Inside: Grandparents are powerful influencers in the lives of their grandchildren. But wait! Are you a long-distant grandparent? Span those miles and get creative with your grandkids today! Here’s a fun way to connect with them—and build their brains at the same time. It’s personalized just for you and your grandkids–they are grandparenting books!
Grandparenting Books
Have you ever considered the sobering fact that your “people influence”—those who listen to you, follow your example, and want to be around you, etc., —stretches to only two generations of family members?
Your children and grandchildren…that’s it. Your great-grandchildren will associate you like a picture on a wall.
You can write down your memoirs and possibly affect your posterity, but the real day-to-day impact happens with your kids and grandkids.
However, being able to influence two generations is still a blessing. Think about it. Positively impacting and helping to mold people of two generations is heady stuff!
Grandparenting Books Can Be Powerful Influencers
Are you a grandparent? Do you have grandparents?
Grandparents are enormous generation influencers and can transform the lives of those little people they adore…their grandchildren.
My paternal grandmother, Grandma Peck was the saving grace of my childhood. She was gentle, sweet, and believed her grandchildren were brilliant and would someday walk on the moon. Best of all, she lived 15 minutes from our house. I saw her every week and spent several days with her during the summers. I have nothing but fond memories of this amazing influencer.
My husband’s grandparents lived down the street from him, and he visited them every day. Mark had a very tight bond with Nana and Papa (as he called them) and was closer to them than his parents. They taught him many “firsts,”—fly fishing, pinochle, baseball, and a belief in God.
But, times have changed. The nuclear family made up of extended grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives living in close proximity is no longer the norm.
Today, many grandparents travel long distances and make great sacrifices to see their grandchildren, to be a part of their lives, and to take on the role of influencer.
Angela and Rick Blesi of St. Paul, Minnesota are long-distant grandparents to their grandson, Beckett. To stay connected, they created personalized books that incorporate photo stickers.
When the distance between grandparents and grandchildren is significant, many grandparents put on their thinking hats to come up with creative ways to be remembered by their grandchildren, and to influence them even when they can’t be near them. Most connect through texting, skyping, emailing, sending gifts, phone calls, and the list goes on.
These are all great connectors, but there are other ways of relating that are equally, if not more rewarding. Other unique activities that will form lifetime memories between grandchildren and their grandparents…
Meet Angela and Rick Blesi…
Creative Grandparenting
Angela and Rick Blesi of St. Paul, Minnesota are grandparents that love and cherish their grandson. Like many grandparents, they do not live in the same city as Beckett but make every effort to be there for him, even when separated by miles.
They found that books and reading were a powerful way to connect, bond, and engage with Beckett and because of that, their book grandparenting books series, Sticking with Family® Books was created.
Angela recalls, “Following a holiday visit when we were preparing to leave Beckett’s home, he was looking at the photos of past visits from several months earlier. All of a sudden, he lit up and became extremely excited. Trying to find the right words, he said… “Grammy, just remember the “Yester-Times.”
It was his way of telling us he remembered past visits and had great memories of activities we’d participated in together! And that’s how the word, “yester-times” was created and eventually our book series, Sticking with Family® Books.”
In order to connect with their grandson, the Blesi’s wrote personalized books for him. They are interactive and fun and allow children to put stickers of their grandparents and themselves on the faces of the characters
A Meaningful Way of Connecting
It’s a long drive home from Madison, Wisconsin to St. Paul, Minnesota where the Blesi’s live. During this drive, Angela and Rick discussed ways they could keep in touch with their grandson since they only saw him four or five times a year. They worried that he would get so busy with other activities and friends that he would quickly forget the fun times he had spent with them.
They put on their thinking caps, and an “aha” moment materialized! Angela came up with the idea of creating a storybook of grandparents and grandchildren doing fun things together.
But the unique part was this: instead of random faces that most books have, they would create blank circles on the pages where the heads were located. Then they would make custom facial photo stickers of a grandparent and grandchild to stick there to personalize the story.
The Blesi’s books illustrate some of the activities grandparents do with their grandchildren. Each book contains personalized photo-stickers of both the grandparents and grandchild
Kids love playing with stickers and this would be a great way to connect a grandparent and grandchild and to remember their own “Yester-Times.”
They tested the waters with Beckett—they sent him a “mock-up” book with photo stickers and he was hooked! While his parents read him the story, Beckett put photo stickers of himself and his grandparents in the book.
The next day he took the book to preschool to share with his friends. But before leaving the house, he covered his arms with his extra grandparent stickers and told his teachers, “I’m bringing my grandma and grandpa to school with me today.”
Creativity: The Mother of Invention
The Blesi’s knew that other grandparents were faced with the same dilemma they had—long-distance grandparenting—so they decided to create the sticker books on a larger scale. Surely other grandparents would like their own “Yester-Times” books to stay connected to those they loved.
