This week help your kids get to know their relatives by centering your weeks' activities around them.
Start out by sending a few questions out to your relatives. Ask them things about themselves that you would like to share with your children.
Do they have a favorite food? favorite dessert?
What are their hobbies? What are they afraid of? What kinds of activities did they do with their families when they were younger? Do they have a favorite memory from their childhood?
Compile their answers and dedicate each day of the following week to a certain family member, or a group of family members.
Here's what we did.
Day one was Great Grandma and Grandpa G day.
At breakfast that morning, we read an account that Gma had written about some of her childhood memories. My girls got a kick out of her experiences and found a lot of similarities between their interests and hers. We talked about some of my own memories of my Grandparents, and about the things I loved most about them. That day we ate a few of their favorite foods, played their favorite childhood game (kick the can) and made a craft in honor of Grandpa's profession: Making false teeth.
The next day was Great Gma and Gpa Z.
We started the day talking about Daddy's memories of his grandparents, and I read their answers to my questions aloud. We found out that Gramma Z's fav game growing up was Dodge Ball! So of course we had to play. Then we had a yummy lunch consisting of Grandpa Z's favorite: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with soup. The girls enjoyed learning about their hobbies and fears as well as Granpa's favorite tv shows. Miss Hayley found out that her and her Great Grandpa share a common interest: Fishing!
Grandma and Grandpa S: were next.
We started the day similar to the others, but this time over Pancakes! (Which just so happens to be Gpa's favorite breakfast. We found out that one of his favorite childhood memories was laying in the grass and smelling his Mom's homemade cookies in the breeze. Since baking is a hobby of Grandma's we baked some yummy choc. chip cookies together. That night we played one of Grandma's favorite games: Red Light Green Light.
On Papa's birthday we honored him with his favorite dinner: Tacos, and talked about one of his most embarrassing moments as a child, freezing on stage in the middle of a talent show :) This helped miss Hayley feel better about some of the silly things that she considers to be embarassing moments in her life :). We had fun discussing my memories of him. We plan to finish 'Papa day' this evening with a game of baseball and a round of Big Booty. :)
We have several family members to honor yet, and we are so excited to continue with this activity. My children now know so much more about their Grandparents and have developed an appreciation for, and a special connection with them by experiencing the things they've experienced.
Try it out and let me know what you do!
