Playing To Know You

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Patricia

Image of grandparents having fun with grandkids.Want to know your grandchildren better? Start playing with them.

I’m convinced that play provides all the opportunities you need to make a solid connection with your grandchildren. When they are very little, get down on floor to play with them and help them open up and value you as a companion. As they get older, use the more sophisticated play of card and board games to set the stage for real conversations and the fun of loving competition.

Stuart Brown of the Institute of Play notes, “What do most Nobel Laureates, innovative entrepreneurs, artists and performers, well-adjusted children, happy couples and families, and the most successfully adapted mammals have in common? They play enthusiastically throughout their lives.”

Grandparents I talk with are eagerly looking for better ideas as to how to play their way to solid relationships with their grandchildren. Our testing of activities for grandparents and grandchildren demonstrates that the best experiences occur when both grandparents and grandchildren are involved in every step of the activity from planning to execution and follow-up. Grandparents need to be participants, not spectators, and grandchildren need to be able to help set the course of play, not just follow the adult dictates of their grandparents.

We also have found that flexibility is key in grandparent/grandchild play. Sometimes the grandkids will want to cut the activity short. At other times, they want to stretch it out, inventing their own variations of play, prizes and penalties along the way. Clockwatching simply doesn’t work. Kids need to set their own pace.

Keep the play kid-sensitive, and you’ll soon be playing your way to a great connection with each of your grandchildren. It’s not hard, and it’s not expensive. Plus, it’s lots of fun. Enjoy!

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Our Meerkat Family

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Patricia

Image of our Meerkat Family: Grandma Gigi, Papa and AidanAll of us in the Babuka-Black household love animals…from our cuddly miniature dachsie, Gertie, to the lovable pet rats who once shared our home; from Dr. Seuss’s whimsical creatures to the wilder imaginings from “Where the Wild Things Are.” Animals are a real part of our everyday lives.

When we started to think about GrandCamp Adventures, it was natural that we have an animal family share in the fun. Our choice of the Meerkat family was equally natural: Meerkats are family animals that live in communities (mobs or gangs of up to 70) and depend on one another for survival. Some Meerkats are babysitters and some are sentinels. They all work together to build their underground homes, protect each other and forage for food for the community.

The more we learned about Meerkats the more we felt they fit right in with GrandCamp:

  • Adult meerkats mentor their young, teaching them life skills.
  • Meerkats are fun loving, highly curious and can make a toy of almost anything.
  • Very sociable, Meerkats constantly communicate with one another and have over 20 different sounds with different meanings.
  • Meerkats try to mate for life, and won’t mate with another direct family member.
  • Meerkats protect their territory and their family ferociously.
  • Although Meerkats walk and run on all fours, they do stand up — stretching to 12 inches height — and even climb trees to get a better vantage point in spotting danger.

We’ve had a lot of fun with the lyrics of our “We’re A Meerkat Family” song on our CD. Everyone can expect to see a lot more fun and mischief from our Meerkats in the future. Grammie “GiGi,” Papa and Aidan Meerkat are already setting children’s imaginations afire and warming grandparents’ hearts. So sing along with us and hug your meerkat family.

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A Family Tradition Grows Legs

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Patricia

Image of the beginning of GrandCampWhen people ask me where the inspiration from GrandCamp Adventures comes from, it’s easy to answer. It comes from a family tradition that started back in the early 1990’s when my husband’s parents began inviting all of their grandchildren to visit their home for five fun-filled days each summer. Marjorie and Reuben Black called their event Grancamp and made it a special time complete with a theme, arts and crafts, outings and special guest educators.

The Black siblings brought all the grandchildren to the Black’s home on a Sunday evening and came back for the GranCamp closing ceremony the following Friday evening. In between, it was just the grandparents and grandchildren/cousins connecting with one another, learning and playing their way into connections that will last a lifetime.

In 1997, my oldest daughter, then 3 years old, achieved the requisite potty training in anticipation of her first GranCamp, and I began to witness firsthand the power of the grandparent connection. The children were sharing experiences with their grandparents and their cousins without the filter of us parents looking on. The camp had an informal, spontaneous atmosphere: everyone participated, everyone had fun, everyone learned, and everyone got to know and love everyone else.

We wanted GrandCamp Adventures to capture the spirit of the Black’s Grancamp to help other grandparents connect with their grandchildren in big and small ways. We see the Black’s Grancamp as an inspiration, not a model. We don’t think grandparents necessarily want to host a camp at their homes, but we are certain that grandparents do want to have a great relationship with their grandkids. GrandCamp Adventures provides the key to making that happen.

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