Does Your Grandchild Have Nature-Deficit Disorder?

       In today's fast moving pace it's easy for grandparents to feel peripheral in the lives of their grandchildren. What do I possibly have to offer these children who have everything at their fingertips? Kids are busy these days running to this lesson, back to sports practice, then home for some schoolwork. And then there are the electronic time eaters, games and social media. Finding time to hang out with a grandparent is often difficult to squeeze in. I would argue that the idea that everything can be experienced through a keyboard or smart screen could be seriously limiting the next generation. 

       This is where I think a grandparent has a distinct advantage. We have the time and the appreciation of the natural world to share it meaningfully with our grandchildren. To help you realize the importance of this nature connection, I've compiled several great links to blogposts, videos and slideshows. 

Grandparents affect on the future.

     1. Slide Show: Roles of Grandparents and How They Affect The Future

         Grandparents have had a timeless role in all cultures. As the baby boomers head into their twilight years, the importance of their influence can't be overemphasized. This slideshow not only offers statistical information, but ways that grandparents can share a love for nature.

Roles of grandparents and how they could from mikelink45

The importance of outside play.

1. How can I encourage my grandchildren to enjoy nature.

  Did you know that only one child in 10 regularly plays out in nature. I remember when I was a kid, if the weather was nice, outside was the place to be. In this article from The Guardian the importance of children being outdoors is explained. 

2. The New Nature Movement

    Richard Louv is Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Children and Nature Network. This is an international movement to connect children, their families and their communities to the natural world. In this article Louv outlines 21 awesome activities that grandparents can do with their grandchildren. In addition, here is an entertaining video on wonder.

3. 6 Outdoor Activities to do with Your Grandchildren

  This is an incredible article with some wonderful ways to spend quality time with your grandchildren while at the same time gifting them a love of the natural world.

4. Grandkids Into Nature

    Barbara Joyce Frank is a geologist, educator/trainer, speaker and author and has spent her career "helping people to connect deep with Planet Earth." Here you will find programs and links to resources.  

  

5. Natural Wildlife Federation

    Using available resources to bring enrichment to your nature experiences creates a great opportunity to learn with your grandchild. Understanding the natural world is key to caring about what happens to our world.  

Fun Nature Links

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center  

Postcrest.com
Grand Ideas

How do you feel about nature-deficit disorder? Real concern or exaggerated?

If you care about the future of our planet, share this post with others. 

Amelia's Middle School Survival Guide by Marissa Moss

Classic: Marvelous Middle Grade 

Monday Review

Gram's Approved! See my
review to see why.

Published: June 23, 2009 

ISBN: 1416979875

Genre: Middle Grade, realistic fiction, humorous fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Themes: middle school, friends, sisters, family
Add it on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes And Noble/ *Indie Bound*

About The Book: Nothing says middle school better than embarrassing moments and gossip. And no one is better at capturing the middle school experience than Marissa Moss’s Amelia. Now two bestselling classic Amelia books, Amelia’s Most Unforgettable Embarrassing Moments and Amelia’s Guide to Gossip, are together in a value-priced bind-up with a special Amelia eraser key chain. This is the perfect summer reading for middle schoolers and middle-schoolers-to-be.

First Line: (This is a notebook, you can start anywhere.)

Here's One Of My Favorite: "Only Cleo could say that about eggs that were either runny or rubbery—either way completely gross."

Kid Review: "Each page is colorfully illustrated with hilarious images and word bubbles relating to each rule, hint, and tip. Though it’s meant to be a humorous book it also gave me true tips for surviving class. What I loved most about it is the vast vocabulary. I learned MANY new words and how to use them in day to day life. All Moss’s books are great for an elementary school child yearning to soak up new words and tips for school and life." —Ayesha Reviews

Parent Review: "Moss understands how kids think and remembers what it is like to be a kid. At the same time, she has a remarkable ability to step into her stories, either in the form of older sister Cleo, a parent or another kid who just happens to have a flash of wisdom and good advice, and help Amelia through her problems, showing her how to fix things on her own rather than doing it for her. To me, that is the best kind of parenting and teaching you can find and I am happy to have Marissa Moss here to teach my kids a thing or two."—Book 4 Your Kids

What I Thought: As a grandma, I'm always trying to find ways to inspire my grandchildren to read and write. My granddaughter is beginning middle school so a survival guide is exactly what she needs. Middle School is the perfect time to begin writing a journal. She also loves to draw and I wanted to show her how a journal could be illustrated, too. 

