Meridian Magazine : Grandparenting: Grandchildren Writing Contests

Grandchildren Writing Contests
By Fay A. Klingler

Thank you for your warm reception of my article last month on ideas for communicating with your grandchildren. I’d like to add this great idea offered by Mary Jurgaitis, a Meridian Magazine reader:

I have a six-year-old granddaughter who lives in Nevada, and I live in Wisconsin. We visited her (and her family) about a year ago. I took all sorts of pictures, and because I have a digital camera, I let her take pictures too. When I got home, I made a “book” that told about our time together and included photos to illustrate it. I loved making that book, and my son said that his daughter wanted it read to her all the time.

Mary’s “book” communicated her love to her granddaughter every time her granddaughter looked through it or it was read to her. Thank you, Mary, for that beautiful suggestion.

This month is dedicated to family writing contests. Now let me define “contest.” In my way of thinking, a family writing contest does not have to include competition for prizes or the like. The competition may be just to see who gets primary placement by being the first one to turn in the requested materials. The reward for the grandchild might be the fulfillment of doing his or her best and the joy of creating and sharing. With that in mind, I will give you several possible ideas for family writing contests.

In years past, when I asked my grandchildren for materials in conjunction with our biannual slumber parties, I took all of the materials sent to me and spiral-bound them, making enough copies for every grandchild. This year, however, with our expanded family, I only made enough copies for each of our twelve children to share with their children. I also provided a CD with most of the pictures printed in the book. That way they could reprint photos and such as they desired.

Three other options to share might be to send the finished product as a whole or in pieces by e-mail, by snail-mail in a family newsletter, or supply it on a family website. Both of those options make it less expensive for the grandparent and accessible for as many copies as desired by the extended family (they print their own). But, because of our busy lifestyles, I fear too many would not get looked at or printed. Small grandchildren would not have the hands-on, easy use they would have with the grandparent going to the trouble of printed up and mailing a copy (or copies).

When you make the request for materials, if possible, do not expect receipt during overload times. For some families that might be during the Christmas holidays, during heavy exams, or during extreme illness. Consider making it a tradition at a chosen time of year. That way families know it is coming and can arrange or schedule the time to work with children to complete the materials and get them back to you in a timely manner.

In your request, carefully explain what you want them to do and give them a deadline. For example, this is the verbiage I used several years ago, requesting materials for a slumber party book.

Dear Austin, Zachary, and Madison,

In July we’re having a luau at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. That is an outdoor feast from Hawaii. Aunt Angel has planned a lot of really fun things for the luau. One of the things we are going to do is make a book for each of you to have. It is a recipe book, and it will have your pictures in it — a picture that you draw and a photo picture of you. It will also have your recipe of how to cook a food item for a luau. I need you to send me some information so I can make the book.

Write on one of the enclosed pieces of paper your step-by-step directions on how to cook a food item for a luau. Perhaps you’d like to tell me how to cook a ham, or how to prepare a fresh pineapple to eat. Maybe you’d like to explain how to fix a fresh coconut for the meal, or how to make fish cakes.

Write down what the item is that you are going to describe. Then write directions on how to fix the food. Write down things like how much you use, how you cut it, and how long you cook it. Write down how big or little it is, what temperature you cook it at, and how you eat it. Tell me how you mix it and what you cook it in or serve it on.

Use another paper to draw your food item on. Make the drawing dark enough for me to scan it on my machine so I can make a copy in the book for everyone.

I need your papers as soon as possible. So please send them back in the enclosed envelope by next week. That way I can get started on scanning everything and putting the book together for you.

Love, Grandma

This is one of the pages from that finished book:

Click to Enlarge

In the year 2000, we asked the grandchildren to send us a drawing and an explanation of what they would do if they went to visit Grandpa and Grandma in the year 2000 B.C. Although inaccurate, most of the grandchildren equated that to dinosaurs and cave people. So the slumber party that year evolved into a caveman party (of sorts)!

One year I started a little book entitled Arthur. I made up a few lines of the story, leaving areas blank for the grandchild to fill in (underlined areas on the samples). I e-mailed it to a grandchild. He filled in the blanks and e-mailed it back.

Then, according to the way the blanks were filled in, I made up a few more lines to the story and e-mailed it to the next grandchild. It continued through the family, concluding with one of the babies. The baby’s siblings provided the words to fill in the blanks for that section of the story. I used clip art to illustrate Arthur and put in a photo of the author for each page.

