Hello friends,
Yesterday I found some photos taken at my mom's, showing how she and Caleb spent a few moments playing and learning all together. And I thought this would be a good topic to write about.
Grandparents can be a blessing for the family. They can be our helping hand and they definitely can contribute to our children's education and especially if we homeschool them.
I am blessed to have my parents and my other parents (in-laws) helping me educating Caleb. What is more important is that they take into account my way of educating my son and they support me. Thats what I'm really happy about!!! It makes a HUGE difference to be all on the same wavelength. I dont have to struggle and explain them why am I doing this or that and have endless discussions about why its appropiate to do or not.
I'll give you a couple of examples. Its a lot more easier for you to understand what I mean:
- I let him watch TV mostly in English. They do the same.
- I dont buy books or read stories that promotes violence. They'll respect that and wouldnt buy books in which someone will eat, kill somebody else or stuff like this.
- I dont allow too much screen time and definitely, if Caleb watch something, it wont be crap. They'll make sure Caleb wont watch bad content I'm not OK with.
- I encourage Caleb to collect his toys after playing, they'll do the same.
But dont get me wrong. I am flexible with all of the above. And they're too. But most of the times, they do things the way I do. And this really is a BLESSING and a HUGE help.
It's both normal and beautiful that each grandparent has its own style of interacting with grandkids, but undoubtedly, taking into account our needs and our way of doing things, as parents, change the whole story.
Grandparent involvement in education can have numerous benefits for both the grandparent and the grandchild:
- GP (grandparents) can offer guidance, motivation, and support
- GP can provide emotional support, comfort and kindness
- GP can share a lot of information with their grandchildren (GC), history and general knowledge
- both GP and GC can learn from each other
- they spend family time together
With this post, I mostly wanted to show you how creative my mom was, coming up with some clever Play&Learn Ideas.
Caleb enjoys the time with his grandparents (all four of them), especially the grannies. Both my moms (mother in law included; I call her mom because I LOVE her deeply) are taking into account that I started to work with Caleb from a very small age. They've seen what we do on a daily basis and how we do things, play time, screen time, learning activities and all this stuff.
So they're free to come with their own ideas, games and whatever they know to support my son's education and development.
1. Size Matching Rings
My mom got another use for this Ring Throwing and Size Matching Game for Kids: -->
Size and Color Matching Activity! cause....why not?
Why not use a toy or any proudct in more ways than one?
Obviosuly, this ring throwing toy came with this sorting activity in which you have to sort the rings by size, as they wont fit properly. But when you put it also on the paper, things look a bit different.
And plus, mom found a way to associate colors.
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2. Pom pom Color Sorting
Another brilliant idea to keep toddlers busy for minutes, sometimes even hours!
When Caleb was little and I took him to my mom's, I brought his toys too. Only those toys he played with some days before and didnt yet get bored.
I knew this is something to help both him and my mom having a good time. Kids can easily become moody at this early age (around 2 yrs old).
This time I packed our pom poms. Caleb was obssessed with them. And my mom here found a way to use them in order to develop Caleb's sorting and matching color skills, patience and concentration.
She used cardboard rolls and scotch tape to glue them on the radiator. Caleb had to sort them by introducing the pom poms into these paper cylinders.
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3. Flower Power
Another thing they did was to count and match numbers with flowers.
It was a time when all Caleb wanted to do was to take flower petals and give them to my mom so she can make letters and numbers.
It was a very dark era for the flowers. 😁 happily, it didnt last long.
Those pictures below are taken by me. I was coming to take Caleb home and here they are. Playing with petal flowers.
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How is your relationship with the grandparents? Do you receive help in educating your kids? Are your parents involved in your home learning activities? Whats your thoughts on this topic?
Missdeli