Outdated Lessons

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I recently stumbled upon a great article about the lessons we learned growing up that we should NOT pass along. Sometimes just like our hands, it is better to keep some things to ourselves!

Outdated Money Lessons You Shouldn’t Teach Your Kids

by LINSEY KNERL

I’m a sucker for tradition. Actually, I am a fan of nostalgia – things that make you warm and gooey and bring you back to the days of your youth. When it comes to issues of personal finance, however, nothing I was taught (even the more “traditional” lessons) really panned out for me. While I’m a big believer in balancing the budget, following the law, and doing your share, I won’t teach my kids money lessons that are popular simply because they are old. Here are a few examples of lessons that are still being handed down from generation to generation – but that really need to stop.

“Be a Company Man”
There are two problems with this lesson. First, there are no company “men”. Just as many women are pulling down a fair wage in today’s economy, and the occasional guy who spouts this lesson may also still think “women shouldn’t be in the workplace”. The second issue I have with this is becoming more obvious in this current economy. Companies try to take care of workers, but they can only do so much. Be a family man. Be a man of truth. Be a funny man. But don’t ever base your identity solely on the corporation who signs your checks.

“Always Pay with Cash”
This can be a terrible piece of advice that assumes we live in a one-size-fits-all world. It is also nearly impossible to abide by. If you use water, gas, or electricity that costs more per month than the deposit you put down when you opened your account, you are using credit. Unless you waltz in with a wad of cash and tell your utilities manager that you would like to only use the amount you prepay every month, you are “charging” your bill for a short time.

Most should avoid credit until they have developed the ability to use it responsibly. (You may also want to apply for a credit card but put it the freezer in order to build your credit profile.) But let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? This adage should never be given to your kids without a lengthy lesson on credit. It would be better if it were changed to “pay with cash if you aren’t good for your word of paying back the things you buy with credit.” You may also add in “credit rocks if you are good with your budget and like earning perks for the shopping you do anyway.”

“Don’t Spend it All in One Place”
This is one that many of us still hear. The thought behind it is that if you “blow” all your money on one purchase, you won’t have it for other things. But don’t we already know that? Similar to the “play the field” advice for relationships, it can discourage kids from setting, planning for, and committing to a financial goal so that they can one day buy a large purchase that would otherwise be unattainable. So yes, “spend it all in one place” – if that’s what it takes to make that mega purchase of a home, car, or college tuition.

“Time is Money”
Yikes! To some extent this is a true statement. If I burn minutes and hours waiting for a doctor that is late for my appointment, and I’m missing time in the office earning a paycheck, then time is money. If I’m spending a day off from work (unpaid even) to visit my sick aunt in the hospital or to witness my daughter’s first volleyball tournament, then this is very simplistic thinking.

I can always earn more money, but I can never get the precious moments of life back. Be sure that when teaching this to your kids, you are qualifying the value of time in units other than cash. You only get one life, and you can take none of your belongings with you when you die. (Both are traditional lessons that parents should be passing on to their kids!)

Valentine Wishes for My Grandchildren

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For my grandchild on Valentines day

When saw you the first time, I was moved beyond Words.
My breath caught in my chest,
My heart skipped,
And you opened your eyes.

When I saw you a second time, I shouted for Joy.
I could not contain my breath,
My heart leapt,
And you smiled at your achievement.

When I saw you a third time, I laughed out Loud.
My breath was a gasp,
My heart racing,
And you repeated your performance just for me.

When I saw you a fourth time, I was Amazed,
My breath was swept away,
My heart stopped,
As you transformed into the person I fell in love with so many years before.

When the world saw you, I helped you to Go.
My breath caught in my chest,
My heart skipped,
As you opened your wings.

Watching my grandchildren grow is a blessed opportunity for me. I have jokingly called my twelve-year-old grandson my fifth child.  As he continues to see the world and mature, I am so grateful to be able to have had so much time with him, and now that my granddaughters are growing up as well, I am doubly blessed to spend days watching them twirl in tutus and crowns, put on rock star concerts, and accomplish everything from drawing the perfect Rainbow to perfecting their backfloat.

