Entertaining Grandchildren – Their Trip into History
May 11th, 2011 | 
Author: One day, while clearing my attic, I discovered the old turntable we used so much in my young days. The records, warped and thick with dust, took me on a sentimental journey. I smoothed the scratched black discs that held so many memories of singing and dancing, street parties and lullabies.
There was Vera Lynn and The White Cliffs of Dover. There was George Formby Leaning on the Lamp-post. There was the Lambeth Walk and all of us whooping with delight on VE night. My grandson arrived and was fascinated with my find. ‘How does it work?’ he asked as he helped me set it up. His face was a study as he watched the little needle travel the grooves. I think he imagined the tunes trapped in there waiting to be scraped out by the sharp point which, in a way, I suppose they were.
It made me think how visiting my home must be like a trip into History for my grandchildren. I don’t have television or computer games but but no one seems to mind. The children are no sooner through the door, fed and settled, than they are rushing for the pile of scrap paper kept in the corner cupboard in my room and the jar of pens on the ledge. We use up copious sheets of paper and numerous pens to play Hangman, Consequences, Noughts and Crosses and a favourite called Boy, Girl. In this game you write a list: Boy, Girl, Flower, Fruit, Animal, Book… as many as suggested. Then, with a chosen letter of the alphabet, a name has to be put beside each one. Much hilarity ensues as to whether honey dew melon can be allowed under H or if it is just a sub-category of melon only permitted under M, or whether tomato is a fruit or vegetable. This simple game never loses its appeal.
We listen to tapes and cds and it is a joy to see young faces enthralled with the pictures their minds are creating from the words they hear. Of course, I’m not suggesting we should or could turn back the clock and do away with modern wonders of mobile phones and laptops but, sometimes, it is such a pleasure to see children giving their imagination a chance to see a story in a personal way. It makes me smile to realise how often I’ve seen a film of a book I’ve enjoyed and said: ‘Oh no. She didn’t look like that.’ or ‘He was supposed to be small and thin.’.
If we watch a film of a woman walking down a road, we see one woman and one road. If we read a story or hear it played, we each see a different woman walking in an individual way down a different road. The scene becomes what
the person listening imagines it to be.
This is surely something worth nurturing. To encourage our children to listen, hear and imagine is something we, of an older generation, can give them. That gift is very special.
Joy James lives in South Wales and works for Barafundle CDs, a company producing personalised story CDs.
She has three children and eight grandchildren and also writes in her spare time.
Posted in Grandparenting