    The Amelia Notebook series is a great introduction to keeping a journal or writing/art notebook. I know my journal got me through some really tough middle school days. Like the time a couple of tough girls followed me home, making fun of my clothes then knocking the books out of my hands. That night I carefully sketched out a plan: A map to walk home a different way each day for the rest of the week. 
     A sample teachers lesson used this series to inspire writing in their students. See that here.

Photo credit: David Toerge

About The Author and Illustrator: Marissa Moss

Website

Facebook

Twitter
You Tube

Who: "I’ve been making children’s books for a looooong time. I sent my first picture book to publishers when I was nine, but it wasn’t very good and they didn’t publish it. I didn’t try again until I was a grown-up and then it took five years of sending out stories, getting them rejected, revising them and sending them back over and over until I got my first book. Now I’ve published more than forty books and each new one is still hard in its own way. Each one takes a lot of revising because I never get things right the first time. That used to frustrate me. Now I expect it. And I don’t mind, because that gives me permission to make mistakes. It means I can take risks and try new things because I don’t have to be perfect - I can always make changes." —Marissa Moss

Newest Books

Add it on Goodreads

Add it on Goodreads

Keeping notebooks is just plain fun! Here's one I just started for my new birding hobby.

What kind of notebooks do you keep?

Generational Connections: A Pay It Forward Guest Post On The Nerdy Book Club

This week Rockin' With Grams! will be on The Nerdy Book Club where I am a guest. 

Come join us as we discuss the importance of generational connections!

So When Do They Talk Grandma?

Tweet  We have often heard the sentiment, "from the mouths of babes." Bill Cosby even capitalized on the funny things that kids say with his television show, Kids Say The Darndest Things. 

   The other day I was looking at some old pictures and remembered some of the great lines my kids have said over the years.

What makes them so great? They're honest, children call them how they see them.


Here are a few of my favorites:


My daughter looking into my grandmothers face, "Grandma why do you have so many lines on your face?"


My granddaughter at her first time seeing the Nutcracker Ballet, "So when do they start talking, Grandma?"

My grandson when he jumps real high he says, "Grandma, look I can jump up sky." or "Look at the bird, up sky." 

 

When I was little our neighbor asked why our mom didn't drink coffee, my brother said, "'Cause it turns her bottom brown." 


What are some of your favorite lines? 

The Winners Are...and What I Forgot!

My Little Santa Baby!

     In between rocking my grandson, changing his diaper, making a bottle, feeding, burping, diapering, playing and gazing upon his precious sleeping face...I realized that there are a few things I have forgotten about my experience as a mother. (It has been 18 years since my youngest was a baby.)

1) Little boys often pee when released from the confines of a tight diaper.

2)  Two-month-old babies need constant attention, they cat nap, 40 minutes max, during the day.

3) The energy it takes to be needed every minute.

4) Scheduling anything is usually a big mistake, writing, research, errands...yeah, not happening.

5) By the end of the day, if you don't smell like spit up, then you cheated and changed your shirt. 

    I'm sure there are more, like what a poopy diaper smells like, etc. The point being, when you are in the midst of the first-year-baby-coma, it feels like you will never, ever sleep again. The dirty diapers, and later, the scraped knees, endless questions and the constant lack of privacy seem to drag on. Suddenly, you turn around and they're gone and you honestly wonder where all the time went. Take it from me, mother of six, that it is possible to live through motherhood and there is a new life waiting for you at the other end. Enjoy each moment, even the ones that aren't so happy, because you will miss them. I certainly do!

Congratulations to the winners of  Elana Johnson's Possession!
*drum roll*  Whoops! I just tried to draw names out of my cup of tea.*quickly dries hands*
OK, *drum roll*   gabi and Laura Pauling  *wild applause*  Congrats!
Thanks to everyone for helping me to reach over 100 followers! You guys honestly ROCK!!