QUBO! What in the world is that? A fun game? A room decoration? An alien life form? Actually, it's a cable TV channel for kids (and grandkids ) with loads of educational tv shows for kids. Apparently we just started getting it in our area and I LOVE it. You know why? It has a bunch of the educational kids shows we've loved the past few years. This week, their schedule includes some of our very favorites over the years:

• 3-2-1…Penguins!
• Mighty Machines
• Rescue Heroes
• The Magic School Bus
• Babar

They also include these intriguing-sounding shows I'm not that familiar with:

• Adventures From The Book Of Virtues
• Animal Exploration with Jarod Miller
• Pearlie
• Shelldon
• The Mysteries Of Alfred Hedgehog
• The Zula Patrol
• Turbo Dogs
• Willa's Wild Life
• Dragon
• Jacob Two-Two
• Jane & The Dragon

KUBO's focus is on safe and educational shows that back up "the values we are teaching" our grandkids and kids. TERRIFIC!  On their website you can also find fun, educational, and downright challenging activities for our grandkids. I did TERRIBLE at their Babar game. I'll have to get my geeky grandkids and see if THEY can do better than me. (Probably can ). 

Sadly, my grandkids have pretty much outgrown most of the shows – tho they still love Magic School Bus (even though they've seen them all) and, sometimes, 3-2-1 Penguin, a Christian show that's so cute. (We've enjoyed their fun videos for kids for years. )

But I wanted to spotlight this channel for those of you grandparents whose grandchildren are still at the right age for these fun shows. It's a great resource for all of us in the Sandwich Generation with younger kids and grandkids. How about you? What educational resources do you and your grandkids enjoy?

Kaye

My grandkids and I are well into Autumn and Awanas so this week we’ve been busy memorizing “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” and “Great is our Lord and mighty in power,” among other verses.

We’ve also continued reviewing our Fruit of the Spirit songs and verses during the occasional bath times I participate in. That is such a great time to sing verse songs about the Lord combined with plenty of laughter, hugs, and joy!

They got to spend the night last night so this morning we were busy having our shower and song-fest. As I sang to them and with them, I was amazed at how God used their little verses to encourage me and lift my spirits over some of the Sandwich Generation issues I’ve been grappling with!

It has always been a blessing through the years as I taught God’s love and Word, first to my kids and now to my grandkids. He has so richly blessed me with the fruit I see in each of their lives. I love how He also uses my teaching of His Word to nourish and strengthen me as well!

This truly is a gift that keeps on giving – even into the Sandwich Generation and Senior years.

How about you? What ways does God use you to teach your grandkids and yourself? We’d love you to share them!

It’s an oldie AND a goldie idea that I know well, yet often forget. When my grandson and I came up with it together today, I thought I’d share it with you as well.

Story writing and story telling have an excellent track record for helping our grandkids of all ages. It takes work and time but both are usually quite enjoyable.

Sit down with one grandkid at a time, along with some pencils, colored pencils, markers, and/or crayons. You’ll also need some paper, lined or unlined or both.You can start with the picture they draw, a story they tell you, or even a story starter you give them.

Our first project consisted of my grandson drawing pictures of his favorite superhero. Then he told me about the picture and I printed out what he said. We put together a four-page story, along with a title page, dedication page to his secretary – yours truly, and the date. This not only gives us a fun memory together and a great project for homeschooling programs; it also gives us a baseline each year of the changes in his writing, drawing, and creativity skills.

For our second project, we reversed the process. This time my grandson told me his story. I wrote it out and he decorated it with pictures. When done, we numbered the pages, stapled it all together and sat down to enjoy it as we read it.

All three grandsons enjoyed both books for their nap time story time, along with their daily Bible story. As “editor,” I did make an occasional suggestion. Some they loved, some they turned thumbs down on. I was very pleased they liked my ideas of adding a spiritual component to their superhero tale. By talking about their hero loving God and drawing on His strength in their quest to help others, they realize that God is even BIGGER than any superhero ever could be and it becomes a springboard to a wide variety of important discussions.

