Long-Distance Playtime with Nana and Grandad by @GallHannigan is a BHW pick #crafts #bookish #play

TITLE: LONG-DISTANCE PLAYTIME WITH NANA AND GRANDAD

AUTHOR: Mary Gallagher Hannigan

GENRE: Relationships, Arts and Crafts, and How-To

BOOK BLURB:

Due to the current pandemic I, like so many other Nanas and Grandads, have found it very difficult to be separated from our friends and loved ones, especially our grandchildren. In this book, I will share with you some of the methods I am using to stay in touch with my younger grandchildren over the iPhone, laptop, and computer. These include reading books and playing games but especially engaging in imaginary play. As this includes a lot of props I show you how to make and accumulate enough “characters” to keep your grandchild happy. I also include chapters on importing apps, video games, and books.

EXCERPT:

Due to the current pandemic I, like so many other Nanas and Grandads, have found it very difficult to be separated from our friends and loved ones, especially our grandchildren. Adults can always pick up the phone and chat for as long as they like but it is so much more difficult to keep a child engaged in a telephone conversation. Unless you can put some kind of play into the phone call it will usually fizzle out after a few minutes. As I am 66 I have to self-isolate and so am unable to visit my three grandchildren aged 3, 5 ¾, and 13. As I can have meaningful conversations with the 13-year-old, I have had to devise methods for keeping the younger children engaged with a phone conversation. After a few months, I can now stay chatting and playing with the 5 ¾ year old for up to two hours but the 3-year-old only lasts about five minutes.

In this book, I will share with you some of the methods I am using to stay in touch with my younger grandchildren. These include reading books and playing games but especially engaging in imaginary play. As this includes a lot of props I show you how to accumulate enough “characters” to keep your grandchild happy playing for at least an hour and games I found that appealed to the different age groups.

I discuss suitable phone packages and applications that will enable you to import books, and video games and how to purchase these online for those of you who are not very computer savvy…like me! I also describe non-technical props that are suitable for play such as teddies, monsters, and other characters that are actually lying around your house but you just have not discovered them yet. I found that this kind of imaginary play was best suited to children of five and over as my younger grandson aged 3 could not focus for longer than five minutes. My older grandson was able to stay focused on the characters for longer. Younger children prefer short games and I have a chapter on these called Five Minute Games such as the Hungry Dinosaur, Toy Inspection, and Jokes. There are more advanced Five-Minute games such as Dice Games, Jigsaw Games, Card Games, and Quizzes to name just a few for the older children.

I give the reader some U-Tube links on making sock toys and felted toys but I also have a section on basic cloth monsters made from materials that the reader will find around the home. There is another chapter on making characters from paper and empty cartons and lots of useful script ideas to bring them to life. All these teddies, monsters, and characters have to live somewhere and I have devoted a chapter on how to make a special forest for all of them.

The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with photos of the actual characters, teddies, and monsters.

BUY LINK:

www.amazon.com/dp/B08QC4W4RF

AUTHOR BIO:

I am a retired Social Worker and Arts and Crafts Teacher with two extraordinary children and three wonderful grandchildren. I have a degree in Applied Social Studies in Social Care and have worked in Community Care for over twenty years. I am also a retired skipper and lived on a barge on the River Shannon for the same length of time. In my spare time, I teach Arts and Crafts.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

I am on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and am currently crafting my new website called Nana Mary's Crafts and Scribbles.