February 01, 2018

Throwback Thursday: How to tell grandkids 'I love you' in another language

February 01, 2018/ Lisa Carpenter

I tell my grandsons I love you a lot. Returning the sentiment to those who say it to them was one of the first phrases they learned, though it did sound a bit like a foreign language at first, one only family members understood. Phonetic translation of Camden’s first utterance of it: Wuh woo!

Such I love yous in a language foreign to all but family members can become a shared sweetness, carried on through the years. But have you ever said I love you in Finnish? Swahili? Russian? Or even Spanish, for those of you who — like me — have not even the most basic of foreign language skills?

While I love you sounds the very same in some languages — think Malaysian and Maltese — there’s a whole world of ways it can be pronounced in other languages.

January 22, 2018

National Handwriting Day

January 22, 2018/ Lisa Carpenter

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate all things cursive... and hand printed. Yes, my friends, January 23 is National Handwriting Day!

National Handwriting Day, a day created to honor all things related to penmanship, was designated in 1977 and is sponsored by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association. January 23 was chosen for the annual occasion as it's the birthday of John Hancock, whom we all know had quite the flair with signatures and such.

January 10, 2018

7 significant BEs of being a significant grandmother

January 10, 2018/ Lisa Carpenter

BE unconditional

Grandchildren come in assorted shapes, sizes, aptitudes, attitudes, with varied qualities and quirks. Love them because of those, regardless of those, in spite of those.

BE fair

Wherever two or more grandkids gather or grow, possibilities for playing favorites flourish. Avoid the all-too-human temptation to...

December 08, 2017

Cooking with grandchildren: Make the kitchen a classroom

December 08, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Each year, families spend a lot of time in the kitchen together during the holidays. These moments not only make happy memories, but can be teachable moments as well, where grandchildren can learn valuable knowledge about the world around them.

Cooking and baking can be enjoyable pastimes for grandkids and grandparents who incorporate science in fun, interactive ways, ranging from the basics of measurements to thermodynamics and beyond.

December 04, 2017

Tree trinkets

December 04, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

My halls are decked, my tree is up, my gift-shopping is nearly done. I'm a tad early on all my Christmas tasks this year as Jim and I will be out of town next weekend — sharing Christmas joy with our grandsons! (Woot!)

November 15, 2017

Personalized puzzles for pre-turkey patience

November 15, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Savvy restaurant servers know the first task when waiting on customers with kids is to provide puzzles or coloring pages for entertaining the little ones while they wait for their food.

Savvy grandmothers and others can follow the same tack this Thanksgiving by providing personalized puzzles to pint-sized guests gathered at the table, awaiting their turkey.

The personalized part makes pre-turkey puzzles more fun — and it's so easily done.

November 13, 2017

Plural magic!

November 13, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Plural magic!

Welcome to a new week! I'd like to start this week sharing with you a smile, and few folks make me smile as much as my grandson Camden.

Most recently, Camden cracked me up with the following, which Megan posted on...

November 01, 2017

An open letter to new long-distance grandmas

November 01, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Dear heartbroken long-distance grandma,

First, let me say congratulations on your grandma status! Whether you just learned you'd soon have a grandchild, a newborn grand recently arrived, or one or more grandkiddos have long been part of your heart, you are a grandmother and that's worth celebrating... again and again.

Today, though, I offer my condolences that your grandmother status carries, or soon will, the long-distance modifier. I know how hard that is on you. I know because I am you — a long-distance grandma.

I've been a long-distance grandma a while, with hundreds of miles separating me from my sweet ones ever since the initial "You're going to be a grandma!" announcement nearly ten years ago. Considering the survival strategies I've learned the hard way...

October 30, 2017

A grand monster mash

October 30, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Hooray for Halloween! And for Halloween fun courtesy JibJab!

Do you make JibJab videos featuring your grandkiddos? I made a fun one for Halloween and hoped to embed it here for all to see. Alas, JibJab no longer allows users to download their videos for embedding (boo!), so here are a few screenshots of my creation.

I'd love for ya'll to see the silliness in full, though, so if you have a sec, click on over to my grand monster mash mixup for ghoulishly goofy Happy Halloween wishes from...

October 23, 2017

Halloween candy stats by state, plus GRAND Social No. 276 link party for grandparents

October 23, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

We're one week out from trick-or-treat time. Have you stocked up on candy yet?

I recently received an interesting graphic from CandyStore.com on the top treats by state. Scroll over the interactive map for a closer look at the sweet stats.

What's tops in your state? I was surprised to see that M&Ms weren't tops in Colorado, where apparently Milky Ways are king, considering how many pounds of the plain or peanut goodies my husband...