Had Facetime with our daughter last evening and clearly, she's becoming exhausted and getting a cold. Always a mom, I find it all very worrisome. I told her that I'd like to start having storytime with the grandkids, so we chatted before lunchtime there, and they had the computer set up when they'd finished. While I have a lot of children's books, she reminded me that I have an excellent collection of them from times we used to visit Australia.
As I pulled them all out, the first to catch me was about the "Leaf-Tailed Gecko". My intro was to ask the kids to look in the latest photo book I sent them, and I featured one from our visit to the Santa Barbara zoo. The book was filled with beautiful wood-cut illustrations! (We made it a point to also talk about the art work.)
The second book was "Our Granny" that tried to cover all the "Granny Types", from the athletic sort to those with "the jiggly bottoms"...
The final one for today was called "Scallywag", about a cat. In case you don't get around to reading it, it's about four families (seen in the photo) who have a marvelous fat cat. When their cats disappear, they all go out looking for him to discover they all house the same cat and "love him to death with food"! They decide to continue sharing him as before, but will be cutting back on the food. Yet, while they're enjoying their new friendship, the cat saunters away and the story closes with him back with a fifth family "who continue to love and feed him to death"!
I had a cat like that! I marvel at the ingenuity of writers and the clever work they put together for children!
(Could I have dreamed, 28 years ago when I was buying these books and had no grandchildren, the odd circumstances and yet, the good use they'd be put to all these years later!)
You`re so lucky you could do this with you grandchildren and we beacause you share it. We had to do the birthday celebrathing of our sons without them. A good thing , we all have Skype .
@maggiemae "runny nose" cold... who knew we'd be happy to have "only That"! And thanks for your note...I think we ALL really enjoyed this and look forward to the next...I love the idea of reading these books I bought so long ago!
@pyrrhula Thank you Ferry...what a sweet thing to say...I did get your lovely, long email, and have put off replying while I take Photoshop classes in the limited time they're offered for free. I'll get back to you soon. I saw that both your sons have April birthdays...as our grandson, Dylan (in the bamboo forest you commented on today) has a birthday on the 21st. It will be the first time we can't go. In the past we've also stayed long enough to celebrate Easter and Parents Weekend at the campus, but things are so different. I do feel badly for children...They love to be the center of attention and have friends come to a party. A life lesson I suppose. We're staying still, and think of our friends elsewhere. So happy to be in touch with you regularly.
I was thinking of a way I can read to our grandbaby (2 yrs) via Facebook or zoom. Will have to try your way and hold up the book. That would, indeed, give tired/frustrated parents a little bit of a break.Glad I saw your post. I will try it!
@wendytel That's a large part of why I do it. Three books seems to be about the length of their attention span, and Heather said that the following morning they wanted to know when they'd have story time! I was really fun again today...your little one will love it!
@radiogirl Thanks Kathy : ) If I have to keep waiting for a haircut, I might not be a part of the photos! But that aside, I'd have thought I was the last on board to read this way to the kids. I'm super happy if this starts a trend...Good for the grandparents and the little ones as well!
@domenicododaro : ) Thanks, Domenico! Heather told me that this morning they were asking when we'd have the next story time. I hope they're loving it as much as I do!
@louannwarren When we'd travel, I loved to look for beautifully illustrated children's books. It's a real delight that I'm now actually reading and discovering them for the first time! I'd found some good ones!
Great picture! And i’m sure that your daughter appreciated a break from providing the entertainment! (I have sometimes put my kids on a FaceTime with the grandparents so I can actually get the dishes done without them destroying the living room)
@blackmutts I so get that! It was after she let me see (what was) the living room, that I thought she needed a story-time break also! At last we can be the grandmothers we were born to be!!! ♥
I think I might try this with my grandchildren.