Beyond Skype, e-mails, texts or other techno-gizmos, what can you and your child do to communicate with grandparents who live near or faraway?

If your child does or doesn’t live close enough to hug Grandy everyday, love connections need to be formed and nurtured in other ways. Here are a few ideas to jog your creative juices:

1.  Display a photo of Grandy in a place where your child sees it daily. Point out Grandy’s eyes, nose, ears, mouth, hair, or family traits so that even a young child will be able to recognize and remember Grandy. Encourage a mental picture of Grandy to embed itself in your child’s memory, keeping Grandy’s face alive in your child’s heart and mind.

2. Tell your child stories about Grandy’s house, pets, favorite things, birthday.

3. Encourage Grandy to write of childhood memories and send them to your child. Do they have experiences in common? Does your child say, “Me too”?

4. Include Grandy in your conversations. For example, ask your child, “What do you think Grandy’s doing now?” After everyone guesses, phone Grandy to discover the truth.

5. Once a year, encourage your child to draw a gift picture of Grandy for Grandy’s birthday. Print a copy for your child’s own art gallery. From year to year, your child’s observation skills, fine muscle control, memories of Grandy, etc. will develop and grow. Each year, your child’s perception of Grandy will change, and the artistic flair will blossom. Perhaps Grandy will be willing to reciprocate and draw a picture of your child on his/her birthday. What a lovely gallery of memory and art your child (and you) could have displayed on a special wall.

6. Encourage your child to write his/her own Grandy story. Pre-writers could dictate their story to you. Send the story to Grandy, and keep your child’s copy in a binder.

7. Children love to receive mail. Suggest that Grandy send something to your child: a picture, a letter, cutouts from newspaper or magazine, cartoons, etc. including a self-addressed, stamped envelope which your child can independently use to send something in return.

8. Help your child to think about his/her likes, dislikes, interests, collections, the answers to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” or “What would you like for your birthday?” Encourage your child to ask Grandy about the same topics and questions.

9. Remember Grandy in your prayers.

10.What else can you do to help to build love bridges between your child and his/her grandparents?