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Nowadays, there are so many ways to communicate and to let them know the ties with home aren’t broken:

• Phone and cell phone
• Text messaging
• E-mail
• Facebook or similar
• Skype of similar
• Postal mail
• “Care” packages

I think our granddaughter has received all of these types of communications from her parents, brother, grandparents, friends and aunt.  We know her ups and downs and she knows we’re all here and care.

Nowadays the means of communication are so many versus my college days when we wrote letters to parents and they to us.  We used the phone only for emergencies because long distance calls weren’t in the family budget.

When our daughter attended college, we used the phone a little more.  But the postal mail was the main means of messages back and forth.

How do you keep in touch with your college students?

Post from: Blisstree

Communicating with Your College Student

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One of the enjoyable ways we keep in contact with our granddaughter is Skype. We all can see one another as well has having real time communication. Kara and her younger brother have great conversations over Skype. Even the dog sees Kara’s face and looks around for her in person.

“But I don’t know how to use Skype,” you say.

A great resource, we’ve discovered, is Skype for Dummies to help you get set up, learn how to use it, even make conference calls. We haven’t tried conference calls with Kara yet, but my husband uses them for a home based business, communicating with associates around the country.

Friends say they found Skype very useful last year when their daughter went to college in a distant state. They all communicated regularly and kept the family in touch.

Have you used Skype with your college students?

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Skype for College Students

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This happened with our daughter and now our granddaughter, who leaves soon for college 400 miles away.  This is a great adventure for her and will make a change in our multigenerational household.

We’ll miss her, yes, as we did when our daughter went 600 miles away 25 years ago.  But I wasn’t devastated.  (I began to feel guilty when people suggested that I should be devastated.)  We were excited about this opportunity for her.

Are you involved in exciting preparations for the young person in your household heading off to a new life?  We all wonder if we’ve imparted them with the knowledge and experience to handle situations that arise.  Have we let them make decisions during their high school years that will give them training in these matters?  Have we given them moral and religious backgrounds that will sustain them during difficult decision making.

Have we prepared our lives and those of siblings at home for this gap in the family life?  I used to find myself coming into the house after work and calling to Beth with something to share with her…then realize she wasn’t answering.  (In those days before e-mail, I’d have to write her a letter about it.)

Today with e-mail and social media such as Facebook, we can keep in touch with our college students   With Skype type applications, you also can talk face to face.

Do you have young people heading for college this fall?  Either away or locally?

Post from: Blisstree

When Your Kids Head for College

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Janet shared:

I took care of my grandson from the time he was six months until he was 2 1/2 while his mom returned to work. It was an absolutely wonderful experience. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to bond with him and to watch him grow.

I watched him crawl for the first time and take his first steps and I helped to potty train him. I will remember these important firsts the same as I remember my own childrens.

He calls me Grammy and I love it!

On a personal note, I’ve had the pleasure of watching my two grandchildren grow, and being involved in their lives,  from the time they were 1 and 5 years old, because they and their parents have lived with us for a number of years.  Now our granddaughter goes off to college in the fall.

Share with us the joys of grandparenting.

Post from: Blisstree

Grandparents Share About Parenting

I want to know how many of you are doing this exact thing? Was it what you expected? If not, why? For me, I think I always expected the whole group study thing going on.

sxc.hu

But being the mother of four that is a bit different, the only group studying I do is maybe reading my posts to my kids. Yes, I said posts, meaning that I take a few of my classes online. That’s one thing that I did not think about so long ago when I first thought of college, but it is one of the easiest ways to being a college student and mom. But at the same time it is harder because you don’t get that one on one with the teacher and you can’t really do the hands-on portion.

Today, I took my final in my worse subject….math. But I already got my grade and I’ll be passing the class with an A. Woo hoo! Now to wait for my next two classes to end to find out how I did. I did study for the test, but not as I would’ve back in high school. How do you study? Can’t wait to hear back from ya’ll.

Post from: Blisstree

Mom’s Going to School

Beginning in February, the University of Sioux Falls will offer a one-credit dating course called “Finding Dates Worth Keeping.”

Laurie Chaplin, a relationships counselor and licensed therapist who’s been married 28 years, will be the instructor.

The course is being offered through the USF Learning Institute, the same agency that offers seminars on wellness, job hunting and business communication.

What a brilliant idea!

Today’s young adults are “working harder to get smarter about their mates” and want lifelong relationships, she said.

In class they’ll learn about infatuation and when it’s best to break up.

I wish they’d offered courses like this when I was back on the dating scene!  Could it be possible that our college coed’s could learn how to date responsibly and avoid becoming broken hearted?

If a course like this were offered near you, would you take it?

Post from: Blisstree

University offering dating course