explicate that you lot want to hear from them and find out what they liked or didn't like virtually a gift. Be persistent in your communication, without anger or criticism. As a hint or reminder, some grandparents enclose a "fill-in-the-blanks" carte du jour they write out for grandchildren to return to them. Another good thought is to set an case yourself -- acknowledge and thank grandchildren for something they've sent or given you, or fifty-fifty a phone call.

KEEPSAKES

One homo told the story of visits to his grandmother's house when he was footling and the cutting crystal handles she had on the French doors into her dining room. His grandmother would have the door handles off, hang them on a cord, and put them in the window and so that the sunlight would catch them and there would be a rainbow in the room. When his grandmother died, his aunt gave him the door handles as a emblem. After that, every bit he lived in different apartments and boondocks houses across the country, he put those handles on either his bedroom door or the front cupboard door. Today, he owns his own house and the handles are on a prominent door. Sometimes, he and his six-year-old daughter accept the handles off to "make a rainbow in the room." And that's the philosophy to life he'due south didactics his girl, a philosophy he got from his grandmother: yous can ever find a rainbow when you need i. Yous know when you hear a favorite song on the radio and your mind goes right back to a special retentiveness? Keepsakes take that same kind of power. Grandchildren like the hottest new stuff, simply they as well have a real demand for a sense of family history and connectedness. In the brusk term, keepsakes create an immediate sense of connection. Over the years, they get a powerful symbol of that connection. Keepsakes evoke memories and feelings. They likewise brand us feel office of something bigger. They are a critical part of a living family legacy. Older people have a need to give keepsakes as "something to retrieve me by," and grandchildren have merely as much of a need to receive them. Many of the items discussed in earlier sections -- like using photos/videos, keeping a journal, writing letters and stories for your grandchildren, writing your life story, giving a handmade souvenir -- can become keepsakes. In that location are also some special things you can do with an eye toward creating keepsakes.

Something to Remember You By

My storybook Something to Recollect Me Past was inspired by my grandmother. She had a habit of giving me a modest keepsake every once in a while and saying, "here'due south something to remember me by." Some of the keepsakes were things she fabricated or bought; others were her own possessions. I have to admit I didn't like all the keepsakes at the fourth dimension she gave them to me. In that location was one terribly tacky, flowery, orange and ruby-red and brownish and blue tablecloth that was one of her favorites. I hated information technology! Today I look at that same tablecloth with a mixture of amusement and fondness. That's office of the power of keepsakes. As you get older, think near slowly giving abroad some of your special possessions to older grandchildren (and your adult children) -- cup and saucer sets, salt and pepper shakers, figurines, fine linens, old jewelry, cuff links, watches. Fifty-fifty if they don't fully capeesh the keepsakes now, they will in the future. I've also heard some wonderful, touching stories virtually people who buy special keepsakes or choose special possessions, wrap them upwardly with a personal note, and hide them abroad in a closet or attic. Their plan is that when they pass away, their children and grandchildren will sort through their possessions and they will each discover a package with their name on information technology as a source of comfort and remembrance. I woman in New York told me she had lost both her mother and grandmother in the holocaust. She wanted to give her 14-yr-old granddaughter a copy of Something to Remember Me By with some old photographs and her grandmother'southward handkerchief (the only keepsake this woman had left from her grandmother) so that her granddaughter would remember them all.

Bequeath Your Furniture

A line that'southward repeated in Something to Remember Me By is: "Someday, that cedar breast at the foot of the bed will be yours." My grandmother picked out a piece of furniture to requite each of her children and grandchildren. From the time I was five years old, I knew the cedar chest was mine. And I took care of it! Her other pieces of furniture were subject to the bumps and scratches that children inevitably inflict on piece of furniture, but I was always careful effectually the cedar chest. Today that cedar chest sits proudly at the human foot of my bed. Assign a special piece of furniture to each of your grandchildren (and children). It's like giving twice, now and in the future. Information technology makes your grandchildren feel special and important, creates a bond, and helps build a sense of responsibility.

