Category Archives: Adventures with Grammy

A “Super Mommy” Tribute to Mother’s Day with Author Crystal Swain-Bates

Adventures with Grammy, books for children, books for kids, children's books, Grammy, Grandparenting, Kids and Family, Museums, Outdoors

Since in the United States Mother’s Day is a few short days away, this episode of the podcast will feature Crystal Swain-Bates, the author of Super Mommy. Before I introduce Crystal, I want to give a shoutout to my mother, Florence Richards. She is Mom to my sister and me, grandma to five incredible adult grandchildren and GiGi to eight adorable little ones ages 15 months to 12 years.

I hardly know where to begin to thank my mom for the many gifts she has given me through the years: she drove my sister and me to piano lessons every week, and the ability to play the piano opened many doors for me. She was a girl scout leader when my sister and I were Brownies and Junior Scouts. Some of my fondest memories are the days at summer Girl Scout camp.

Mom loved to ice skate and every winter when our pond would freeze she would take my sister and me ice skating. I loved watching her skate. She was so graceful as she glided across the ice. I loved watching her twirl and skate backwards and was thrilled when she taught me those maneuvers.
Mom taught me to sew. She would cut up old clothes to give me material to make doll clothes. She would help me select fabric to make my own clothes. I made my first outfit – a jumper and a blouse – when I was 10 years old.

Friends always were welcome at our house; they loved my mom and still do.

When I was 16 mom enrolled me in drivers education class and became my behind-the-wheel practice coach. I am sure those excursions aged her quite a bit. Even thought our car had one brake pedal, that didn’t stop her from hitting the passenger floorboard when she feared I would not stop the car in time. Mom survived and I turned out to be a pretty good driver.

Mom insisted on two rules. The first was stand up straight and hold your shoulders back. As a result, I have good posture. If I feel myself slouching, I hear my mother’s voice say, “Stand up straight and hold your shoulders back.” Her second rule was THINK. When she thought I was about to make an inappropriate decision, she would say. “Think. T.H.I.N.K. Think.” I developed strategic thinking skills, and for that I thank my mother.

My mom is 88 years old and according to her physicians is quite healthy and should live to be at least 100 years old. I hope she remains healthy and happy for a long time. I am not ready to say goodbye. I love you, Mom!

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom and all the moms, grandmothers and aunts who wear a mothering hat. We appreciate all you do!

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Crystal Swain-Bates is a celebrated children’s book author and the owner of Goldest Karat Publishing, which she founded to address the lack of diversity in children’s literature. Her mission is to reshape in a positive way how children of color see themselves.

Her children’s books have been featured on CNN and Huffington Post and used as props for BET’s hit television shows “Being Mary Jane” and “The Game”.

Her book “Big Hair, Don’t Care is one of Amazon’s most highly reviewed black children’s books and was named by the Huffington post as one of “21 Children’s Books Every Black Kid Should Read”

A native of Atlanta, GA, Crystal holds a master degree in international affairs from Florida State University and is an avid world traveler. She is the author of 15 children’s books, including Super Mommy, which is a tribute to her mother.

https://www.crystalswainbates.com/
400 West Peachtree St., Suite 4-513, Atlanta, GA 30308
Crystal@goldestkarat.com

https://www.facebook.com/cswainbates

https://www.instagram.com/cswainbates/

https://www.publishwithcrystal.com/IG

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The Adventures with Grammy Podcast Welcomes the Good Grandma

Adventures with Grammy, books for children, books for kids, children's books, Grammy, Grandparenting, Kids and Family, Outdoors

Episode 16 Show Notes:

Colleen Rife, the cofounder of goodgrandma.com, is the guest on Episode 16 of the Adventures with Grammy Podcast.

From her website:

Colleen Rife is a mother of five children and a grandmother to six grandchildren and 13 step-grandchildren. Colleen has always loved children and started babysitting at a young age. She was a nanny for a family in New York City the year after graduating from high school. Colleen taught art classes, gymnastics, and dance classes for eight years. All such classes were for children ages three to six years.

Colleen provided daycare in her home for special needs children; she assisted in a deaf and hard of hearing preschool, and she worked at American National Insurance as an office manager before moving in 2012. Colleen graduated from BYU in 1991 with an associate degree in Humanities and earned an associate degree from College of Southern Nevada in Deaf Studies in 2007; she graduated from Utah Valley University with a bachelorj degree in Elementary Education in 2014. Colleen taught 2nd grade for a year as an intern and kindergarten for two years thereafter.

Colleen’s fulltime job is now working on GoodGrandma, which requires her to spend lots and lots of time with her grandchildren. Colleen loves everything about GoodGrandma and hopes you will love it too!

Richard Rife, aka “Papa Rich,” is a founder of GoodGrandma. Richard has six children and 13 grandchildren, along with six step-grandchildren. He founded GoodGrandma, along with his wife, Colleen Rife, aka “Grandma Colleen.” Richard loves being a grandpa and believes that grandparents, acting appropriately in their role, can have a profound influence for good in the lives of their grandchildren.

Richard’s career has been as a corporate lawyer. After graduating from law school in 1980, Richard clerked for the Nevada Supreme Court, practiced with a litigation firm, and then acted as a foreign legal consultant for the largest law firm in South Korea. He has been general counsel for several large companies over the years and is active today as a Chief Legal Officer and member of the Office of the President for a large company. He also served as chief privacy officer for a worldwide organization.

During his career, Richard spent a decade in South Korea, and he speaks Korean fluently (at least he did when he had the chance to speak it).