Today, as you celebrate the love you have for your husband, boyfriend, friends, children, and grandchildren, I hope you get a moment to hug, kiss, and express your love everyone who is important to you.

Some other sites with thoughtful intentions from or to grandparents and their grandchildren if you are searching for loving words today:

Grandparents Day Poem (christiangrandparents.com)

Grandchild a Special Time for You (nanascorner.com)

Grandchildren (familyfriendpoems.com)

Prayer for my Grandchild (marilynspoetry.com)

Grandmother Poems, Verses, and Quotes (love of poems.com)

 

Related articles

• A Growing Population: Grandchild Caregivers (lifefoneblog.com)
• Heart Applique T-Shirts for Valentine’s Day (artfulparent.com)

Making a Memory with Your Grandchild

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One of the most amazing things I take away from spending my days with my Grandchildren, especially my twelve year old grandson, is that they have absolutely no concept that my husband and I are – OLD!  They look at us in the same the category as their parents, people who are older, who tell them what to do, who take care of them, who love and accept them.  They do not have any inkling that we have all the things that come along with natural aging: arthritis, the occasional lapse of memory, cardiac or high blood pressure.

That does not mean that I am not aware of it, though.  And I think to myself, how can I make a memory that will last?  My oldest daughter remembers her grandmother waiting inside by the snow to help her strip down and warm herself by the stove after making snow angels.  My youngest son remembers that his grandmother always had cheese puffs.  My middle child remembers golfing with her grandmother.  Each of these memories are instances that my children smile, even though now that they are approaching middle age, excepting my husband’s mother, their grandparents have been gone from us for several years.

One national survey of grandparents reported that a variety of activities were engaged in with grandchildren such as:

• Joking and kidding
• Giving money
• Talking about growing up
• Giving advice
• Discussing problems
• Going to church/synagogue
• Providing discipline
• Taking a day trip
• Teaching a skill or game
• Watching TV together
• Talking about parent/child disagreements

I recently read an article that suggested memorializing your life history on tape.  That is definitely an option, but my family tends to put more value on playing together.  We go to our grandchildren’s sporting events and dress up with beads or pom-poms from our local party store in their team colors. We like to attend dance recitals and school events like art shows, science fairs, or plays and bring flowers from the backyard for a job well done.

I suggest making a list (or using the one above as a starter) to think about what you can do to create a memory and plan it out.  One of my girlfriends who does not live in the same state as her grandchildren has annual summer “Grandma Camp” where she flies the kids out and takes them on an exhausting whirlwind week full of things that the kids love to do. Everyone looks forward to that – mom and dad get a weekend to “get away” and she gets to create a tradition to pass down. But whatever you do, cherish it, just like when your children were little, your grandchildren will also grow up, and you are a valuable contributor to that process!

 

• Grandparents Play a Big Role in Families (Mississippi University)
• Grandparents play a Vital Role in Child Development (Fathers For Life)
• Grandparenting in the Digital Age (education.com)
• Grandparents, how will you be remembered? (examiner.com)

Ways to Teach Children About Money

Unless you are Puxatony Phil or live in a cooler area like those poor souls from Boston, you are likely to think that Spring is nearly here! In addition to warmer weather, the return of baseball, and gardens blooming, the changing of the seasons will also bring you several opportunities to teach kids about money. It’s never too early (or late!) to put them on the road to lifelong financially savvy decisions, so as you get ready for the end of winter, think about activities you can share that will teach them about money, as well as give you some fun family time. Here are examples to get you started.

Yard Sale

Spring cleaning will help clear the cobwebs out of the house and your brain after a long winter cooped up inside, and it will give you the time to decide what possessions your family no longer needs. Most families can stand to do this more than once a year, and even the most change-averse child will be excited to learn that old toys can be converted into cash at a yard sale.

