We love grandparents! They hold loads of family history and traditions. Grandparents can teach their grandchildren a lot about how the world has changed since they were younger, and a lot about themselves too. Many grandparents are natural storytellers, but some are less likely to open up without being prompted.
To help your child learn all they can from their grandparents, and build a strong bond while learning, help them come up with questions that they can ask their grandparents. These questions can be good conversation starters to connect the different generations in your family.
Why Is It Important For Your Kids To Ask Their Grandparents Questions?
It’s amazing to watch our children grow, but it’s also super fun to see our own parents turn into grandparents. Those cookie-sneaking grandparents have more to share than contraband sweets! They also have a wealth of knowledge about the past and family traditions. By the time one becomes a grandparent, they will have lived full, exciting lives that they’ll be proud to share with their grandkids.
Learn About Their Grandparent
It’s hard for kids to realize that their grandparents used to be young once too. They were actually living their own lives before they became grandma and grandpa. When kids ask their grandparents questions specific to them, they can learn a lot about them from when they were little. Maybe they’ll find that they enjoyed a lot of the same things!
Learn About The Past
In school, kids learn all about different historical events. Some of these events happened in their grandparents’ lifetime and may have impacted their lives in some way. They may have watched Wilma Rudolph, the first woman from the United States to win three gold medals at one Olympics, make history in the 1960 Olympics. Maybe they remember the first video game debut or the very first computer.
Learn About Family History And Traditions
As parents, we try to hold up the family traditions and pass on the family stories as much as possible, but no one knows them as well as grandparents. Like the story about Alex Yamada in Family History Isn’t Ancient History, your kids can learn a lot about their family if they ask their grandparents questions.
Build A Strong Bond
One of the best ways to foster a strong bond between grandparents and grandchildren is through steady communication. Communication doesn’t always come easily, especially with a generational age gap. When grandkids ask their grandparents meaningful questions, however, they can spark a conversation. A close relationship can be beneficial for both grandparents and grandchildren.
What Are 11 Meaningful Questions To Ask Grandparents?
It may be tricky for kids to come up with their own questions for their grandparents. So, we’ve come up with a list of meaningful questions that may help spark their curiosity. You can even challenge your kids to come up with more questions of their own! The next time they have a Caribu video-call with their grandparents, they can ask them some of these questions!
1. What Was Your Favorite Toy?
This is a great starter question, and it’s appropriate even for younger kids. Every kid has a favorite toy. The grandparents can talk about how it was similar and different to the toys of today.
Maybe their favorite was a toy truck or babydoll, just like their grandchild. Perhaps they even have a picture of it to share!
2. What Did Kids Do For Fun When You Were Growing Up?
A lot has changed for kids in the last few decades when it comes to what kids do to have fun.
For one thing, playing outside independently has gone down by 25% over the years. Did they play outside a lot? Go to the movies? Build forts with their best friend? Did they play a sport? The grandkids will get a kick out of learning the different activities they did for fun, and it may inspire some ideas of their own!
3. Did You Get An Allowance? What Would You Spend It On?
Around the age of 5, kids may start getting an allowance. This is a super exciting time in most kids’ lives. They get a little money to save or spend it with the help of their parents’ guidance. These days, kids may save their money for a trip to their favorite store or for buying a new game online.
What about their grandparents? Did they get an allowance? What were the chores they had to do? Did they save their money or spend it all in one place? This conversation may help your little ones learn about the value of money.
4. Did You Like To Read? What Was Your Favorite Book?
Of course, you have to ask a reading question! Before your child chooses the next book to read on Caribu with their grandparent, they can ask if their grandparent liked to read when they were younger.
Did they have a favorite book or series? Maybe they liked comic books, and still have some of their favorites saved. If any of the books sound interesting to their grandchild, they may be able to find the same book and read it together!
5. What Type Of Games Did You Play?
With the invention of the tablet, playing games has seen a huge change over the last decade. When most grandparents were little, if they were going to play a game, it was likely a card game, board game, or group game like hide and seek. The grandchild may even leave the conversation with a new game to introduce to their friends the next time they’re playing!
6. What Makes You Happy?
Grandparents’ lives aren’t only in the past. Asking them what makes them happy can help to see a different side of their grandparents. The answers they get may just surprise them!
7. What Is Your Favorite Thing About Being A Grandparent?
This question is a sweet one for a grandchild to ask a grandparent. Most likely, the answer will be all about how much they love spending time with their grandchild and watching them grow.
Even so, having this conversation can make them both feel loved and supported. It’s a great way to build that bond. Perhaps the grandparent can ask their grandchild what their favorite part about being a grandchild is!
8. Did You Have Pets?
For some families, pets are loved members of the family. They can be a child’s first best friend and a huge part of their lives. If this sounds like your little one, they’ll probably want to know if their grandparent also had a loved pet at home.
9. Where Did You Live When You Were A Child?
For many kids, their world revolves around their home. They may have gone on a vacation, but life is connected to their community. Learning about where their grandparents grew up can give them another perspective on the world. Perhaps they lived in a different country! Maybe they lived in a state where it snowed, and the grandchild lives in Florida (a snowless state)!
10. What Was Life Like When You Were My Age?
Grandparents are full of interesting stories, and how they grew up might be one of them. Did they have a parent in the military, causing them to move to different places every few years? Maybe they lived on a farm and helped their parents with the chores.
Even if they grew up very similarly to their grandchild, life was vastly different over 50 years ago. Kids will enjoy hearing about all the changes during their grandparent’s lifetime.
11. What Was Technology Like When You Were Growing Up?
If there’s one thing that has changed the most over the past few decades, it’s technology. When most grandparents grew up, there wasn’t a remote for the TV (and, if they did have one, it was connected to a wire!). There were no phones in their pockets, they were hanging on a wall in their home. GPS in our cars wasn’t even a concept, and everyone had to learn to use a map (gasp!). This question can spark quite an entertaining conversation, one that will likely shock the kids!
Conclusion
Next time your little ones are talking to their grandparents, have them ask a couple of meaningful questions like the ones we’ve listed here. They may learn even more about the interesting lives of their grandparents, and continue to strengthen their bond with one another. In the process, they may also learn about the past, as well as family traditions and history.
Luckily, we live in a technological world! With the help of Caribu, your children and their grandparents can have these conversations over a video-call. They can even read books together or play games together to make the call that much more fun and engaging!
Sources:
Cultivating a Close Relationship with Grandparents | USU
More than Pocket Money: The Value of an Allowance | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia