Camp Grandma Next-generation grandparenting -- beyond babysitting

Review by Booklist Review

When successful businesswoman Day retired and began watching her four grandchildren for the summer, she bristled at being called a babysitter. Not content with that role, Day began to use her business training to structure her interactions with the kids, becoming a mentor rather than a sitter. Her summer sessions were termed Camp Grandma. Each day began with planning on the whiteboard. Her grandchildren learned to give presentations, write resumes, and interact respectfully while still having fun. In this well-organized book, Day shares detailed lesson plans involving public speaking, active listening, and setting goals. She lists supplies needed, time required, and projected outcomes. Day emphasizes the fact that each child has his or her own personality and that grandparents need to adapt lessons to the children's strengths and weaknesses. Grandparents learn much from their charges, according to Day, and this sharing will lead to closer bonding for the whole family. Although most of the plans are best-suited for school-aged kids, grandparents with younger charges will still pick up some hints along with a new respect for their duties.--Candace Smith Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Library Journal Review

Successful businesswoman Day almost titled this book "Please Don't Call Me a Babysitter," an apt option considering her work explores the valuable and wide-ranging roles grandparents play in a child's life: role model, teacher, historian, storyteller, to name a few. Day, who became a caretaker for her grandchildren five years into her retirement, recounts how on their first day together she handed each child a "Camp Grandma" shirt. Their outings soon evolved to become what she calls a "corporate retreat for kids," wherein the structure of their days included round-table discussion (planning and goal--setting guided by Grandma), presentations (show-and-tell to practice public speaking), learning time (topics encompass manners, candle making, family history), and activity hour (baking cookies, doing crafts, sports, etc.). VERDICT Full of ideas for readers wishing to institute a similar workshop-like approach, this is sure to appeal to the many grandparents who are active in their grandchildren's lives. An activity section in each chapter makes Day's ideas easy to implement. © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Successful businesswoman Day almost titled this book "Please Don't Call Me a Babysitter," an apt option considering her work explores the valuable and wide-ranging roles grandparents play in a child's life: role model, teacher, historian, storyteller, to name a few. Day, who became a caretaker for her grandchildren five years into her retirement, recounts how on their first day together she handed each child a "Camp Grandma" shirt. Their outings soon evolved to become what she calls a "corporate retreat for kids," wherein the structure of their days included round-table discussion (planning and goal-setting guided by Grandma), presentations (show-and-tell to practice public speaking), learning time (topics encompass manners, candle making, family history), and activity hour (baking cookies, doing crafts, sports, etc.). VERDICT Full of ideas for readers wishing to institute a similar workshop-like approach, this is sure to appeal to the many grandparents who are active in their grandchildren's lives. An activity section in each chapter makes Day's ideas easy to implement.Julia M. Reffner, Richmond

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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