It was a Saturday afternoon.
My Grandson Dee, age 4 and his sister Ella, age 2 and I were playing with Play Doh. First I asked them what color the sheep's coat should be Dee chose green, so I filled up my little sheep with green play dough and the little guy grew a long long green coat. Ella watched, fascinated. Then we gave the farmer long red hair, which I then cut with my little Play Doh scissors.
Then Dee showed me how he had learned to roll out dough and cut out stars. He held each finished star for me to examine and then placed them carefully in a row.
"So", you say, "what is so amazing about an afternoon playing with my grandkids?" Well, they live in Kentucky and I live 5,000 miles away in Utah and we were using Skype to connect. They were playing with play doh on their end and I on my end.
It was surprising how long they kept interest in the activity. Ella asked her Mom to help make a bracelet. My daughter rolled out the dough like a snake and then made Ella blue bracelet. Then Ella watched in as I made myself a yellow one to match.
It was so fun!!! The only thing missing was a hug. We will have to work on that one.
Over the next few weeks, I'd like for us to share ideas and suggestions of ways to use technology to stay connected to family. Especially across generations.
What have you been doing to keep those family relationships strong? How has technology helped?
What a great idea! I really need to get on board with the skype thing. . . a few piano teachers actually use it to teach piano lessons to students who live on a different continent! As far as ideas, I suppose you could cound Facebook as a nice way to keep up with what is happening in the lives of others. We get to hear about cute and funny things that the kiddo's do, and the little stuff that is happening in one anothers lives. :-)
ReplyDeleteVIDEO! I love seeing video of my grandchildren. Then I can watch it again and again and again. Video email is fun too!
ReplyDeleteI agree Deanna, facebook has been tons of fun. I have plans to capture all those little notes posted about the grandkids but so far have not been too consistent. But at the end of the year, these comments all put together could be a fun little book. Let me know how the piano experiment works. If you want someone to practice on, give me a call.. but it would need to be kindergarten variety piano.
ReplyDeleteCoach Penny, how do you capture and send these videos? They seem like big files to email.
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