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grandparenting
THREE: Join us for a Grandparenting River Cruise where we will cover the same Masterclass topics but in the intimate and interactive confines of a cruise down the Rhine where we will get a chance to know each other personally even as we hone our grandparenting skills. Let us know if you are interested in this course, either this Fall or next Spring, by simply sending an “I’m interested” email to our pseudo- nym account DrBridell@gmail.com and we will send you details as they become available. FOUR: Simply think of two or three other grandparents who live near you and have grandkids roughly the same age as yours and go to lunch or dinner together once a month and talk about your grandkids—about how they are doing, about what you worry about, about things you are trying to teach them and fun experiences you are having with them. Brainstorm and learn from each other. Don’t try to figure out grandparenting on your own! Learn from others. Take courses. Get serious and get moti- vated. Be the best grandparent you can be. Nothing is more important!
” ONE: Start a Grandparents’ Joy School. Joy School is still going strong. With complete and easy-to-use lesson plans, stories, and games that teach preschoolers the physical, mental, emotional, and emotional JOYS of life, it works beautifully with grandparents as the teachers. Form a little group with two or three other grandparents of preschoolers and go here to get the tried-and-proven curriculum. TWO: Join us for a 5-session Masterclass on Becoming a GRAND Grandparent. This interactive Zoom course will be online every Wednesday evening in May and will be recorded for class members who can’t make it live to every session. In it, we will discuss the best grandparenting ideas, methods, and approaches from around the world… how to work in teamwork with your kids-the-parents…how to listen and communicate better with grandkids…how to pull everyone together and have the kind of reunions and gatherings that bond cousins and create synergis- tic relationships…how to support grandkids financially in ways that motivate rather than entitle…how to leave a The bottom line is that when we gather with other grandparents, we get better at grandparenting.
Don’t try to figure out grandparenting on your own! Learn from others. Decades ago, when our books Teaching Children Joy and Teaching Children Values were national best-sellers, we developed a preschool curriculum called Joy Schools where moms would form neighborhood groups and rotate teaching their collective kids. We found that while the mom-teachers loved the social/emotional lesson plans, but interestingly, they also LOVED the moms’ groups—just getting together and talking about their kids, their challenges, their family hopes and dreams. They said that when they got together, they felt more connected, more motivated as parents, and less alone. And guess what! The same applies to us as grandpar- ents. When we gather with other grandparents and talk about our grandkids, about what and how we want to teach them, about being proactive and involved without stepping on the toes of the parents, about our worries and concerns, and just about any good grandparenting ideas we have become aware of…we get more excited and more knowledgeable about the whole thing! Here are four good opportunities for learning and gath- ering as grandparents:
Richard and Linda Eyre’s parenting and life-balance books have reached millions and been translated into a dozen languages. As fellow Baby Boomers, their passion and their writing focus has now shifted to the joy of Grandparenting. Linda’s latest book is Grandmothering , Richard’s is Being a Proactive grandfather , and their latest co- authored book is Life in Full.
values and faith legacy that grandkids reso- nate with and respond to. Simply go here and sign up . As a reader of GRAND maga- zine, you can get a 40% discount. Just enter GP101 in the Coupon Code section on the checkout page and hit apply when you register.
12 GRANDP arenting
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