Nurturing Creativity in Your Grandchildren
Our gracious host, Judy, provided a beautiful space for us to share our projects. A former kindergarten teacher, Judy recently got out her old Teaching Montessori in the Home for inspiration with her granddaughter. She
plans to do finger painting with chocolate or butterscotch pudding along with pouring
and measuring water with her.
Leslie made a book on Shutterfly for her grandson. She missed his birth while traveling in Africa, so she used her photos of animals and created
"African Tale: Nana's Adventure While Waiting For You." She gave it to him for
his first Christmas. The back cover shows an elephant with the caption "African tail." She also shared the website for creating personalized books with your grandchild's name.
Jessie puts out markers for her grandson who loves to draw and
pretends to sign his name. When Jessie babysits, she takes photos with her cell
phone of whatever they're doing e.g., making pancakes. Then sends them to his
parents at work. She clips photos from the newspaper and sends them to her grandson.
Heidi took her grandson and granddaughter on a tour of Harley Farms in Pescadero, CA to see goats and
learn how goat cheese is made. She was inspired to make a book of their tour because her granddaughter always says 'member when we...?
Janet is a beader and helped her granddaughter make a simple
necklace. She takes her to pre-school art class at Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, CA because she likes music and
dance. Janet bought a dress-up box of costumes at an auction for make-believe play. (Carol F. suggested flowing scarves for the wardrobe box which can be found at Magic Cabin.)
Three Years
Dee helped her granddaughter make a clock on a Styrofoam plate with cutout numbers
from colored construction paper and hands that move.  They also made cute practical gifts of electric cord holders made from cardboard paper towel or toilet paper rolls, which they painted
and coated with a spray seal.
Ricka made place mats with her twin grandsons by cutting out animal pictures from National
Geographic and letting the boys glue on the pictures. Then they laminated them at Kinko's. Twice a week, Ricka uses Skype to
"long distance babysit" her grandsons in Seattle and reads them stories for
about 30 minutes. She buys books from the Friends of Palo Alto Library for fifty cents.
Four Years
Carol F. shared the recipe for a "cucumber crocodile"  from Princess Tea that she made for her granddaughter
to encourage her to eat healthy food. She said her five-year old grandson, who usually doesn't like green food,
also ate it because it looked like a crocodile.
Carol T. bought a pink mailbox from Pottery Barn Kids and painted "Chloe's Mail" on one side. Her granddaughter, who lives in Boston, loves to receive  mail. Carol decorated the sides with a castle,
flowers, and ballerina dress. Carol writes twice a week and asks her daughter to
put her letters in Chloe's mailbox by the front entry.
Five Years
Connie takes care of her granddaughter every week. They cook
and sew together. She let Sofia pick out a pattern and fabric
for a dress and then Connie sewed it.
Six Years
Marilyn does 'fantasy play' with her two grandchildren. They all pretend they're different
characters and do weird plays and have silly adventures. They talk about outer space and space ships and party
dresses and castles. It's free and open-ended play and provides lots of funny
conversation. She loves the laughing and hugging best.
Seven Years
Barbara made her granddaughter a picture book for her 7th birthday. On the first page she wrote: 7 is a powerful number and you are a powerful girl, so this year is going to be very special for you. This book describes some of the wonderful things about 7. The book included pictures of the 7 Wonders of the World, colors of the rainbow, the notes on a musical scale, chakras, days of the week, dwarfs, seas, and deadly sins, which she had to "clean up." She ended with 7th heaven, which she explained is an expression to mean great joy as in: Nana is in 7th heaven because she has such a wonderful granddaughter.
Diane bought a gingerbread house kit to assemble with her granddaughter. They also like to do jewelry projects together and string beads in
patterns.
Carolyn bought accordion photo albums at Paper Source then created albums with themes, e.g., funny faces with
captions. She found one of herself with the same funny face as her grandson. Her next one will be "Olivia in Motion."
Eight Years
Terry and her grandson painted large rocks and put felt on the bottom to make
doorstops. They made up a poem to welcome people into their home. They also made bookmarks with his picture on them and used a laminating kit from Target.
Rita wanted to encourage her granddaughter to start a collection, which took off when she started making shapes from fuse beads.  She's made over 50 of them and collects them in a fish bowl. Each
one has a story and she strings them on ribbons to decorate the walls of her
bedroom.
Jan and her granddaughter enjoy designing costumes together from whatever materials they can find around  the house. They recently created a wedding dress from a roll of white tablecloth paper. Jan wrapped her torso in paper and fashioned straps, then connected it all with clear packing tape. The paper was stiff and had a pattern embossed on the edges so it puffed out
perfectly and rustled and swished just right when she walked. She used some scrap paper left from the bodice of the dress to make a veil.
Ten Years
At Carol W's, Friday is "Grandma Day" for two of her granddaughters who "come early and stay late." They all made a decoupage
birdhouse, purchased from Michael's which they decorated with wrapping paper and acrylic paints. Carol pre-selects the projects to insure the outcome
will be a success for them. She teaches them skill building and they'll stay
with it if the results are good.
 They've also made many projects together on Carol's sewing machine: a nightgown, sachets decorated with
junk jewelry, pillows,
place mats with matching napkins, a purse for great-grandma that has a Velcro
pocket to hang on her walker, and a Strawberry Shortcake doll. Now Carol is helping them build a dollhouse because
they're interested in interior design.
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