Craft Ideas for Grandparents and Great Grandparents?

Dear J S,
We used old bottle caps to make refrig. magnets. Grandma and Grandpa did not keep them forever but....they had them a long time and you could tell it was something that all of the children were able to participate in. We spray painted them black and made eggs and bacon out of felt. Making little cast iron skillets. I did not find that but did find Unique re-tiques Victorian Ornaments. They are really cute and possibly you could use old family photos or the childrens photos glued inside. GL K. K.

You've already gotten loads of great suggestions. One grandparent present that went over big with our family was a digital photo frame. Load it before you send it, then send occasional memory card updates. (This only works well if grandparents are tech-savvy or there is someone who can help them figure it out.)

By the way, where are you? We've been deployed to Japan and Korea, and if that's where you are and you have questions or concerns, please feel free to send me a message - I'd be happy to help if I can.

What I did one year for the grandparents I went to a shop called "Color Me Mine". My kids did a ceramic plate, painted it and added their hand prints on it. It was ready in a few days. It turned out beautiful. I don't know if you have anything where you live like that, but my kids had a great time painting and making their own plate. They were 2 and 4 at that time. I also did the digital photo frame one year, but I added the photo's for them.

Crafts are hard to send and parents may not like that idea as much as this the kids write. Besides that after your parents are gone the kids can have their writings back as a journal entry. It might be fun to see that they were involved with certain things at young ages. My parents have appreciated things like stories about what the kids are doing or I love you because stories... or pictures the kids have drawn about something they did. Put up grandparents picture in your home so the kids don't forget and ask your parents to keep in touch with you too. You could have a different theme each month for letters and crafts like love, service, family fun, favorite foods, outdoor activities etc.. Use your imagination Good luck.

Check out www.enchantedlearning.com for lots of fun arts projects with great picture insrtuctions. There's even an idex with differnt themes (if I remember these is even a section for Grandparents Day presents). :)

Have fun! :)

Before you start on the crafts, don't forget the easier things - e-mail and even (gasp!) snail mail! Send pictures accompanied by a note you can write on your child's behalf. Your five-year-old can even dictate one to you and help decide what her younger sister would way. This doesn't take much time at all, and is something you can do once a week or even more often. Just a couple of sentences - not a long letter - along with a picture would be ideal for keeping your girls in touch with family.

Crafts need to be small enough to be mailable, right? The first thing I think of is the time-honored craft standby, pasta! Little kids can do so much with it; it comes in all shapes and sizes - even alphabet letters. It can be glued on tongue depressors or cardboard, painted, and who knows what else. The small items can be wrapped in bubble wrap and sent in an envelope or box for not too much expense.

Even simpler is getting some crayons and blank paper and letting the girls be artistic. I tell you from experience - grandparents adore even one-year-old abstract art!

I have 4 girls, and a mother that lives in Canada. To keep her updated on the girls, every month we send her a "favorite things" list. Basically a list of their top 10 favorite things THAT month...friends, food, song, movie, etc. Along with this we send a picture of them in their favorite outfit, or sporting their favorite hairdo. It is a lot of work sometimes for me, but my mom LOVES getting these letters, and it makes her feel like she gets to be a regular part of them growing up. I also keep a copy for me, and I put a copy in a scrapbook that I will later give the girls. To keep it regular, we schedule the first Sunday of the month for this.

Since I am a grandma and I don't get to see my grandchildren very much, this is an easy question for me to answer! I want to feel like I am a part of my grandchildren's lives, especially since I don't get to see them often. My favorite thing to get in the mail is a CD of digital photos and video clips (the photos labeled so I know where and when the pictures were taken) the video clips so I can watch my grandchildren playing, eating, anything..I love to listen to their voices and just watch them being themselves! I want to know what my grandkids like to do, what their favorite TV shows are, favorite toys, what are they learning how to do, funny things they have said..etc. Sure, I don't mind something they made to hang my fridge or a picture they have drawn for me, but what I want most of all is to know about them and share in their life : ). Hope this helps!

Have them color pictures and tell a little bit about each picture. Write that on the paper. Then take and print off each month's calendar. Take construction paper and fix up a personal calendar. They will remember each time they look at the calendar how much you guys love and miss them.

If you do a calendar pick a day that is special, once a month and write it on the calendar. Then you guys go do something fun and the grandparents can do something fun at the same time as if you are going out doing something fun all together.

My husband travels a LOT for his work, and he has always loved to read the bedtime story when we put our daughter to bed. He misses that time with her, so we got creative! One afternoon, when our daughter was at her Nana's, we picked about 10 books that she loved, and I filmed on our digital camera, Daddy reading the book and showing the pictures. This way, before night time, we can sit at the computer, play the digital video, and have Daddy read her a bedtime story. It's very touching and she loves it!

You could ask your parents or grandparents if they could record reading a story or two to your kiddos as well - it's such a treat for them, and they'll truly feel part of your childrens' day.

Look on flylady.net. She has a ton of ideas for you!!!

You can go online to makit.com and get a kit sent that lets the kids color pages that then get sent back and turned into plates, bowls, mousepads, etc. I did this project with my StrollerFit group last Valentine's Day & it was a HUGE hit.

Something else you can do is take pictures of the kids when they are doing something cute or on special days and then email the photos with a little note explaining what the kids were doing/celebrating, etc.

Good Luck!

Mother's Day is coming up and for our grandmothers a couple of years ago we did handprint aprons that said "grandma's helping hands". Each of the children put their handprints in fabric paint on the apron and then we wrote the date and their age underneath. But for non-specific crafts, just let them draw a picture and send that to the relations. Your 5 yr old could "write" a letter (dictate one to you) for them telling them how much she misses them. These would be little things that would only cost the stamp to mail them rather than a huge package. You could also start a blog and post pictures of the kids for them. The blog could be only for your family and then have by invite only for anyone else that you would like to see it. Then when you do something fun or special, you can post a bit about it on your blog, and they can read it at their leisure. Good luck in the quest to stay connected.
J.--SAHM of 6

My Uncle and his family lived overseas much of his military career and every 6 (or so) months his family would send a video tape to our Grandmother of all of the important events that occured during those months. (like b-day parties, school plays, days out at the park. They had 4 kids, so it was something that the whole family could do all at once. It was like we could all be included in their lives and watch the kids grow up. Hope that helps!

We send our grandma's some of the extra school papers and a few pictures every month. They don't care if it's just pictures of my kids eating lunch, grocery shopping or reading a book with daddy in jammies. Any pictures will do not just a special event. They love getting those extra homework pages after they are graded too. It help them keep up with what the kids are doing and gives them something to talk about when the kids call. We have a standing date with a phone call so either Grandma can say they will be busy so don't call or we are sure they will answer the phone. If your grandma's are tech savvy do video IM. If you want the relationship then it does take work. Schedule in regular contact just like a dentist or doctor appointment.

we're away from ours too and I know how difficult it is. I know my grandmother, though she sees photos on line still loves to get the real ones in the mail. Every couple of months I print some off and put them in a little brag book and mail it to her and she loves it. If you can find them where you are, those cards where you can record voices are lots of fun too. Good luck

Both of our parents live out of town and we do a number of things to keep in touch. We have SKYPE which is a free online wibcam service. We also take lots of digital pictures and send those to them to look at online. Every now and then, I send some of my daughter's artwork to them to hang on their fridge along with some cute pictures they can hang up. they love getting these packages.

Good luck!