Between advertising, pricing items, making change, and responsibly spending the spoils, a family yard sale is an excellent teachable moment for your grandchildren. If they are old enough to remember when the no-longer loved toy was new, it will be good for them to see that possessions do not necessarily keep their value. Watching customers haggling with you over prices will provide them with a priceless introduction to the power of negotiation. Even learning that yard sales do not do well on weekdays or rainy days will help children to understand that it’s important to always have a backup plan. Overall, you will clear your house of clutter and teach some valuable lessons on how finances work. It’s a win-win.

Mowing Lawns

It’s a grand tradition for neighborhood teenagers to earn money by doing yard work for others. This spring, why not encourage your tween or teen to canvass the neighbors for lawn-mowing/ house help opportunities? This can help your child to understand that savvy pricing of his services, good advertising (even if it’s just word of mouth) and excellent service will translate to more money in his pocket. By giving him control of his own miniature business (provided he is allowed to borrow the family mower), you will give him a basic understanding of the relationship between money and hard work.

Lemonade Stands

For smaller children, there is no more quintessential summer experience than opening a lemonade stand. While this may be no more elaborate than setting up a card table on the sidewalk in front of your house, you can make the entire experience more memorable and educational through planning. Decide where and when you will set up your lemonade stand. For example, if there is a nearby park, festival or farmer’s market in your neighborhood, choose to put up your stand to take advantage of the foot traffic. (Do make sure that you are allowed to do so ahead of time, however). Include your grandchildren in the shopping for the lemons, sugar and ice so that they can help decide on an appropriate price per glass and estimate how much profit you will make. Determine fun and easy ways to advertise (like posters at nearby intersections) so that they can see the power of advertising to help to bring more customers.

Spring and summer provide you with some unique opportunities to teach your grandchildren about money. By making these lessons fun, you’ll help your kids to see that money is something worth learning about.

Related articles

• 17 Tips for a Successful Yard Sale (changingthesubject.wordpress.com)
• Having a Successful Garage Sale                                                                                         (moneysavingmom.com)
• Perfect Lemonade                                                                                 (simplyrecipes.com)
• Homemade Lemonade                                                                         (familyfun.go.com)

Things to Teach Your Grandchildren

Grandparents play an important role in the lives of their grandchildren as role models, mentors, caregivers, and friends.  The non-judgemental, unconditional acceptance of a grandparent creates a special bond that children treasure.  This special bond is fallow ground for teaching and learning.  There is no limitation to what grandparents can teach their grandchildren. 

Family History and Traditions

There are no better storytellers than experienced storytellers, and no better stories than the ones that involve your grandchildren’s parents, aunts and uncles.  You Grandchildren will love to hear about the rain dance ceremony their parents used to put on in the driveway whenever it got cloudy so they could splash in the puddles, or how you used to theme their Halloween costumes and their dad was always the odd man out: a fire hydrant when the other three were Dalmatians, or a peanut when they were Elephants. 

 How to Make Paper Dolls, Paper Airplanes and Home-Made Sailboats

 Children today grow up with non-stop media: television, computers and video games.  Many children have never played with paper dolls or learned how to make a paper airplane or create a sailboat out of wood, a straw and a handkerchief.  Grandparents can teach their grandchildren that yesterday’s toys are still great fun to play with today.

That When Somebody Wrongs You, It’s Best to Turn the Other Cheek

Grandparents can have a moral influence on their grandchildren.  When the grandchildren are facing a difficult situation, grandparents can guide them into reasoned choices and help them to grant forgiveness.

How to Bake Cookies and Do Other Fun Things

I taught my grandchildren how to bake cookies, and this was one of the biggest highlights of their little lives.  They cracked eggs and measured and stirred.  They rolled out dough and cut out stars, Santas, angels and reindeer.  Once the cookies were baked, they decorated them with sugars and frosting.  Yum!