They hired a professional artist and illustrator, Kyle Frederickson, and went to work. The result—two amazing books that are best described as bold, bright, and beautiful: A Fun Day With Grandpa and A Fun Day With Grandma (and more in the making).
The photo-stickers make the book fun and interactive for grandchildren and help both grandparents and grandchildren to be connected even if they are miles apart!
The Children’s Writers Guild loved the books and featured them in their November 2017 magazine.
Why are these grandparenting books totally different from other children’s books?
Sticking with Family® Books creates an interactive experience for an adult and a young child. The children create their own stories using photo stickers of their faces and their grandparents and end up with a personalized storybook about them and the activities shared together.
There are many personalized children’s books on the market, but they are personalized with the child’s name, only. None of them use photo stickers of people’s faces.
Think about this: you are reading a story to your grandchild about your adventures together. He is putting stickers of your face and his face on the pages. The story becomes a special memory and a connection that lasts forever!
Multi-Faceted Grandparenting Books
A Fun day With Grandpa and A Fun Day With Grandma is unique and interactive. Each book includes:
- Colorful, hand-drawn illustrations that relate family stories & activities young kids enjoy
- All people Illustrations (adult + grandchild) are ethnically-neutral
- All grandchild illustrations are gender-neutral (could be boy or girl)
- Each book promotes early communication and reading skills to young children
- Facial recognition is strong with young children and photo stickers help them remember
- Introduces grandparents to young grandkids who may not be familiar with them
Every child dreams of getting on a rocket ship and flying to the moon! Now they can by putting the photo sticker of their face on the rocket ship along with their grandpa.
Easy Peasy Ordering:
The books are simple to order:
- Go to the website: https://stickingwithfamily.com/
- Upload your digital photos from your cell phone, tablet or computer
- These photos are used to create custom photo stickers that come with each book. Suggestion: try and upload photos where you are looking forward, straight into the camera.
- After placing an order, the website takes you to a Sticker Editing page where your photos (grandparent + grandchild) are formatted into a round sticker shape and uploaded to Sticking With Family.
- The photo stickers are printed (72 total) and included with the book and shipped to you within a few days.
What makes these books so unique are the stickers on the faces of grandchildren and their grandparents. A fun and memorable gift!
Grandparenting is just plain fun. You get the wonderful job of spoiling these precious kiddies. And you can influence them for good by instilling within them positive values and character traits through your example.
Like my husband and myself, we fondly remember the influence of our grandparents. Likewise, Beckett will forever remember the efforts his grandparents made to develop and nurture a strong relationship with him. So much so that they even wrote books about their experiences together and are now sharing them with thousands!
As a grandparent–how do you stay in touch with your grandchildren that live close by? What about those grandchildren that live in other states? What is your secret to keeping a relationship going? Please comment in the section below.
Enjoy!
You can access the two-minute video here
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My grandparents were the best! They were a calming influence for our often disfunctional family. They were such fine examples to all of us.
Your experience mimics my experience–wonderful grandparents (although my paternal grandmother was the best!) Grandparents are so important and can make such a difference in a child’s life! Thanks for sharing!
I didn’t have Grandparents that were still alive when I was born. So I always dreamed of being a grandma. When that time came, jobs had taken our kids to other states. Yes we called, Skyped, and listened to them read to us over the phone. But then I started sending cards to them for every holiday. I wrote a special message to each child and included a few dollars to spend however they liked. They love it and so do I.
This summer one of these families moved back. Now they are about 45 miles away. It is so fun to attend the school programs, dance recitals, vocal group presentations, Grandparents school day, etc. Now I feel like the grandma I have wanted to be. We have even taken out each child for their own special date. They are allowed to choose where we go to eat, and a present of their choice. They have surprised us in both activities with their choices. I think the most important thing to remember whether the grandkids are close or far away is to let them know you personally are proud of their achievements / interests and love them for just them!
Great ideas Mary for staying close to your grandkids whether they live close-by or far away. I love your idea for sending cards with personalized messages at holiday time. They must love them and look forward to them with excitement! And being close by and being able to go to their school activities has to be the best ever for your grandkids. The important part is–and you’re doing it–is to do whatever it takes to build a strong relationship with people you love and cherish…your grandkids. Thanks for sharing!
My grandma was like a second mother to me. I loved her with all my heart and think about her every day of my life. My mother had me in her early 20’s and I had my son, Zach in my early 20’s so she was still alive when he was born. Amazing, right?! I had professional pictures of my grandma, mom, myself and Zach together and I have them displayed all over my house. The best thing I ever did…Grandparents are amazing!
What an amazing gift for Zach to have both grandparents and a great-grandmother when he was born! And those photographs on your wall will forever remind both him and YOU of how amazing grandparents are in a child’s life. I agree–like you–my grandmother was a very special person. I’ll never forget her positive influence in my life. Lucky us!
I, too, think back fondly of Nana and Papa, and all the loving times we spent together.
Mark talks about them all the time–they were a HUGE influence in his life and in the lives of his siblings. Thank you for sharing your memories!