EFG

A dear friend of mine inspired me with her idea of EFG.  She was sharing with me her plan to hold an EFG (Especially For Grandchildren) event with her school age grandchildren.  She was going to have them come for three days and she and her husband would hold classes, a service project, and fun activities.  What an awesome idea I thought, but I knew I had younger grandchildren so I would copy the idea but tone it down.  I decided that since all the kids would be together at Lake Powell it would be the perfect spot for our small EFG.  We would have a mini class each day for a few minutes when the children were hot, tired and needed some attention.  I planned it around the five facets that we all need to develop (spiritual, emotional, social, intellectual, and physical) and focus on one each day.  It turned out to be fun and hopefully memorable for them.
SPIRITUAL:  We read the book "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus" written by Cynthia L. Dobson with Illustrations by Simon Dewey.  We then talked about CTR (Choose The Right) and I had slap bracelets with CTR on them for each one.

SOCIAL:  We read the book "Have you Filled a Bucket Today" by Carol McCloud.  This one was my favorite.  It's an incredible book about filling each others invisible bucket by being kind, saying nice things, and helping others.  We fill our own bucket as we fill others.  Of course they each got a plastic bucket to play in the sand and water after we were finished.  The neat thing about this was several days later Cody was sitting on the cooler out on the deck of the houseboat when Blake brought the lotion out and began giving him a foot rub.  (Grandpa has a wonderful tradition of giving "Foot Rubs" to everyone at Lake Powell)  As she was starting on his second foot he very thoughtfully said; "Blake is filling my bucket."  AWESOME--He got it and he remembered it!!!!

EMOTIONAL:  I love books and I think they teach so many lessons in ways I can't so we read another book titled "Beautiful Oops"  by Barney Saltzberg  It teaches that when you make a mistake, don't despair you just need to turn it into something special.  It is a fun book with flaps and holes and fold out pages.  I brought paper, paints, glue, scissors etc for them to create, make mistakes, and turn it into something better.

PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL:  They got combined one day because we missed a day because we were having too much fun in the sun.  One of our days happened to fall on Flag Day so we learned about the flag and then we had a parade as they each proudly waved their own flags and spectators stood and placed their hands over their hearts as the flags went by.

I remember as a mother of small children that I was so exhausted and overwhelmed with raising children that I just wanted someone to teach my children something, anything, so I wasn't the sole instructor of them.  My children didn't have grandparents that were able or willing to help them learn new ideas and thoughts and I wanted that so much.  While I'm able I want to lessen the load on their parents a small amount and help them teach and reinforce ideas that they are trying to share with their kids.  There is a fine line between helping parents and not taking over their role.  I believe a good grandma "grandparents" not "parents" their grandchildren.  That is my goal.