Celebrating the Moments
My kids are grown and starting families of their own.
When I was a kid, families often lived near one another. Early on in life, I grew accustomed to being able to visit my grandparents frequently and almost any time I wanted to do so. I could celebrate with them the things I was learning, play games with them, and enjoy hearing them read to me. But that was back in the 50s before there were Interstates.
Now it is a grueling 12-13 hour trip to visit my two oldest and their children. This means that sometimes it is a half of a year or more between hugs. Those casual, meaningful moments are few and far between.
Technology has become an increasingly important tool for me as a Grandpa. E-mail and text messaging plus an occasional quick visit to his Facebook page fills in some of the gaps in keeping up with my teenage grandson. But the other four grandchildren are either toddlers or babies. Facebook, e-mail, and text messaging won’t do. Neither does the occasional phone call keep the relationshihp alive at that age.
Thank goodness for technology minded adult children and SKYPE. I can see the newborn sister and hear her older brother call me “paw-paw”. It registers that the older one really can distinguish between me and his other grandfather, “Ho-Ho”, even though he is only two. “Ho-Ho” grew a beard this past year and is challenging me as Santa’s look alike. But Avery knows who is “Paw-Paw” and who is “Ho-Ho”.
My oldest grand-daughter is four. She has to work harder at communication skills than most other four-year olds. A couple of weeks back, I was playing with her on SKYPE. I have a bunch of small animal toys that parade in front of the webcam. For about 20 minutes, I cracked her up with me quacking like a duck. Her mom said it was so nice to see her laugh, giggle, and just have fun with “Grampy”.
But there was still more to delight the heart. Athena suddenly left the area. I sighed for a moment thinking play time for “Grampy” was over. Suddenly, Athena was back in the monitor screen. She’d gone to get the vocabulary cards she’d been working on. To my delight, she put the picture side down and began reading the names off the back of each card without peeking at the picture. As she read the name of the animal off the front, she held the back side with the picture up to the webcam for me to see. We were back in the business of celebrating one of life’s little moments.
Being able to SKYPE allowed me to celebrate a few moments where my grandchildren were able to demonstrate the things they were learning. How precious those moments have become to me.
As I ponder the importance of these moments, I wonder what educational doors these technologies might open for my students. Dare I take time from doing “school” to do something more authentic? Could sharing with another class in another city or one of my student’s faraway relatives become as transforming for them as it was for me and my grandchildren?
This is a question I intend to ponder over the summer while I’m enjoying getting to really hug my grandchildren in person.