To Respect People

We strive to instill the value of respect for self and for others.  My oldest grandson’s parents are divorced and remarried and we always demonstrate love and compassion to his father and stepmother, even when he is frustrated with them, and even though sometimes our daughter does not understand.  We explain that he is part of his mom and his dad and that we love all parts of him and that means all parts of them.  We also teach our grandchildren that acceptance begins within yourself, and to truly love and respect others, you must love yourself.

To Use Resources Wisely

This is a chance for you to show your grandchild that you can Go Green too.  We recycle, we use the backyard to teach about sustenance living by growing our own fruits, herbs and vegetables and incorporating them into our cooking.  We make games out of saving electricity and water. This is fun as well as a great life lesson.

To Save for a Rainy Day

We are very fortunate and are able to spoil our grandchildren.  We do on occasion give them gifts and money, but we always impress upon them saving for a rainy day and having financial goals.   We talk about what they want to save their money for and how they will achieve the amount of money needed for big ticket items… and we never accept “wait for Papa to buy it” as an answer.

That They Belong

Grandparents have a special chance to teach their grandchildren that they always have somewhere to go, and that they are an invaluable contributor to a greater group of people.  I keep a room in my house just for the grandkids, it is decorated with the things that are important to them.  My oldest grandson, who is twelve, has been known to tell his mom he has three houses: hers, his dad’s and ours. 

That They are Special

We all have bad days, disappointments, and times when we are frustrated.  But knowing there are people in the world who think you are amazing is what keeps us going when times are tough.  My grandson’s artwork was featured at a school art show.  When we came home, we had an auction to determine who got to keep that special picture, of course Papa outbid even mom for that honor.  We have hung the artwork in his office for all to see how very talented and special our grandson is.  Even years later he smiles at the memory of how badly everyone wanted that picture, and just because he drew it.

 

 

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• Grammies and Grampas sometimes take themselves too seriously! (grammieknows.wordpress.com)

Teach Your Grandchildren the Value of Money

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Some of my most enduring childhood memories involve my mother taking me to the Bank of Lincolnwood in Illinois. Even now, I can picture her giving the teller my father’s paycheck and getting cash back — cash that she’d then use to purchase our family’s groceries and other necessities. I also recall watching my parents pay bills together every month. Even as a young girl, I understood that my father went off to work every day to earn money for our household.

Chances are good that you, too, brought your children along with you to deposit paychecks at the bank and make cash withdrawals. Maybe they also watched you balance the family checkbook and pay monthly bills. Perhaps they noticed as you put a coveted item on layaway at a store, or heard you talk about saving up to pay for a coveted item. They probably paid attention, too, as you counted out cash to buy gas and groceries.

But in this age of ATMs, credit cards, and direct deposit, your grandchild could be forgiven for not having a clue about cold, hard cash — where it comes from, and what it’s used for. In today’s online-banking society, there are simply fewer tangible, visual connections between kids and cash — and therefore fewer opportunities to teach them about money.

As a grandparent, you can play an active role in helping your grandchild make those connections. Here are a few ways to start:

Talk About Money

With your child’s blessing, of course, you can help your grandchild learn about money simply by discussing it. Talk about how Mommy and Daddy go to work each day to earn money for the family, or explain how you saved part of your paycheck when you worked in order to have money to live on in retirement. Keep the message age-appropriate, but help your grandchild understand that money is something you earn and use to live on.

Start a Habit of Saving

Even young kids can get into the habit of saving, and watching their nickels and dimes (or, when they’re older, dollars) add up. This can give any child a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Give young grandchildren a piggy bank as a gift and a little change to get them started, or help older kids start a money-market savings account at a bank. Search online with them to find the bank that offers the best interest rate — and explain to them what that means.

Take Financial Field Trips

The next time you need to deposit a check or get cash, skip the ATM and bring your grandchild with you to visit the teller. She might be amazed to discover that most banks are actual brick-and-mortar structures! This gives you an opportunity to teach your grandchild that you have to put money into your account in order to get money out. Of course, that lesson can apply at the ATM, too. Make sure your grandchildren understand that the nice little machine doesn’t simply spit out limitless numbers of $20 bills.

