Fall Books for Grandkids

Reading to grandkids is such a special time. As a former teacher, I know what a difference you can make in a child's life by reading aloud to them regularly.

Don't you love being snuggled up in a chair with your little ones and a book?

Fall Books to Read and Activities to Do with Grandkids 

Today I'm sharing some fun fall books to read paired with related activities your grandkids will love.

Fall Book Suggestions 

Here are a couple of fall-themed books that will be fun to read aloud and also spur some fun follow-up activities.

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Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak for your 2-6-year-old grandkids, is a lovely book focused on the changes in nature we can see as we transition to fall. The pictures provide ample opportunities to identify things and expand vocabulary. Children in this age group are beginning to learn about seasons, weather, and changes in their environment. This book will help with those concepts.

You can also follow up your reading time with age-appropriate activities like:

1. Go for a walk in your neighborhood or a park looking for animals who may be preparing for winter.
2. Identify and gather fall flowers and colorful leaves. Talk about things that are similar and different about your finds.
3. Talk about how the weather changes from summer to fall and what that means in the clothing you wear. Give your child a warm hat in preparation for colder weather. (Extra points if you knit the hat)

 


Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White for the 4-8 year-olds in your life. This book tells the story of a woman faced with too many pumpkins growing in her yard and the challenge of what to do with them.

This is a wordy book, so you'll want to test it out to see if your grandchild is ready to sit and listen. If not, the pictures are detailed and you can adapt the story to meet your grandchild's attention span.

You'll find this book to be a terrific launching pad for a number of fall-themed activities to do with your 4-8-year-old grandchild.

1. Bake together. Pumpkin-flavored muffins, quick bread, or pie
2. Talk about the value of sharing. How was sharing important in the book? How can sharing be something we do in our own lives?
3. Carve or decorate pumpkins together. If you carve the pumpkins, save the seeds for planting in the spring.

Some Tips for Reading Aloud

1. Choose books appropriate for your grandchild's age and attention span.
2. Choose a cozy space for reading. Your grandchild will come to associate reading time with snuggles from grandma.
3. Board books are best for grandkids less than two years old.
4. Books with colorful pictures enhance the story.
5. Be an animated reader. Make silly sounds when appropriate. This is a time for you to be dramatic.
6. Feel free to adapt the story in whatever way you want. Make it fun.

Tips for Distance Grandmas

It sure can be challenging to be a distance grandma but there are ways to get around the challenge of miles.
1. Video yourself reading the book aloud. You can read the book on a video call with your grandchild and send the book to them afterward.
2. Bake muffins or quick bread and send it to your grandchild.
3. Create a scavenger hunt for fall and challenge your grandchild to find the signs of fall. You can find my fall scavenger hunt here.

Plan now for fall activities with your grandkids so you'll be ready.  There's no time like the present to get prepared.

A YES Day with Grandma

Have you heard about "YES" Days?

A Yes Day is one day a year when children can fill their day with hearing "yes" to requests instead of "no". Doesn't this sound like a perfect opportunity for grandmas?

Yes Days have caught on since the publishing of an adorable book called Yes Day, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  In March 2021, you can find it on Netflix.

You can get a preview of the book in this YouTube video.

If you are like me you will fall in love with the idea of Yes Days but will want some limits placed around the day.  I love the Yes Day idea because it can be customized to any age.  That makes it a wonderful annual event. The activities of the day can change annually to reflect the age and preferences of your grandchildren.

You'll want to check to see if Yes Days are already being scheduled in your grandchildren's homes.  If not, this will be an opportunity to start a new annual tradition with your grandchild.  If it is being implemented at home, you can give it your "grandma" special treatment.

Getting Started with Grandma Yes Days

Here are some steps to get started but I encourage you to make Grandma Yes Days your own.

1.  Buy the Yes Day book.

2.  Read the book with your grandchild well in advance of when you will schedule the Yes Day.  I recommend you hold one-on-one Yes Days if you have multiple grandchildren.  That way each grandchild will get a day that is all his/her own. This may not be a practical suggestion for some of you, so you can adapt this plan for multiple grandchildren.

