Staying In Touch With Long Distance Grandkids

While you might be happy that your son or daughter got a great job in a city far away, you’re probably not too excited about the new distance between you and your grandkids. If you don’t want to shell out for a pricey plain ticket once a month, but you also don’t want to become the kind of grandparent that is only known by a yearly Christmas visit, you’ve got to become comfortable staying in touch via other venues. Here are some tips, to keep your relationship strong.

First, Don’t panic!: Your grandchildren aren’t goldfish, and they won’t immediately forget you just because they don’t see you quite as frequently.
Become Pen Pals: Most younger kids love getting letters. To make them even more inclined to write, though, consider sending them colorful stationary, stickers, and paints for their letter writing endeavors. It doesn’t hurt to include occasional small presents (stickers, movie tickets, etc.) inside your letters either.
Play an Online Game: Whether you’re into Scrabble, chess, or plain old tic-tac-toe, you can find an online version to play against your grandkids. Most have a chat function, so you can have communication that’s more fun and flexible than phone time.
Send Them a Camera: Just because you can’t be around to document your grandkids’ triumphs and failures, that doesn’t mean you can’t be privy to them. Send a disposable camera to them in the mail, with the directions to capture their life for you. When they send it back, consider framing the results, scrapbooking them, or making them into a collage; the kids will be excited about seeing the results of their efforts as art.
Have a Skype Date: If you haven’t discovered the joys of Skype-ing with your grandkids, it’s about time you learned. The free video-conferencing software is easy to use, and will allow you to have fun, interactive sessions with your grandchildren. Here’s a tutorial to get you started, if you’re feeling lost. Remember that kids will look forward to their Skype sessions more if you’re upbeat and animated—make silly faces, show off books, photos, or other things you’re working on, and tell a few jokes.
Start a Photo Blog or Online Album: Kids are fascinated by looking at old pictures of their parents, grandparents, and other relatives. A fun way to bond over these family photos is to scan them and put interesting ones onto a blog like Tumblr, a few at a time. Include captions about when and where the photo was taken. If you’d like to upload them all at once, you can put them onto a larger, photo album site like Flickr.