Or consider visiting these educational destinations as financial field trips. In New York City you can witness the bustle of Wall Street and visit the Museum of American Finance; in Philadelphia or Denver, you can take free tours of the United States Mint and watch coins being produced.

Give Money-Smart Gifts

You might already be giving your grandchildren gifts of money, but you can also give them the gift of a financial education. Consider getting young grandchildren a book about money. Search Amazon.com books under “children’s books, money” for a list of available titles, including Nancy Loewen’s Save, Spend, or Donate? A Book about Managing Money (Picture Window Books, 2005) or Diane Mayr’s The Everything Kids’ Money Book: From Saving to Spending to Investing – Learn All About Money! (Adams Media Corporation, 2002).

If your grandchildren are older, consider giving them a consultation with a financial planner. I have clients who bring their young kids in and we briefly discuss stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

Use Cash

If you do get money from the bank or an ATM with your grandchildren in tow, make sure they see you use it — at the McDonald’s drive-thru, toy store, or gas station. Show your grandchild how much cash you had, how much what you’re buying costs, and the change with which you’re left after purchasing the item.

Kids need to know the value of money, how it’s earned, and what it’s used for. By exposing them to actual currency you can help impart these lessons. So go ahead, show your grandchildren the money: You can give them a lasting gift without actually spending a dime.

Bambi Holzer, contributor at grandparents.com

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• Teens, Tweens and Finances (blogher.com)

Playing with Your Grandchildren – It’s Important!

Play is one of the most overlooked important things that we can do with our grandchildren which benefits us as much as it benefits them.  Hopefully you are a young grandparent, like I am, and you can get down on the floor and chase toddlers on your hands and knees.  Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely days I have to put the heating pad across my shoulders at night, but for the most part, I have as much fun as they do.  Even if you have physical limits, some of the play you can participate in is mental, and that is just as important! The more activity we participate in, the less likely we are to suffer the effects of aging on our bodies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Council on Aging agree with me.  They have published articles on the importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong adult-child bonds.  You can follow these links for more information:

http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;119/1/182

http://www.healthyagingprograms.org/content.asp?sectionid=73

Or you can just take my word for it, what is above is a bunch of scientific gobbledy-gook, and I bet if you have grandchildren, you also have better things to do.

There are several types of play, you can follow the six types of play laid out by child Psychologist Jean Piaget, or you can follow my more practical list. Each has distinct benefits for your grandchildren and some happens at different times, my goal here is to introduce you to some different types of play, and then follow up with how they benefit you and your grandchild.

Pretend Play

There is a ton of information out there about the relationship between “high-quality pretend play” and your grandchild’s smarts. It helps them think, socialize, speak better, and perform better in school.  I am not sure what high quality is, but if that includes putting on rock star shows where my four year old granddaughter climbs up on the coffee table stage and sings her best made up song while I cheer her on, I have this one covered!  For you, pretend play helps keep your brain active – and an active brain is the best way to prevent against diseases common in older people, like dementia.

Baby Play

Playing with babies may seem silly, but even if you have physical limitations, you can hold and gaga at your grandbaby.  This very early play time is essential for developing bonds, creating early social skills, developing brains, learning movements, and school readiness.  That’s right, simply holding your grandbaby and making eye contact while you sing their favorite song helps them get ready for the repetition they will face in school. And passing them a toy or rattle helps them learn special awareness and coordination. For you, baby play just plain feels good.  Growing social and emotional connections and knowing you are an invaluable contributor to your grandchild’s development from the start is important for everyone’s emotional health.

Solitary Play

Playing alone is an important part of developing play skills.  For this, all you have to do is set up the area that your grandchild can navigate on their own: books, balls, puzzles, blocks, stuffed animals, art or coloring.  This helps your grandchild develop and master new skills, learn leadership skills, independent thinking, and social security.  To keep them learning regularly exchange the play items for new ones so they gets lots of opportunities to experience new things.  For you: Not much, it is way more fun to be involved that to be an onlooker, but watching your grandchildren as they master new skills can definitely give you something to brag about to your friends.

