Tips for Inviting Grandparents into Your Homeschool Routine

Homeschooling isn’t meant to be a solo journey.

Tips for Inviting Grandparents into Your Homeschool Routines

It’s almost Grandparents’ Day here in the U.S. and many churches and families are thinking of ways to show honor and love to our grandparents with special programs, crafts, and words of appreciation. A beautiful element of God -given community is that we get to serve and walk alongside those who have different backgrounds and experiences than us. Within our natural families, we have the opportunity to learn and glean from those with many more years of life experience than ourselves. How? Through our grandparents!

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Grandparents can be a wonderful source of encouragement, support, and healthy perspective as we travel on this homeschool journey. If the grandparents in your life are not quite certain about the homeschool lifestyle that you have chosen, there is ample opportunity to welcome them in and help them get a better (and hopefully enjoyable) understanding!

Below are some ideas to consider to build family bonds and help enrich our homeschool routines by inviting in our grandparents!

Virtual Storytelling Sessions: Set up regular storytelling/reading sessions where grandparents can read stories to their grandchildren through video calls. This can help nourish a love for reading but also allows grandparents to share their favorite stories and impart their wisdom.

Skill Sharing: Your grandparents may have several unique skills and talents that we you have never been aware of. Take some time to ask about various experiences from their past and see if it sparks a skill set that’s been dormant for a while. Arrange online or in-person sessions where grandparents can teach their grandchildren skills like cooking, gardening, knitting, woodworking, or playing musical instruments. Get your children excited about learning these skills and watch the memories happen right before your eyes.

Pen Pal Exchanges: If the grandparents are not living nearby, encourage a pen pal exchange between the children and their grandparents. This can be done through handwritten letters or emails, allowing them to communicate, share stories, and ask questions about each other's lives. Regularly share about projects, new friend groups, and even prayer requests that may arise.

Cooking/Baking Together: Plan a cooking day where kids and grandparents can prepare a traditional meal or bake treats together. Use this time to share family recipes and stories.

Nature Walks and Prayers: Explore the beauty of nature while having conversations about creation, faith, and gratitude. Collect natural treasures along the way. This will encourage kids and grandparents to share their thoughts and prayers during these walks.

Arts and Crafts: What a better way to build relationship than to get your hands creating something new! Think of fun projects to tackle that both will enjoy. Check out this course for fun and easy projects to create: They can also work together on a scrapbooking project, create a family tree, or even collaborate on a piece of artwork through video calls.

Virtual Field Trips: Grandparents can virtually join field trips by using video calls to explore museums, historical sites, or places of interest. This provides a chance for the grandparents to share their knowledge and experiences related to the locations being explored.

Family Book Club: Choose a book to read as a family and then schedule book club discussions with the grandparents. What a great way to encourage critical thinking, reading comprehension, and meaningful discussions between generations.

Language Learning: Choose a language that would be fun to explore. Practice vocabulary, greetings, and even songs in this new language! Check out this course for a fun and hands-on way to explore Spanish together.

Play S.T.E.A.M. games together. Diving into anything related to science, technology, engineering, art, and math is a plus! Add in a little competition to strengthen skills in each of the areas.

There are so many wonderful adventures waiting to unfold as we work to invite our grandparents into our homeschool days!

Categories: Education, homeschooling, how to, kids