Connecting with Grandchildren- Sharon Walker

Our  22 grandchildren all live long distances away, all hundreds of miles, even thousands of miles.They range in age from 3 months to 19 years . We try to visit each of our six children and their families at least once a year.   Our average stay is  about 10 days and we try to pack it full of family time . Its easy winning over little grandkids when we arrive after a year's absence...a treat, or just getting on the floor to play with them seems to work quickly .  Teenager grandkids are a bit slower to connect, and time is of the essence, so I've learned to always pack  a deck of Rook cards in my suitcase. All it takes is  a few games of "Crazy 8's or 'Oh Heck' and they are bantering back and forth  with us again.
         For the last two years I have felt a need to add a deeper dimension to our visits, so I have been bringing a packet of photos and family history stories with me. I ask permission ahead of time with their parents, for 20-30 minutes right after supper  every evening every evening of our visit, for a "story and game time".  The parents are very keen about my request.  I am prepared  to share a neat  true story each evening . I try to have a photo of the person whose story it is about.. I don't read the stories. I try to tell them as dramatically as I can. (my husband takes his turn too)  The  stories can be about their parent , or a story  from my life or my husband's, or a story about our  parents or great  grandparents. I feel its so important to focus as much as possible on  spiritual experiences: the power of prayer, a   conversion stories, stories of miracles, stories of sacrifice and  stories of the Lord's hand in our lives. Its neat when they have questions.  I leave the packet of photos, and stories with each family to keep.   I include simple geneological lines with their parents' name  at the apex of the geneological line so they connect the stories to the correct  parent's family line, and know where the 'story and  ancestor fits in. Keeping it short, simple, ending it with my testimony or expression of gratitude for that specific family history person and then turning the evening over to one quick game of their choice has seemed to make this grandparenting opportunity work for me.