Sensory Play

Until last year, this was a whole new concept for me.  My youngest grandson faced some very difficult challenges making his way into this world.  He was born with partial right side paralysis and some minor neurological deficits.  His mother and I were surprised to discover a whole area of play focused just on developing your grandchild’s senses. Containers of water, dirt, sandboxes, spoons, measuring cups and your help will allow your grandchild’s math skills to blossom.  Like solitary play, you can set up an area for the two of you to discover what happens when your grandchild scoops sand into a container of water (the water line goes up!).  But unlike solitary play, you play too.  The advantage for you: the fine hand and finger movements help keep arthritis at bay, and the thinking involved in creating the next sensory experiment will keep your brain young!

Guided Play

This type of play is play that you design for your grandchild to participate in.  This type of play is important in developing the foundation for social skills, give and take negotiations, and learning.  You can create a theme, build off a favorite story, or make an enticing change to your house, like tossing a sheet over the sofa and coffee table to go “camping”.  After that, your grandchild takes off with the rest, and your job is to follow, but reinforce the boundries of the activity, her imagination might build an alien zoo in your outer-space, but not at Cinderella’s castle. For you: again that pesky “keep your brain young” advantage.  And depending on how active your creation is, you could also benefit from moving your body to stave off the affects of inactivity. Imagination is fantastic!

Physical Play

This rough and tumble play is close encounter play.  It is not fighting, but it does involve touching, tickling, gauging strength, discovering physical limitations or advantages.  You can encourage physical play through a game of tag, a game of kick, or a game of catch.  There are endless ways to encourage and participate in physical play, and it is important for developing bodies to gain new physical skills, like skipping, jumping, rolling, and running. For you the advantage is staving off age-related diseases like obesity, arthritis, or loss of flexibility.  If you can participate at all in physical play, I highly recommend it.

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Financial Advice For Your Grandchildren

Financial advice is simple on the surface. Save your pennies. Don’t buy without shopping around.  Do your homework. Don’t spend more than you earn.

The details surrounding the financial basics, though, are always changing, and therefore require some knowledge and training to navigate.

I have spent some time examining how financial experts advise their own grandchildren, and the secrets necessary to teach your “accounting students” are actually quite simple.

Start Them Early

Good financial habits are so important, you should take action to instill in them your grandchildren as early as possible. Spontaneous lessons as opportunity arrives are just as important as deliberate money-management planning strategies such as maintaining a budget and having a savings.

Help Them Choose Wisely

Laying a foundation of money management skills can start with simple lessons.

Two year old Jax wants everything when I walk into a store with him. Setting limits and expectations early is an important lesson, so sometimes I will say no, and talk about the importance of staying within our family budget. Or I will force him to choose one item under a certain dollar amount using a brief explanation about staying within our means or not dipping into savings for things we want.

Discussions on wants versus needs can occur everywhere: the grocery store, the mall, even at the playground, when you grandchild says she “needs” and extra five minutes of playtime.  

Conversations on the value of their time (using the “time is money” statement), and how much of it to dedicate to one activity over another can occur anywhere around the house.

Teach them to Save & Spend Smart

Your grandchildren can’t save much if they aren’t spending their money shrewdly. Helping them plan specific financial goals, knowing what amount of money is required to fund them can start at any age.

Joe Kovac, a former CFO and founder of JTK Consulting, suggests starting off with a modest allowance: “Have your grandchildren accept responsibility for some of their own expenses, even at five years old they can learn to spend carefully. Instead of buying them a treat at the grocery store, have them purchase it.  This teaches them how far a dollar really goes, and helps them learn to make choices.”  If you cringe at not spoiling your grandchildren, you can provide the allowance – and the lesson. In addition, he advocates having children save fifty percent of their allowance a week, starting immediately.

