Hi Moms ~
My husband's parents live in CA (we are in IL), and our kids are 2 and 5. I'm looking for ways to keep the in-laws in "the loop" with what is going on with the kids, to help them feel more involved and in touch with our lives. My husband and I talk on the phone with them and share pictures via Facbook, but I guess I'm looking for more unique or personal ideas. I've considered video chatting through the computer, but I think the kids are still too young for that - I know my 5 year old would shy away from it and my 2 year old wouldn't get it.
Any ideas would be helpful!
p.s. -- we do visit and they visit us. We usually see them 1 - 2 times per year.
My 5 year old loves the web cam with grandpa, we have been doing it with him for the past 2 years. He does not always talk long, but he loves that he can see grandpa while they talk. I think the kids would do better than you think, and even if the whole call only lasts 5 minutes, at lest grandma and pa would get to see the kids and send their love face to face.
Skype.
Your kids are not too young.
My kids, from a young age, younger than yours... we used Skype to keep in touch with family in Europe.
Its fun.
So what if the kids don't get it... at least, the Grandparents can "see" the kids... and even if just hanging out in the room.
Re. the video chatting thing, it could still be a good idea. We have just started using one, and we may switch to a wireless so we can move it around so the grandparents can see what's going on. Doesn't matter if the kids aren't "into it" yet, they can still see them and be seen :)
Skype is great! I wish I knew more how to use it. The only problem with Skype is that you'd better have your hair combed before you get in front of that little camera. But it's so great to see and hear your grandchildren!
My first thought is to ask for a little involvement fromthe grandparents end. Hallmark makes recordable story books, you could buy the book mail it to Gma have her read a story and record it, and send it back to the kiddos. How sweet is that!
I would also keep manilla envelops handy and once a month or sooner pop in what ever artwork won't fit on your fridge and mail it out.
As for the skype we had trouble getting the sound to work at the same time the video did. but im techno challenged. If you go that route, i would give the kids something to do or hold while you planned your chat times. Like if you set up joey's lego table and had him build while he chatted with gramps they would both probably enjoy it more than just sitting in a chair for five minutes. Or have the kids at the table older one coloring a picture that you will then mail out to grandparents and the other can be in the highchair eating cheerios or something. Hope i'm explaining that, plan somethign to keep them occupied and tell grandparents to plan on keeping it super short like one minute per childs age since that is about their attention spans anyways.
kudos to you for working to give extended family importance!!!
Let the kids talk to/listen to grandparents on the phone. Send updates w/ pictures via mail and/or email. Let the kids mail some of their artwork or other projects to them. Have something specific planned when you visit them or they visit you (something they know they always do w/ grandparents on their visits).
My parents live pretty far away and we are planning once the baby gets here to do skype at least once a week if not more. So the baby will pretty much be raised predominantly communicating with his grandma and grandpa this way. I think you should try it with your kids. They might find it cool once they try it to see the faces when they talk. My boyfriends daughter is OBSESSED with our web camera lol
What about a family blog, with pictures and little daily updates on what's new with you and the kids? you can even scan artwork and things the kids do in school and post those, along with little videos.
I have traveled the last two weeks and have been skyping with my 2.5 and 6 month old kids. It takes some guidance from my husband, and the calls aren't necessarily all that long. When it is just the baby, he will even set the computer up so that I am looking at the baby while she plays on her mat. One time he went into the kitchen to get some water, my daughter rolled over, and muted it by hitting the space bar while he was gone. :) See, never too young! A lot of the time, is just watching as they read books and do their normal stuff, it just feels good to be there.
We have MacBook computers and we i-chat often with family in Florida. It is hard to have a long conversation with little kids, but often we put it on and position it so there is an activity going on and that seems to work just fine. With I-chat, you can see the other person in a small window and actually carry on a conversation. Back in the old days my parents used to select a special book with good pictures and read the book to my kids and record it on a cassette tape (ringing a bell when it was time to turn the page). Then they would mail us the book and the tape and my kids would turn the pages and hear grandparent voices read to them. Since my parents have passed, those tapes are precious memories for me. Now with technology, they could read a story and show the pictures and provide a cd for little ones to watch.
Here's an idea... buy another copy of some of your children's favorite books and send them to grandma and grandpa. Make a standing date, say every Wednesday at 7pm, and have one of them call. Put the speaker phone on, get comfortable and get the other storybook out. Now Grandma/Grandpa is reading a story to the kids, you are just turning the pages at the right time.
OR get a tape recorder, have the kids tape a message and mail it to the grandparents, have the grandparents record onto that same tape after their message and send it back and so on. Soon you will have a long taped conversation that will be priceless.
Two suggestions:
1) Visit each other more often, if financially possible.
2) Have them move close to you, or you move close to them.
With the grandparents we video chat all the time with our 6yr old and 1yr old. The 6 yr old chats away and likes to show off a toy or schoolwork. The one year old seems to really enjoy it and the grandparents LOVE seeing her. Even if she is just on our lap or sitting on the floor playing, they get to watch her as we talk. You should do it! Even if your 5 yr old is shy he/she will get used to it the more you do it. We encouraged our son by saying, go get your lovey to show grandma...or your car...or we'd take the laptop into his room to do "show and tell".Sometimes he is not in the mood to talk but now most of the time he enjoys it.
We use skype with some out of town relatives. It's a free site. So far the only down side is sometimes the other side freezes. so while they can hear us and see us, we can only hear them and are looking at a "freeze frame" of them. Our children are also 5 and 2. It took some time, but they do get the hang of it!