Look at any “Highlights for Children” magazine and you will find tremendous resources. Either purchase a new one at a bookstore or check one out at your local library. Here are three ideas I gleaned from one of my old file copies.

Ask each of the grandchildren to make a design and color it on a piece of paper. Ask each of them to use his or her favorite colors and on another sheet of paper explain why they chose those colors and how each color makes him or her feel. Group the responses in a book (or other form as mentioned previously) and share them with their cousins. Keep a copy for yourself to help you in gift selections, using each grandchild’s favorite colors.
Send the grandchildren a picture of an object or animal, like an ostrich. Ask the grandchildren to send you facts about the ostrich, such as, “A fully grown ostrich may weigh more than 300 pounds.” The first one to respond may get a gift certificate to an ice cream shop, time making cookies with Grandma, or a museum trip with Grandpa. You could send the responses out to every grandchild through e-mail.
Send a picture and make up a question to go with it, like this old “Science Corner” I illustrated many years ago for “Highlights for Children” magazine (October 1987). Of course you leave out the reply and ask the grandchildren to think of possible answers. Depending on personalities, you will receive factual as well as joke-type answers.

Consider sending your letter of request out in code. Or make the contest one of developing/designing a code and writing a brief joke or note to the extended family in that code.

The following idea can be found in The LDS Grandparents’ Idea Book (by Fay A. Klingler, Spring Creek Book Company). “I have a scrapbook filled exclusively with drawings by my grandchildren — drawings of Grandpa. Each year, in the fall, I ask each of them to draw a portrait of their Grandpa. They write their names on the pictures, and we date them and put them in the scrapbook. We have been doing this for seven years now. It is really fun to look through the drawings and see how Grandpa has changed!”

Along with the drawings, you could ask each of your grandchildren to tell why they love Grandpa or what is his or her favorite thing about Grandpa.

Here are a few more brief ideas for family writing contests:

Explain the word “pledge” or the term “mission statement” and ask the grandchildren to write a family or personal pledge or mission statement.
Supply a desired theme and ask for original poems that reflect that theme. (Poems could be printed on bookmarks and sent out to family members.)
Ask the grandchildren to design a family crest and write a description.
Request original words to a familiar music tune.
Invite the grandchildren to make up original recipes. (You could have a fun family party where each grandchild makes the food using his or her recipe to share.)
Ask the grandchildren to design a family stamp and write a description.
Let every grandchild suggest nicknames for his or her cousins or let each one turn in his or her own — what they would like to be called and why.
Ask each grandchild, “If you were a car (animal, flower, tree), what kind would you be; what would you look like?”
Request original skits, perhaps written to reflect a specific theme. (The chosen skit could be acted out by family members at the next reunion.)
Invite grandchildren to write a short, home-spun tale. (The selected story could be read out loud by a number of cousins or by a favorite, family story teller and recorded on a CD, with copies mailed out to extended family.)
Ask your grandchildren to make up new board games. Suggest a goal for the finished projects — encourage strategic thinking, help build vocabulary or math skills, or teach sportsmanship. (Possibly offer to take the grandchildren who complete the projects out to dinner or to your house for a game and movie night.)
Encourage your grandchild to write his or her own biography, listing accomplishments as well as goals for the future.
Offer to be the editor for a quarterly family newspaper, with grandchildren acting as the columnists.
Ask your grandchildren to write how they would deal with a suggested “hot” situation — a scenario including an act of bullying, loss of trust, or teasing.
Show your grandchildren traffic signs with the words blotted out and ask them to insert appropriate words that fit a suggested theme.
Invite grandchildren to write letters to a family member on a mission and have them sent to you so you can box and send them with a few goodies.

The last idea I would like to offer is for you to write how you feel about the temple. Send that expression out to every grandchild and ask them to meet you at the temple nearest your home. Have a picture taken of each child in front of the temple.

If the grandchildren live away, ask a parent to take them to a nearby temple and take a picture. Or if there is no temple close by, have a photo of the grandchild taken with a picture of his or her favorite temple in the background. Request each grandchild to write about which temple they hope to get married in and why, and describe the feelings they have about temples.

In closing, Warren Pugh e-mailed this suggestion to me. “A fairly good way of getting some grandchildren interested in writing is to expose them to something controversial, whether it be domestic or foreign. A good source for such material is the newspaper, and in particular, the editorial page. Yes, this is age sensitive, but with a little a bit of help, most kids can formulate their own opinions... some of which might surprise us. Do we not all love surprises?”

Warren suggests The Reader’s Digest and even an article in The New Era could induce youngsters to speak out, or in this case, write out!