Lane Furniture has just released the new heirloom-quality Something to Remember Me By Cedar Breast based on the breast in the volume Something to Think Me By. A cedar chest is a emblem itself, and tin concord a lifetime of memories and keepsakes passed along from generation to generation. A wonderful, meaningful, and special souvenir for children and grandchildren!

Tell the Story

When yous give a keepsake, specially an item with a family history to it, brand certain yous share the story backside it. Write down the story in a note when you lot pass forth the keepsake. Is it a ring your male parent gave to your female parent? A quilt your great-grandmother made? Where did the item come from? Why is it of import? Stories are what bring objects live. That'due south the real power of a emblem -- not necessarily what it is, but what it means in the context of your life story. When you share a emblem's story, often even young children tin can sympathize its meaning at some level. There was ane precocious trivial girl who told me, "My Grandma gave my Mom a very beautiful ring, and someday she'south going to requite it to me, and anytime I'll give it to my daughter. That'southward the style you make history."

Family Tree

Assist your grandchildren understand their identify in the larger context of their family. Doing a simple family tree together can be an extended project with older grandchildren. It as well becomes a keepsake. You and your grandchild can make a diagram of your family tree, maybe including photographs. In that location is computer software bachelor for charting family unit trees. Or, get a large sheet of paper and some pencil crayons or markers. Bear witness your grandchild where to depict boxes for various relatives, starting at the bottom with the oldest generation you know near and then branching out. You might desire to utilise one color for one side of the family and a different color for the other. Depending on how much you know and what inquiry you do, y'all can besides include brief notes virtually each family member under their photo.

Family Fourth dimension Sheathing

Yous and your grandchildren, even if y'all live far away from each other, tin can collect items to put into a time sheathing. Collect personal items similar family unit photos, schoolhouse artwork, greeting cards, clothing, and family stories. You can also clip out electric current articles from magazines and newspapers, put in a hit CD, include wear catalogs with the latest fashions, and brand a list of popular movies, celebrities, and expressions. Put everything into a sealed storage container with the current date. Then, set a date five years or so into the future (long plenty, but non also long) when your family will get together for a big party to open the time capsule. Marking the container, "Practice not open up until..." Store it in a safe identify. Now everyone has something to expect frontward to!

Keepsakes and Traditions

There are some things you do over again and again over time that become family rituals. Rituals provide both adults and children with something consistent, reliable, and cherished. Particularly during times of problem or loss, rituals are a comfort, something "normal" to look forward to. They become office of a family's identity. In this often hectic globe, we could all use a few more rituals. If you don't take whatsoever family traditions or rituals, START SOME! Rituals can be anything that works for your family. You lot and your grandchildren might have a ritual of pulling out the playing cards or backgammon board for a family unit tournament. Or you can attend the domicile opener every year of a local sports squad and collect the programs. Rituals are often tied to keepsakes. For example, your grandchildren might savor the special vacation foods y'all cook year after year. Collect these recipes in a cookbook for posterity. Perchance each holiday flavour you can start a tradition of giving each of your grandchildren a special ornamentation. If y'all take a regular family reunion, each time get T-shirts made for anybody with your family name, the reunion year, and a familiar family unit maxim. Keepsakes and rituals become the things your grandchildren acquit into their families, often with the words, "I call back when Grandma..." A part of you will always be in their lives.

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The in a higher place data is excerpted from Susan Five. Bosak's new bestseller How to Build the Grandma Connection (200 pages; $8.95 U.s.a.), which has won a Parent's Guide Accolade every bit one of the year's all-time books. In this 1, concise, easy-to-utilise volume are all the practical ideas, inspiration, and wisdom you demand to build loving, rewarding, lifelong relationships with your grandchildren.

"Outstanding!... Excellent advice.... Grandparents and parents alike will dear this highly usable, imminently practical guide."

Today'due south Librarian

deaverfisir1957.blogspot.com

Source: https://legacyproject.org/specialreports/giftideas.html

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