Grandparents Day at school

[smfritz03]

Have any of you helped prepare or visited your childs grandparents day? What did you like or dislike about it? What are some ideas you would suggest?

I am part of the PTO for my first year and ended up agreeing to put together our grandparents day program. So I'm looking for some ideas from anyone!

They don't want to do lunch w/ grandparents because of how spread out the lunch hours are between the grades and it'd be hard if only one grandparent comes for multiple kids to sit and wait around for each lunch--and you can't really take all the kids and put them together because of spacing.

So--they want to do cookies and juice, some type of program and also have the grandparents visit the bookfair. But they don't want to have them just wander around and no schedule since they've done that before and the grandparents didn't enjoy it.

Now--me personally--it kinda upset me that the mentality was this was just another headache for the school to put on. I think grandparents are a very important part of a childs life and this is a time for the kids and grandparents to spend together and enjoy each other and would love to build up on that for the day. So looking for ideas from everyone!!!

 

[KAMKIM]

Our grandparents day

The kids have to draw a picture of grandma and grandpa and they are posted on the walls outside of that childs classroom - grandma and grandpa have to guess which one is of them...they of course get to keep the picture.

Our school also does lunch - dont know how they figure it out with different lunch schedules though because this is the first year I have 2 kids attending.

 

[grumpeeduck]

I am very thankful that our school system does not do this. We briefly lived in an area that did, and we ended up checking our child out of school during this celebration, or whatever it was so as not to have hurt feelings or feeling left out. Many grandparents do not live in the area, or choose not to attend, etc.
There are many things to do in school and I feel that this one is a stretch. Good luck with this.

 

[KAMKIM]

I am very thankful that our school system does not do this. We briefly lived in an area that did, and we ended up checking our child out of school during this celebration, or whatever it was so as not to have hurt feelings or feeling left out. Many grandparents do not live in the area, or choose not to attend, etc.
There are many things to do in school and I feel that this one is a stretch. Good luck with this.

Aww that is too bad - our school sends a letter home stating that if a grandparent cannot make it it could be a special aunt/uncle/mom/dad whoever. My mom "adopted" one of the other girls since her grandparents lived in another state and ate lunch with her and my daughter.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Why not have an assembly? Maybe a tea or something? Have it in the cafeteria in the afternoon and the classes all come down, and mingle.

 

[mrsv98]

Instead of Grandparents Day our school has "Goodies" day so that children without a GP can bring anyone they like.

The best bet is to keep it short and sweet. Have a craft, little presentation and a snack. Quick and easy and no one gets stressed or over stimulated.

Good luck with your planning!

 

[KandD]

We had a "Special Person" day. Most people brought grandparents but some brought aunts and uncles, neighbors, pastors, whoever was special in their life. (The signup slit asked that no little children come with the special person). K-3rd did it in the am and 4-6 did the afternoon. The special people spent like an hour or maybe more in the classroom with the students (the teachers planned their own activities....some grades combined the classes and did like a little show or something) and then everyone went down to the gym for light refreshments.

 

[XYSRUS]

One school we had Grandparents day and played bingo and had a snack and juice/coffee. Very nice. Other school had grandparents in the am before school, snack but no activity and then the kids were all over the place getting to class. 1st school it was a dream event. 2nd school-never again-chaos. Please remember you'll be getting older people-you forget-many move slower, don't like a lot of chaos/noise need time to get things done/have mobility issues. Bingo was fun b/c everyone could do it. Even break up the grades so little kids could do picture bingo. That's my 2 cents...

 

[barkley]

i would be put off by the inclusion of having the grandparents go to the book faire-seems like a blatant attempt to raise funds which was one of the key reasons one of the schools my kid used to attend started getting a negative reaction to grandparents day. they decided that they would have the kids do invitations to grandparent's day-supposedly it was to make it more 'special', kids made the invites and had to bring the addresses to the school for mailing. what school did'nt mention was it retained the addresses in a database and used it to generate a mailing list that they used for several years (my mom was getting mailings 5 years after my kids changed schools) to send out announcements of every fund raising campaign and pay for attend events

i found the whole event a hassle-the grands for my kids lived somewhat localy, but were'nt able to drive so it always entailed a day off work for me to transport and tour them around the school. i would have much preferred they take an evening event (like a concert or back to school night) and done it in honor of the grandparents. they could have done a little show and then had the grandparents go to the classrooms where refreshments were served and the kids could have shown their work/classroom/teacher off to the grands. my mom was a good sport about doing it, but it got to be way too much for her (walking wise) when they did the day events that had her walking to the classroom, walking to the auditorium, walking out to observe recess...

i think it would be neat if a school were going to do one of these events to solicit school age photos of grandparents and short memories. it would be neat for the kids to hear about the similarities and differences between 'back then' and now.