“I use a 50%, 30%, 20% model.  My grandchildren can immediately spend 50% of their allowance on anything they want, place 30% into what we call ‘short term savings’ for bigger items they want, like a toy or a doll that may take three or four weeks to save for, and 20% into what we call ‘long term savings’.  Long term savings are for special occasions, like free spending on a summer vacation.  I use the words ‘long term’ relatively, three months is an absolute eternity for a five year old, but a year is reasonable if your grandchild is ten”.

Set the Example

The most influential financial advisor isn’t the one your grandchildren will hire — it’s you, according to John Brown, the author of How to Run Your Business So You Can Leave it in Style (Amacom Books, 1993) and founder of the Golden, Colorado-based Business Enterprise Institute, an organization that helps business owners sell their companies or leave them to the next generation.

His advice, regardless of what your child does for their career:  “You have to be consistent. If you’re telling them not to spend a lot, but you do the opposite, it’s not very effective.”

 

Steer them Away From Unnecessary Risk

It is hard not to become attracted to credit cards. They are so readily available and allow them to attain more now and pay later, so it’s easy to understand why your grandchildren may be pulled into purchasing more than they can really afford.

Teach your grandchildren about the importance of living within their means and finding creative inexpensive solutions to satisfy their needs.

Investing Wisely

Some debt is good. It is possible to intelligently balance borrowing with investment returns. For example, rather than prepaying a tax-deductible 6 percent mortgage, the extra cash could be used to contribute to a retirement plan that could earn a tax-deferred 8 percent average rate of return.

You can teach your grandchildren to write out a financial plan, including their goals, starting at a very young age, and have them practice thinking through all of their options before making financial decisions.

You can’t stress enough to your grandchildren to start investing as early as possible. Those who start saving at age 25 have, on average, 40 percent more money when they retire than someone who begins at age 35, because the money has more time to grow.

Related articles

• 5 Unconventional Ways to Squeeze Extra Cash Out of Your Budget (dailyfinance.com)
• Raising Grandchildren (grandmacents.com)

Love Curtain

The night before Valentine’s Day,  wait until the grandkids are asleep, then tape ribbons with hearts on them from the top of their bedroom door frames.  If you grandchildren do not live with you, you can have this set up at the front door for them to walk through when they arrive.  Some hearts can smiley faces or stickers on them, but  favorites will always have reminders of your affection.  ‘We love you’, pet names, meaningful inside jokes, coupons for hugs and kisses can be hidden in the heart messages… the grandkids will love walking through them for more than just this one day.

For a twist, help them make heart curtains to hang at their houses for their parents!

Colored paper

• Tape

• Ribbon

 

1. Cut heart shapes out of the colored paper, some a bit smaller than others. If you are not comfortable just cutting, you can pre-buy doilies in different sizes or use a cookie cutter as a template.
2. Tape the smaller and larger hearts together, as shown, and write your Valentine message on them.
3. Tape the hearts onto a few lengths of cut ribbon and tape (or tack) the ribbons, like a curtain, onto your child’s bedroom door frame.

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Valentine’s Day Hugs

These Paper Hugs, created with your grandchild’s handprints, are a whimsical way for your grandchild to get creative by giving hugs to all of his favorite people, even the ones who live far away.  A teacher in Utah suggested this idea, and I just think this project is sure to become a keepsake that is proudly displayed for many Valentine’ Day to come 

• Pencil
• Scissors

• Colored markers (plus stickers, paint, or crayons, if you like)
• Ribbon

 

1. Trace your right hand on the right end of the paper and your left hand on the left end. Draw 2 horizontal lines to connect the hand outlines and form one long “arm.”
2. Cut out the hug and decorate it using markers, stickers, paints, or crayons. You can help the youngest ones write a clever message… ‘I Love You THIS Much.’  If you do help your grandchild write something, let them have the chance to add their own special touch by signing their name, writing their own sentence or drawing a picture.
3. Then roll up the hug, tie it with a ribbon, and have your grandchild give it to their valentine.  

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