Jan Eby - The Grammie Guide: Activities and Answers for Grandparenting Today

PRAISE FOR THE GRAMMIE GUIDE

The authors who all have backgrounds in early childhood education, bring healthy doses of encouragement, research and guidance to their debut book(their) tips are specific, useful and up-to-datein both their advice and the personal stories they share throughout the book, the authors make their enthusiasm for grandmas clear, and its positively infectious. An excellent guide, full of friendly advice and inspiration for proud grandmas.

KIRKUS REVIEWS

The Grammie Guide will increase your awareness, playfulness and resourcefulness. While you dont need a book to love your grandchildren, this one will definitely enrich the time you spend together!

RAHIMA BALDWIN DANCY, early childhood educator and author of You Are Your Childs First Teacher

Where was this book when I was a new grandmother? It would have become my bible for grandparentinga MUST for every new grandparent and a wonderful entertaining and helpful resource for those of us who have been at it for over 20 years!

KATHARINE A. PERKO, former Arizona County Superintendent of Schools and Grandmother of 10

In this rapidly changing and often stressful worldThe Grammie Guide is just what grandparents need to refresh and update the knowledge and skills they learned from parenting their own children.

DIANE E. LEVIN, PH.D., Professor of Early Childhood Education, Wheelock College, co-author: So S-xy So Soon: The New S-xualized Childhood & What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids

The Grammie Guide gets back to the basicsIts through the strengthening of imagination and role-playing that [children] develop a positive sense of self. This book gives grandmothers the know-how to form strong bonds with their grandkidsTruly a great tool based on sound child development research.

JOHN PINA, PH.D., child and family psychologist

I loved it and was inspired by it! What a treat it is, so full of positive energy, creativity and fun. I have 5- and 8-year-old granddaughters and even though the book is technically for little ones, there are LOTS of ideasto share with them.

PAOLA GIANTURCO, author of Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon

Four fabulous Grammies have done everything possible to make your life as a grandmother easy, simple, and most of all, FUN! This book satisfies every need and every question.

SHARON LOVEJOY, author/illustrator of Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars and Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots

The Grammie Guide, based on both time-honored wisdom and recent research, is a widely inclusive guide to making the most of time with young grandchildren. A first time grammie will find great guidance here, and those with experience will find new sources of inspiration. It goes to the heart of what grammies can provideone of the most special of relationships.

JUDITH A. MURPHY, M.D., Stanford University-trained pediatrician

How lucky we are to have a volume of inspirationto nurturetreasured relationships between generations. Not only have the authors gathered tried-and-true ideas from their role as grandmothers, but also in their professional roles as educators of young children.

ANNA RAINVILLE, M.A., Waldorf teacher, mentor, author and Ambassador for the Decade of Childhood

An amazing and helpful book of activities and advice I especially recommend the guides approach to creativity and exploratory quality artYour young grans will have so much fun exploring their inner Picasso, van Gogh, Dali and Pollock.

MARYANN F. KOHL, author of more than 20 award winning art books for children, www.brightring.com

Multigenerational families may be (and should be) the best thing that ever happened to children. The Grammie Guide helps to set the stage for guidance about being the best grandparent ever.

LAURA L. CARSTENSEN, PH.D., Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy, Professor of Psychology, and Director, Stanford Center on Longevity

Reading all of these wonderful ideas makes me look forward to being a great-grandmother someday.

BETTY PECK, ED.D., author and revered kindergarten teacher for over 50 years

Grandparents, look no furtherIts all here. Parents, aunts, uncles and care givers, this is for you toostock full of helpful, clever and practical projects and ideas.

VALERIE V. LEWIS, nationally known author, expert on childrens literature and founder of highly acclaimed Hicklebees Bookstore in California

Winner of the 2013 Best Book Award in the Grandparenting/Parenting Category

BAY AREA INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

The

Grammie

GUIDE

Text copyright 2012 by Jan Eby, Laurie Mobilio, Lynne Noel, Cindy Summers

Illustrations copyright 2012 by Phyllis Harris

Introduction 2012 by Linda Lear

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval systemexcept in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviewswithout written permission from the publisher.

Book design by Katie Jennings

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data (Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Eby, Jan. The grammie guide : [activities and answers for grandparenting today / Jan Eby et al.; illustrations by Phyllis Harris]. p. : ill. ; cm.

Written by Jan Eby, Laurie Mobilio, Lynne Noel, and Cindy Summers.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-1-4675-4486-3

1. Grandparenting--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Child care--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. Play--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4. Creative activities and seat work--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Harris, Phyllis, 1962- II. Title.

HQ759.9 .E29 2012

306.874/5

Second Printing, 2013.

Published by Tell-A-Gram Publishing, LLC in the United States.

1173 Shasta Avenue, San Jose, California 95126.

www.thegrammieguide.com

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Like raising a child, writing and publishing a book is both challenging and rewarding. We gratefully acknowledge those who supported us throughout the process: Ellen E.M. Roberts for her expertise and fresh perspective as we developed the raw manuscript into the book you see today; Katie Jennings for her inspired design and cheerful readiness to make yet another tweak; our families and friends whose enthusiasm for the book sustained us; and finally our husbands. Little did any of us know how long this project would take. Bruce, Dave, Dick and Jim, thank you for your patience and encouragement. We know there were times when you wondered if this book would be finished before we all became great grandparents!

WE LOVINGLY DEDICATE THIS BOOK

first to our children who made us grandmothers

and then, of course, to our precious grandchildren:

Elizabeth, Caroline, Casey, Luke, Noah, Ryan, Ellie, Annie,

Carter, Connor, Riley, Tyler, Ellis, Cami, Tanner, Jackson,

Cassidy, Sawyer, Reagan, Brock, Shea, and J.J.

You have been and continue to be our inspiration.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

We four friends, two of us early childhood educators, became grandmothers within a few years of each other. Just as we had shared so much as mothers, we now began sharing our experiences as grandmothers. Best of all was our exchange of ideas for fun activities with our newest family membersgames to play, songs to sing, books to read and places to go with our young grandchildren. Time passed and we continued collecting ideas, often being asked by other friends such questions as: What book or toy would a three-year-old like? What were the words to that marching song? How do you make playdough?