 

[smfritz03]

I really love the bingo or the "tea" idea!!! That was if there is only one person w/ 2-3 kids--they could all still be together!

It's hard to plan something when they can throw a thousand reasons as to why not to do it that way! lol Like they didnt want to set up a thousand chairs in the gym--yet, they want a program......

Then they want time for the grandparent to be in the class w/ the child---yet want everything structured and timed---but also know that there will be one person w/ multiple kids and each kid is going to want to show off their classroom.

One person at pto suggested having the grandparents in the classroom for 30 min to meet teacher, get pic and have juice and cookie then head down for a program. However--still doesnt address the issue of only one grandparent w/ several kids in different grades. And that's how the school is--there is MANY siblings in the school, so how would that work out when each kid wants grandma(pa) to visit their class?

It's always been chaos every year and grandparents haven't been enjoying it or have been bored.

Well, this is hitting close to home because my oldest lost her grandmother this past summer VERY unexpectedly. They were very close, she stayed with her every week for a night and was w/ her the night she passed away. Well, grandma always came to every thing she had going on and LOVED grandparents day--just cuz it was her time w/ dd at the school. So I'd like to make this grandparents day special since you never know when that could be the last one (or even the last day) that they have together.

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

I'd like to encourage you to call it Grandparents and Special Friends Day. It is really hard on kids who don't have a grandparent. One little boy from my son's class was in this position and he always hated it when it was called "Grandparent's Day" because it reminded him that he no longer had any grandparents.

As to what to do...assuming you have multiple years at your school, I'd try to do "time slots" for the younger kids you could have them do a craft in the classroom with their grandparent/friend; for the middle elementary ages (say 2nd and 3rd) you could have them read a book to their grandparent/friend; for the upper elementary grades you could have them do a play in the classroom based on one of their favorite books or based on a period or culture they are studying?

When my son was in school (we homeschool now), we started the morning off around 10ish with the littlest kids (in our case Pre-K to 1st), then 2nd and 3rd, then 4th and 5th and then middle school. The middle schoolers welcomed all the grandparents/friends and acted as "ambassadors" helping them to find the classrooms they needed etc. There was also coffee, juice and snacks (veggies, fruit, bagels) set up in a common area where the special friends got an overview of the school and were met by the ambassadors to be helped around school.

Good luck!

 

[sbsteel]

If you must, I would think making it a Grandparents/Special Friends day would be a good first step. Another poster suggested incorporating an evening concert/play which is also a good idea.

Somehow tying it in with a book fair just looks greedy, IMO, and is asking for trouble. Now not only do you have kids who don't have grandparents there at all, they have to watch a classmate pick out whatever they want. Or the grandparent(s) on a fixed income who feel pressured to buy something.

I'm also curious what you have planned for the children with no grandparents (or stand ins) available? You seem concerned about sharing the time with siblings, but have nothing noted for those students who will have to view it as just another day alone at school.

 

[Lunchlady]

I would just like to offer some advice if you invite Grandparents to eat lunch in the school cafeteria. Make sure that they know it will cost them to eat and the price. Also make SURE the lunch ladies know there will be a lot of extra people that day. I work in a school cafeteria and I remember one year we had about 100 extra people to feed. The bad thing was the school didn't have a clue that many would come.We were pulling out every pizza we could find. So many people didn't realize that they had to pay because it was Grandparent's Day. Our full lunch price is 2.55 but some came unprepared. What a nightmare that was. So please talk to the lunch ladies.And good luck because it was very very crazy.

 

[smfritz03]

I asked that question about the ones who don't have anyone--and I was told a lot of times the kid will just buddy around w/ their friend and grandparent. Honestly-in a school of 200 kids, it's really not been an issue from what I've been told from previous years. However, the idea has been tossed around to bring over some people from the nursing home. Not sure if I like that idea since there is no background checks on them? I tossed in having the local police, fire, ems there and a child can buddy w/ them for the hour if they don't have anyone. (fire and ems and police reserves, not on the clock ones)

Bottom line is--the school has been doing grandparents day for a LONG time, there is no getting away from it, so I just have the task of planning the details of that 1.5 hrs.

