My little family dreams of the day when we will live close to at least one, if not both sets of Grandparents! Sadly, we currently do not have this luxury. I came across a wonderful idea in ‘Family Fun’ and tweaked it a little to help our family feel a little ‘closer’.
{Mom, Dianne (mom-in-law),…if you are reading this STOP. Yes you!!! This will spoil your Mother’s Day gift, so STOP NOW!}
I spotted this FREE Tote Bag from Vista Prints and knew just what I wanted to do with it. My little family headed to Borders and chose out a BIG story book full of short stories. We grabbed extra copies for Mother’s Day (one for us, and one for each grandma). We wrote a special note in the front cover to Grandma, requesting a weekly story time, via webcam. We put the book in the special ‘story time’ tote and wrapped it up. It’s ready to be shipped for Mother’s Day! Can you even imagine all the fun that is going to happen on these long distance, story time dates? Makes me smile to think about. We know that this will make all of those miles in between us, seem like a little less.
Honestly, miles shouldn’t matter with all of the current technology we have! If you don’t have a webcam, a simple phone ‘story time’ date works almost as well! As long as both kids and Grandma have the same book, they can both be part of the story time ‘adventure’.
My sweet little boy keeps carrying his ‘Grandma Story Bag’ all over the house. I guess he wants to be prepared when she calls. 😉
You still have time to pull this one off before Mother’s Day. Get a FREE Small Tote Bag from Vista Prints HERE. I uploaded a custom picture, making the bag $2.49ish? -Head to the bookstore to find the perfect ‘story book collection’ that suites your family. Here are a few of my favorites: The Great Big Book of Bedtime Stories and Rhyme, The Everything Fairy Tales Book, and Classic Fairy Tales. I’m sure there are a bjillion others. Do you have any suggestions?!
This sweet ‘story time’ date could be weekly, bi-monthly, monthly,…whatever works for your family. We are so excited to start this sweet tradition. It will undoubtedly create some very special memories. My little guy is sure excited for both of his grandma’s to receive their gifts! 🙂 I can hardly wait too.
Brooke says
What a great idea! My father lives 8 hours away and although we use skype, this will truly bring my son and his grandpa together.
Moonpie says
When my grandchildren were in Alaska and we were in Oklahoma for 3 years I wanted to stay connected with threm. They were only toddlers. We made a video, over an hour long. We did it in pieces. First Papa went outside and showed them the new porch he was building. Both of us read stories – showing the pictures in the book as we went. Our youngest daughter was still at home and she did some puppet shows, we all sang songs. We videoed church family at a fellowship telling them “hi”. The loved trains so we recorded close up some of the engines and cars.
My daugther said they watched it constantly so much so she got tired of hearing it for hours on end each day. They are school age now and live near by but still remember the video.
Crystal says
This is such a sweet idea. We live far from my parents and I think this would make for some great memories of their grandparents even though they don’t see them very often.
.-= Crystal´s last blog ..A few favorites =-.
Nikki Wittwer says
Shelley, this idea is absolutely adorable! I love it. Thanks for everything you share.
Misty says
OK Shelley this is such a stinkin cute idea!!! I LOVE IT! I wonder if this will work with a grandparent who only lives a mile away…but never visits? 🙂 You are so creative!
Autumn says
Aw, what a sweet idea. My kids regularly skype with their grandparents and great grandparents. They love it!
.-= Autumn´s last blog ..Loving the Serger! =-.
Alice says
This is a very good idea. Thanks for sharing.
Jacque says
That’s is the sweetest idea I have seen in a long time. What a wonderful idea for long distance grandparents and grandchildren. You rock.
Philip says
This is a great idea. Both sets of our grandparents live over four hours away. We have had other dates, mainly bath dates and dinner dates, but never a story time. The dinner dates are fun as well. We just set the laptop on the table and eat a meal together. Conversation flows pretty well and the kids love it. We will have to give this one a try!
.-= Philip´s last blog ..Dinner Time Fun =-.
Stephanie Caswell says
OOOOOO this idea is AAAMAZING!! Thanks for the inspiration! I put a link to your page on my blog. Hope you don’t mind!
Alison says
Link away! Thank you:)
Melissa says
My mother doesn’t play games but LOVES to read, so as a gift to the kids she will buy a book, record herself reading it using a different bell, whistle, etc for when to turn the page so we have it for future story time. It’s great when I’m too tired to read a bedtime story and one of the kids asks for “grandma story time”. I just put the tape in and they get to hear grandma telling them a story even though she is miles and miles away.
I plan on keeping the tapes because I know when the kids get older this will be a beautiful treasure to have their grandmother’s voice reading to them after she passes on.
Question: how many bags can we order free from Vista?
.-= Melissa´s last blog ..Let’s ride …. =-.
annie says
My first grand daughter was born in my same state but her parents moved away when she was only ONE MONTH old. I felt so gypped. When she got old enough, I took a cassette player and read stories on it, then I sent her the tape and all the story books I had read, so she could follow along.
Whenever she was sent to her room, for punishment, she would fire up “grandma’s tape” and listen to me reading her stories.
It was extremely weird one time when I was there to visit to hear my voice at a very LOUD volume coming out of her room when she was supposed to be there for discipline reasons, but I was honored.
~a
.-= annie´s last blog ..Oh My!!! =-.
DIane {createdbydiane.blogspot.com} says
great idea!!! I love it.
.-= DIane {createdbydiane.blogspot.com}´s last blog ..veggie pizza =-.
Melissa says
This is a great idea. At Christmas time my mom bought the recordable story book “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and the kids listened to it over and over. I’m not sure if they would do this b/c it’s hard to get them on the phone but it’s worth a try and very cute!
.-= Melissa´s last blog ..Grace’s Hair =-.
Wendy Cooper says
I LOVE this!! And I love you Shell 🙂 Of course you would find the cutest way every to keep your sweet babies in touch with the Grandmas..
Grammy Karen says
What a WONDERFUL idea and I will have to see what we can do about this ASAP! It surprises even me what a SPECIAL relationship Grammies have with their grandchildren (and I only have a favourite ONE very darling granddaughter)… I really didn’t know until Ava came along that anything could be better than being a Mom, which I absolutely loved!
Jessica Allison says
This is amazing! I would love doing this, but none of his grandmothers would be game. But this is a definite possibilitiy for father’s day!
Grammyoftwins says
I’m going to gift this in reverse, well sorta! I’m the Grammy of 3 year old boy/girl twins & rather than wait for my very busy daughter-in-law to have time to read this site (that I am going to forward to her for all your great ideas) I am going to buy the books for myself, my daughter-in-laws mother & the twins as one of my Birthday Gifts for my daughter-in-laws upcoming August Birthday with a promise to read a weekly story to the twins which hopefully will give her a few minutes to herself! Both of us grandparents already do Skype with them do this will be a more structured way to spend time with them for all of us!
I just love this idea! Please keep ’em coming!!