3.  Make a list with each grandchild of the things they would love to do or have on a Yes Day.  Be sure to generate lots of fun and special ideas. You could start by talking about whether any of the ideas from the book would be fun. This is an opportunity to talk with your grandchild about why each request is special for them.  If the idea is impractical for a Yes Day you could start a separate list of "special wishes".  Be sure to discuss why the idea isn't practical for a Yes Day.

3. Record each of the Yes Day requests on a separate slip of paper to be placed in a Yes Day jar or box. You may want to color-code the slips of paper to aid in the selection process on Yes Day.  For example, all food requests go on blue paper, all outdoor activities go on red paper, all arts and crafts activities go on yellow paper, all screen-time activities go on white paper, etc.  Label the container with the child's name and allow the child to decorate it.  Place the container in a safe place and tell the child that one day in the future your will surprise him/her with a Yes Day.

4. Schedule a Yes Day.  You can tell your grandchild in advance or surprise them on the day. Let the child draw a certain number of requests from the container for the day.  This is where the color coding will help.  You may want to limit the requests to one of each color, for example. If you will have multiple grandchildren sharing the Yes Day, each should have a chance to choose the same number of requests from their containers.

5. Be sure to have your camera ready.  This is a perfect opportunity to record the day in videos and photos. 

Make Every Visit with Grandma a Yes Day

You can change this idea by making every visit with Grandma a Yes Day.  Here's how.

1.Follow steps 1 through 3, above.  

2. For every visit with Grandma, allow your grandchild to choose one or two request strips from the container.  You can add limits by guiding your grandchild to choose one of the blue strips.  If you have multiple grandchildren visiting at the same time, one could choose a blue request and one could choose a red request, etc.

3. Once the child's container is empty, refill with a new set of requests.

Yes Day Ideas

Some ideas to get you started:

• Have breakfast for dinner
• Do face painting
• Wear pajamas all day
• Watch a movie
• Have an indoor picnic
• Play a board game
• Read a book
• Make personal pizzas
• Bake cookies
• Stay up a 1/2 hour past bedtime
• Make icecream

Yes Days are a way to build anticipation and excitement into visits with Grandma and create lasting memories. Use them as an opportunity to engage with your grandchildren.  Most of all, have fun!

Reading to grandkids on video can be fun for both Grandmas and grandkids.

We all know that reading to kids is essential on many levels.  It stimulates the child's imagination, introduces new words, creates a love for books, and helps develop creative thought.  It can also help build a bond between the reader and the child.

Tips for Reading to Grandkids on Video

When my boys were growing up, reading time was our favorite time of day.  They loved it and I loved it.  We never had any trouble getting them in bed because reading time was always part of the sleep time preparation.  Even as teenagers they were allowed reading time before lights out.

As a grandma, I was reading time to be a special bonding time with my granddaughters.  When I'm with them I usually find an opportunity to read a book.  I can't always be with them and some of you may be separated by thousands of miles.  Thankfully we have video.

Here are some winter-themed books you will have fun reading to your grandkids.

You can make reading time on videos a fun time for everyone.  Here are some tips.

Preparing to Read on Video

Reading on video is really no different than reading in person.  I do like to prepare in advance.

1. Choose a book with colorful, easy to see pictures.
2. Read through the story in advance so you know what you want to point out in the pictures and any lessons you want to reinforce.
3. Be sure to pause before turning the page to give your grandchild enough time to look at and enjoy the picture.
4. Use sound effects as appropriate.
5. Laugh and show emotion as appropriate.

Have fun!

Using Your Windows 10 Laptop

You can record a video from your Windows 10 laptop.  Here's how you get started.

1. Launch the Camera app from your start menu. Click on the Windows icon in the bottom left corner of your screen to launch your apps list.  Find the "camera app" in the list and click on it. Another way is to type "camera" in the search bar found at the bottom left of your screen. Click on the "Camera App" button.