All in all, this project was great educational fun for all my grandkids and myself and helped us accomplish some of Deuteronomy 6:7, “You shall teach [God’s Word] diligently to your [grand]sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”

Traveling with a variety of generations can be fun and interesting. It can also be a bit frustrating as your aging parent deals with your grandchild’s uber-exuberance and as your grandkids adjust themselves to great-grandpa’s slower pace. This becomes especially apparent in a long drive by car. My senior mom, young grandson, and I discovered some fun “tricks of the trade” that helped make a long drive shorter and more interesting.

We had both the luxury and the need to take things slower due to simplified schedules and arthritis issues. We wound up stopping about every 1 1/2 – 2 hours giving us a chance to stretch our legs, head for the restroom, and fill up the driver (me ) with more caffeine!

I don’t know if this would be true for everyone, but on our particular route, we discovered that there was a Wal-Mart close to the freeway every time we got off! Each Wal-mart had nice restrooms – one even had a delightful bouquet of fresh flowers! They all had a restaurant of some type in them – either McDonald’s or Subway. They had fun craft sets, including one that kept my grandson busily working all day in the car as well as a new DVD movie he enjoyed – on sale. We even had fun picking out a few more Harvest decorations. All of this at Wal-Mart’s wonderful budget-friendly prices (they are another of my favorite ways to save money) AND they had plenty of caffeine to keep me perkily driving on.

At the end of a very long day of driving and “Wal-mart hopping,” my grandson commented that it had been a fun day that went really fast. My senior mom totally agreed. Now that’s a success in anyone’s Sandwich Generation book!

Tis the season to start ramping up the holiday fun – both with local grandkids and long distance grandchildren. One grandchild and I spent a delightful hour in Big Lots enjoying the Harvest and Halloween decor aisle. We left with a tiny scarecrow for the mantel, a bigger scarecrow for great-grandma’s room, and a cute metal decoration for the front door – three pumpkins and the inscription, “Bless This House.” Thanks to Big Lots’ prices it didn’t cost much and we had a terrific time picking just the right items!

Christmas and Thanksgiving decor were there as well, but we ran out of time to investigate those. We’ll have fun with them later. Picking out and displaying holiday decorations have always been some of my favorite traditions. Would you believe I have a full-sized scarecrow that is over ten years old! We used to put him in a chair right outside the front door to greet visitors to our door. Now he’s in the house as my grandkids absolutely dote on him! They dance with him, hug him, use him as a pillow to watch TV and just have the best time with him! The memories from this particular tradition are priceless and will be just as special 20 years from now!

My long distance grandkids also love Autumn and Autumn decor. They are wonderful at sending me Harvest pictures to help decorate the house! Those are always a special treat! 

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some fun and free (one of my favorite ways to save money ) craft ideas for the holiday season – from Autumn and Thanksgiving to Christmas and New Years. Keep checking back for more fun ideas and also we’d love to hear your suggestions as well!

For more Family Friday articles, be sure to visit Home Ever After, where they have a great article about lunch notes for our grandkids!

Autumn leaves are much loved by my grandkids and me. When everyone else is busily raking their lawn to achieve the bare look, my grandkids and I are crunchily dancing in the leaves, watching in awe as they fall to the ground in God’s awesome “Autumn Ballet,” and making craft projects with them.

We have fun collecting a bag or two of leaves, picking out the prettiest ones and gluing them to construction paper. These projects can be as simple as a random display or as fancy as their imaginations take them. I love to bring Autumn into the house by hanging these masterpieces all around.

Another fun idea is to let them help me decorate by filling a couple of wide-mouthed, clear vases with leaves, as well as artfully decorating my fireplace mantel with them. It can also be fun to add other autumnal decorations such as pine cones, cute little scarecrows on a stick, etc.

These are simple and fun ways to create great fall memories, teach our grandkids to rejoice in God’s lovely world, and just plain have fun with them. Happy Autumn, y’all.