I don't like the bookfair idea either--however, that is the week the bookfair is set up at school anyway and they won't be taking it down just for that time frame. I don't think they've ever had any complaints on it, and believe me, being in a small town, people don't hold in their complaints on things!!! lol

 

[smfritz03]

I really appreciate the help, advice, etc that is being offered on here!!! This is no small task and I can understand how it can be a sticky situation with kids w/out grandparents, or grandparents who are unable to come.

I just really want to make the day special for the person who comes, fun for the kids if someone is there or isn't...and really take a chance to honor each grandparent/special person who is there--to let them know how much they are valued for who they are. It's hard when the mentality at the school is, "oh we HAVE to do this--we only have 1.5 hrs and it's such a pain....."

 

[KAMKIM]

I know people dont want to be burdened or have it be too loud/chaotic...but seriously it's one day a year and only a 1 1/2 hrs. And as far as there being siblings - well we have alot more than 200 kids in our school and somehow they manage grandparents day every year.

does it have to be during the day?

Borrow the gym one night 1 1/2 hours - serve donuts/juice/coffee.

Have the kids make the invitations ahead of time with a RSVP so you know

How many grandparents are coming. Add a note that special adult friends are allowed in cases where a grandparent cannot be available.

Have a half hour juice/coffe/donut time

Have one hour where the kids sing songs and/or speak about their "special" person that came and why they love them or something.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

Have any of you helped prepare or visited your childs grandparents day? What did you like or dislike about it? What are some ideas you would suggest?

I am part of the PTO for my first year and ended up agreeing to put together our grandparents day program. So I'm looking for some ideas from anyone!

They don't want to do lunch w/ grandparents because of how spread out the lunch hours are between the grades and it'd be hard if only one grandparent comes for multiple kids to sit and wait around for each lunch--and you can't really take all the kids and put them together because of spacing.

So--they want to do cookies and juice, some type of program and also have the grandparents visit the bookfair. But they don't want to have them just wander around and no schedule since they've done that before and the grandparents didn't enjoy it.

Now--me personally--it kinda upset me that the mentality was this was just another headache for the school to put on. I think grandparents are a very important part of a childs life and this is a time for the kids and grandparents to spend together and enjoy each other and would love to build up on that for the day. So looking for ideas from everyone!!!

Eh, this has to be one of my least favorite days both as a PTA person and as a parent. The kids grandparents hated it-the food was terrible, no place to sit, teacher gave a boring lecture about what the kids are doing, and it was a logistical nightmare on the PTA side trying to figure out the food and the parking.

Plus there was always that one kid who either had no grandparents or no special friends that wanted to show up that day and was crushed.

Finally got the darn thing done away with. Then we moved and argh, it's at this school.

Good thing is they only do it for the little kids, first and second grade-kindergarteners get too freaked out by the screw up in their routine and 3rd 4th and 5th graders don't care.

My advice is to push for having it for the lower grades only, don't make the grandparents sit in the cafeteria and eat cafeteria food, and have each one on a separate day to minimize the traffic impact in the hallways and the parking lot.

 

[KAMKIM]

Eh, this has to be one of my least favorite days both as a PTA person and as a parent. The kids grandparents hated it-the food was terrible, no place to sit, teacher gave a boring lecture about what the kids are doing, and it was a logistical nightmare on the PTA side trying to figure out the food and the parking.

Plus there was always that one kid who either had no grandparents or no special friends that wanted to show up that day and was crushed.

Finally got the darn thing done away with. Then we moved and argh, it's at this school.

Good thing is they only do it for the little kids, first and second grade-kindergarteners get too freaked out by the screw up in their routine and 3rd 4th and 5th graders don't care.

My advice is to push for having it for the lower grades only, don't make the grandparents sit in the cafeteria and eat cafeteria food, and have each one on a separate day to minimize the traffic impact in the hallways and the parking lot.

This reminds me - my school has the grandparents park down the street and has school buses shuttling them from the school to the parked cars -

Also they have subs turkey and ham - so no yucky foods for grandma and grandpa lol

 

[cntrygal]

our school does grandparents day in may, one week before school budget vote, what timing. the visit the childs classroom for like 20 mins, then to the aud or gym for an assembly, last year was chinese acribats, then to the caateria for cookies/punch. the grandparent can tehn take the kids home.

 

[Caropooh]

Add me in to the group who really dislikes the idea of a Grandparents Day. Both of my parents have passed away and my in-laws live 1500 miles away. We have no relatives that live even remotely close to us. DD10 would be very sad not having anyone there for her. Yes, DH, DD15 or I could go, but I just really don't think it's the same since we hear about her school activities every day.