2. To record a video, Switch to Video Mode by clicking the video camera icon. Click again to begin recording. You'll see the time stamp in the bottom middle of the screen start to time your video

3. Record the Video. To stop recording click the red box.  You can also pause the video at any point using the pause icon. When you are reading a book it will look to you as if the video is recording backward.  When you play the video back, you will see it recorded the words are as they should be,

4. Save the video to share.

Using Your Smart Phone

I prefer to use my Android cell phone when making my videos because the camera quality on my phone is better than on my laptop. I purchased a stand to hold the phone while I read the book.  The steps will be the same on your iPhone or iPad.

1. Place the phone is the stand to record the video over your shoulder while you read the book.  In this position, the video will be as if your grandchild is sitting next to you. Here is a shot that shows you the angle set up I like best.

2. Record the video.

3.  Use the editing app as needed and save your video to share.

How to Share Your Video

My recommendation is to share your videos to an account where you can share links to the video.

1. If you have a Google account set up a Google Photos album to house all the videos.  Share the album with family members to access the videos as desired.

2.  Dropbox is also an easy to use storage option.  It is easy to links with family members there as well.

For both of these recommendations, you need to be aware of the "free" storage limits.  Google just announced they will be charging for exceeding storage limits in June 2021.  Dropbox has a paid level of storage as well.

It's time to get reading, Grandmas!

Grandma's Bag of Tricks for Entertaining Grandkids

Grandmas need a bag of tricks. Grandmas need an arsenal of ideas for entertaining grandkids and creating memories.

In a prior post, I talked about the importance of planning for creating memories.  Sometimes the plans are just not enough and you'll need to come up with some ideas for activities on the fly.

That's when you'll be turning to your bag of tricks.

Things to Have in the Bag of Tricks

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. I may receive a small payment, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.

2-3 age-appropriate games the grandkids don't play at home: Dominoes, Checkers, Scrabble

Deck of cards for age-appropriate card games: Go Fish, Crazy Eights, War, Old Maid, Slap Jack, Rummy.  Here are some suggestions for 4-8 year-olds.

Arts and crafts supplies:  This is a long list:

Craft paints: watercolors and acrylics

Papers: newsprint, sketch pads, index cards, construction paper, card stock

Pencils, pens, and markers: markers of all kinds and colors, graphite pencils and colored pencils, ink pens, glitter pens

Glues: glue sticks, Elmer's glue, ModgePodge

Tools: paintbrushes, scissors, rulers, hole punches, paper clips, tape

Miscellaneous: magazines for cutting, buttons, embellishments for gluing, yarn, string, rope, glitter, rocks, shells

Access to age-appropriate movies: Subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+

Suggestions for seasonal, age-appropriate activities.  This will take some preparation on your part.  I compare this to the experience I had when I was a substitute teacher for grades K-6.  I would get a call at 6:00 in the morning asking me to substitute at a specific school for a specific grade level. I never knew if I would enter the classroom with a fully prepared lesson plan for the day or an empty page staring at me.  Too often I found the empty page, so I prepared my own teacher bag of tricks with a full day of activities for each grade level.  It saved my day and sanity and it will save yours, too.

Pinterest and Google are great places to start for ideas.  Just type in Search phrases like "craft projects for six-year-olds" or "how to make a construction paper owl".  You can also follow this blog regularly by signing up for email notifications of new posts over on the top right side of the page and following our Facebook page. You'll get ideas like this fall scavenger hunt, fall tree, or backyard tic tac toe.

Use a box with file folders labeled for each month of the year.  That way you can have seasonally specific activities all ready to go.  

A library of books for kids is essential. Grandkids of all ages love being read to.  Start reading early and keep it up.  Older kids love chapter books.  Reading a chapter book is something you can start when you are together and continue on video chats until the book is finished.  

I love pop-up books when reading to babies and toddlers.  They become very engaged with the colorful surprises from page to page. Two of my granddaughter's favorites are The Very Busy Bee and The Very Clever Crocodile. This pop-up book series is fun, too.

There are so many wonderful chapter books for kids in grades 1-6.  Some of the classic ones to start with are:

It's time to get started gathering the stuff you'll need for your bag of tricks.  A well-stocked bag of fun and games makes for happy grandkids and happy grandmas.