Recently, while traveling for senior home care giving purposes, I was sitting on a plane at the Atlanta airport. According to our pilot, it’s the busiest airport in the world and it has the people, lines, and delays to prove it! As I was looking out the plane’s window, I was amazed at the long parade of planes going by – big ones, little ones, and in-between. I started chuckling as I realized it looked just like a scene from one of my grandkids’ favorite educational videos, Mighty Machines. This is one of the fun and educational TV shows and videos for kids that we discovered on Netflix’ instant option – another of my favorite ways to save money! They have several episodes including:

• Lights and Ladders
• Tremendous Tools
• Roadways to Runways
• Diggers and Dozers
• Winter Blast
• And many more.

In fact, according to Wikipedia, we’ve only seen a small fraction of them. I’m definitely going to keep my eyes open for more! All of the videos in this series show the lead characters which are the actual “vehicles” going about their normal daily duties as they “talk” to the audience and each other. They explain what they do and discuss how they accomplish their tasks while enjoying pleasant conversations with each other. My seven year old grandson likes to watch each of them once while my five year old grand-twins enjoy watching them over and over. They’re fun and downright entertaining. I enjoyed learning more about sawmills and airports as I kept my grandkids company watching them! They make an excellent addition to social studies classes for homeschooling programs as well as Saturday morning educational entertainment in case we grandparents want to sleep an extra half hour. These are terrific little videos that are wholesome and interesting! Perfect for younger grandkids and their grandparents. Be sure to check over at HomeEverAfter for more Family Friday ideas for you and your grandkids! 

P.S. Want to know more about Netflix and their great options for fun and educational TV shows and videos for your kids and grandkids? Click here for a special offer for all of us in the Sandwich Generation –  TV episodes & movies from Netflix – now instantly to your TV! Free trial

Kaye

SENIOR HOME CARE GIVING:

I’ve been so swamped and gotten so little computer time lately, I was really grateful to @carebuzz for reminding me that the brand new and TERRIFIC Boomers and Seniors: News You Can Use blog carnival is once again available at SeniorsForLiving. Loads of great info, including two articles by yours truly, as well as articles about special memories, veterans’ aid, choosing a new doctor, and more, so do check it out just as soon as you are done here.

Another interesting blog carnival for caregivers to read is at the EldercareABC Blog Carnival. Along with an article from SandwichINK, you’ll find info about Protection from Financial Elder Abuse, dementia care, macular degeneration, and other interesting topics. Another great site to check out this week!

Speaking of @Seniors4Living, she tipped us off to this interesting statistic as well – the number of people with Alzheimer’s Disease expected to nearly double every 20 yrs to total 65.7 million in 2030. Obviously, that means the need for dementia care will be growing exponentially as well! Being aware now is vital!

A Dementia That Afflicts Younger Population Has Similarities to Alzheimer’s Disease! per @SeniorsResource

GRANDPARENTS & GRANDKIDS:

I want to thank @TwinHappyJen again for nominating SandwichINK for “Best Supporting Twin Blog” and I want to congratulate @Tncountrygal for winning the prize! Loads of fun for all!

Important news for those of us who use garage sales to shop for and/or resell grandkids’ items. A new government policy imposes strict standards on garage sales nationwide.  There are concerns that this will also impact kids’ resale shops – meaning fewer choices for us grandparents and a harder time for the stores to make a profit, which could in turn mean fewer stores for us to even shop at!

SANDWICH GENERATION:

Sometimes it’s your aging parent and their health issues, sometimes it’s your grandchild and their health issues, sometimes it’s both, and sometimes it’s just all the everyday wear and tear of life. Regardless of the reason, life can bring you to your knees often. I loved this story retold by Lynn Mosher about Three Kneelers. I could so relate to all three, at varying times of my life, and for that matter, of my day! How about you?

Very interesting! The 10 most important nutrition stories of the last two decades. Per @twitterbo

For any of you who also use Twitter, I have two questions. First, are you following @SandwichINK! I’d love to see you over there as well as here. Second, be careful! There is yet ANOTHER phishing scam circulating. If you get an unusual link in your DM, best to ask the sender if it is legit. I did that regarding a video and was so glad I did, as it was, indeed, spurious! In fact, be careful when clicking on any link that seems off.

That’s it for today. Have a Twitter-ific rest of the week!

As Sandwich Generation senior home care givers and grandparents, many of us may look at Labor Day a bit differently than others. For those of us who also work outside the home, it does give a nice “breather” in the midst of a busy week. When it comes to senior home care giving and grandparenting in general, however, that is often a 24/7 responsibility. While many are taking it easy this weekend, maybe even off on mini-vacations, many more are at home, caring for loved ones in varying stages of illness. Some, like me, are currently in an easier stage and just being with their aging parents. Others are dealing with hospitals, hospice, and other more difficult and consuming needs.

Wherever we are with our caregiving responsibilities, I pray for each of us a restful, peaceful weekend with no crises and no new headaches. But if those also arise, I pray for each of us the wisdom to juggle the different needs, and for peace in the midst of turmoil.

And I offer these words of comfort and encouragement – both in the New American Standard Version and in my own “Sandwich Generation paraphrase.”

Colossians 1:28-29

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

The Sandwich Generation version:

We proclaim Him, admonishing every grandchild and teaching them with all wisdom, so that we may join with their parents in presenting each precious little one complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving at all the tasks He has given me – with these blessed grandkids and with our beloved aging parents – according to His power, which mightily works within me.

1 Thessalonians 1:3

…Constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father.

The Sandwich Generation version:

…Constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love, as you provide senior home care for your aging parents, oversee their needs, honor them according to God’s Word, while also caring for your grandchildren, teaching them more about God and His love for them, helping to bring them up in the care and nurture of the Lord and teaching them about the reasons for your steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK WITH SENIOR HOME CARE AND GRANDPARENTING!

I want to take this moment to tell each and every one of you THANK YOU! I know many of you hear that from your beloveds and that is wonderful. But many others don’t hear it very often. Sometimes your beloveds are too ill to say it, or dementia has robbed them of the ability. For whatever reason, you may not hear it often enough. But please know that your work – your labor – is appreciated. You are appreciated! And you are much beloved by God.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Looking for a fun new game for your grandkids? My 5 and 7 year old grandsons and I had a lot of fun with games this summer and we wanted to share our favorite with you. Pictureka is a funny sounding game name, with a funny looking board, that they absolutely LOVE! There are 9 board cards that you set side by side in three rows to make one huge board. They have a “zillion” different pictures in various directions, similar to the I Spy books and the Where’s Waldo? books. There are three sets of playing cards. Very simply, you pick a card, then look on the big board to find the picture from the little card. Sometimes everyone looks at the same time. Sometimes, only the one player looks, depending on the roll of the two different dice (one with colors and one with numbers), and the arrows on the playing cards.

The rules for this version are quite simple. BUT the game is geared for 8-15 year olds and my little grand-guys are a bit younger than that. I bought it because they LOVE the Where’s Waldo and I Spy books. Trying to play the game by the rules, I found that waiting until they were 8 for the regular game would have been better. SO we made up our own rules for a younger kids version.

SandwichINK version of Pictureka Game for Younger Grandkids:

Turning this into a cooperative team-building game, we only use the red and green cards. As each person rolls the color dice, he picks the appropriate card if it rolls red or green. If it rolls blue, he gets to choose between red and green. Then he rolls the number dice, and we ALL work together to find that many items each of whatever the picture is. It’s so much fun watching them help each other. They will often share a picture with another brother first before moving on to their own pictures.  You have to understand, this is not the norm with most of our games, so I really have appreciated the good team-work lessons they are learning.

Shopping at Target this week, I discovered there are a couple of other versions of Pictureka, including Pictureka Kubes which includes a version for younger kids. I read the directions for that, in a hurry, and had a hard time understanding them, so we will hold off on that one. It did look nice, because it takes up less room, but we are having so much fun with the primary game, we’ll stick with that for now. I am eyeing the smaller playing card version of the PICTUREKA Game, though, for our next long trip…

Family Friday is back, along with exciting happenings over at HomemakerBarbi. They have a new name, HomeEverAfter.com, along with an interesting article, Pregnancy Later in Life: Does Age Matter?