In his spare time, Richard serves as a volunteer Board member (and corporate secretary) of a highly respected local charity that provides autism, respite, early intervention, and early head start services to children and families in Utah County. He also enjoys golf but is not nearly as good as he used to be. Richard was a great baseball player when he was a young man; he is a legend in his own mind, and his legendary baseball exploits seem to get better and better, the older he gets.

Our mission at GoodGrandma is to Give Grandmas Good IDEAS!

Ideas about:
Building strong relationships with our grandchildren
Birthdays
Holidays and holiday traditions
Travel
Children’s literature
Gift-giving
Making memories
Supporting our grandchildren’s parents
And many other topics

GoodGrandma is a place for grandmas and grandpas to share information and stories, all with the purpose of becoming better grandparents. We are a whole new generation of tech-savvy grandmothers; okay, not as tech savvy as our grandchildren, but more so than the generation that came before us. We can use technology to become better grandparents. We can use it to keep track of our grandchildren and to make sure we are there for those special moments, to help nurture them and share life experiences like never before. We are passionate about grandparenting. We know there is no such thing as a perfect grandparent, but we want to have meaningful fun with our grandchildren and be “goodgrandparents.” Formerly, grandmothers talked over the back fence; now the back fence is the world!

Goodgrandma raises funds to support Angelman Syndrome research by selling jump ropes: Jumping for Jett
The jump ropes have six-inch handles engraved with “JUMPING FOR JETT Sponsored by GoodGrandma.com”

Each blue rope with white dots is 6′ 5″

All proceeds go to CAN ~ Cure Angelman Now!

Homepage

Website: goodgrandma.com
Instagram: instagram.com/goodgrandmadotcom
Facebook: facebook.com/goodgrandmadotcom
Twitter: twitter.com/goodgrandmarc
Pinterest: pinterest.com/goodgrandmadotcom
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCOinMJIm68ZkwPlwtEfoyQ

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To learn more about the Adventures with Grammy podcast, or to be a guest, visit adventureswithgrammy.com/podcast
Please subscribe to this podcast!

To sign up for the Adventures with Grammy newsletter, visit https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/7ZleyB4
To learn more about the books, visit adventureswithgrammy.com
To buy the personalized stuffed bears, visit etsy.com/shop/adventureswithgrammy

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Music:
https://audiojungle.net/user/play_m

Please sign up for my monthly newsletter, which is for grandparents who want to make a positive difference in their grandchildren’s lives, and for parents who want to ensure that special grandparent bond between their parents and their children. Articles will give you exclusive content I will not share on social media and a heads-up about events, products, and books I think you will find interesting. To sign up, visit https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/7ZleyB4

Let me know your thoughts about the podcast: send a Tweet to @grammyadventure or an e-mail to carolyn@adventureswithgrammy.com!

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14. Almost 3 million grandparents in the United States are raising their grandchildren

Adventures with Grammy, Grammy, Grandparenting, Kids and Family,

Show Notes:

Episode 14 looks at the issue of grandparents raising their grandchildren.

That list of grandchildren includes former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, comedians Carol Burnett and Jamie Foxx, and musicians Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson and 50 Cent (U.S. Grandparents Are Raising Millions of Kids, and It’s Tough | Health News | US News).

Across the United States today, grandparents are raising almost 3 million children (U.S. Grandparents Are Raising Millions of Kids, and It’s Tough | Health News | US News)

With approximately 1/3 of those children relying solely on their grandparents for support (23 Statistics on Grandparents Raising Grandchildren – Father Matters).

Only 11% of grandparents are raising their grandkids because of the death of one or both of that child’s parents. (23 Statistics on Grandparents Raising Grandchildren – Father Matters).

Drug addiction, especially to opioids, is the reason most grandparents are raising their grandchildren (Why More Grandparents Are Raising Children | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)).

Lisa Holliday, a grandmother who is raising her granddaughter, is today’s guest.

Lisa founded helpinggrandparents.com because when she stepped in to help her grandchild, she found few resources available for grandparents. She doesn’t want that for other grandparents who experience similar difficult times.

She has a Facebook group by the same name and offers a virtual support group to grandparents across the globe.
Facebook: Helping Grandparents
Werehelpinggrandparents@gmail.com

Three books she recommends (all copy from Amazon descriptions):

The Grandfamily Guidebook: Wisdom and Support for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Paperback – August 28, 2018
by Andrew Adesman (Author), Christine Adamec (Author)

Are you one of nearly 3 million grandparents across North America raising your grandchildren as part of a grandfamily? You may have done all this parenting stuff before, but times have changed since you raised your own kids, and you likely never thought you’d be raising kids again.

What has led to all these family issues and the growing need for grandparents to step up? Now more than ever, substance use and addiction have made many birth parents simply unfit for the job, whether the problem is alcohol, opioids, or other drugs. Family dynamics might also be undermined by parents’ mental health or medical problems, incarceration, or a simple lack of preparedness for family responsibilities. Whatever the reason for your new role, you must now help your grandchildren adjust to their extended family as part of their everyday life, through the best care you are able to provide. While your new role means that you will likely have to change the way you live, the kinship care you provide your grandchildren might make all the difference in the world.

In The Grandfamily Guidebook—which leading medical experts have called a “must-have” resource for grandparents raising grandchildren—authors Andrew Adesman, MD, and Christine Adamec offer expert medical advice, helpful insights gleaned from other grandparents, and data mined from the 2016 Adesman Grandfamily Study—the broadest and most diverse research study of its kind to date. You’ll also find hands-on tips you’ll be able to reference whenever you need them, including how to cope with difficult birth parents, school issues and social-life challenges, problem behaviors that stem from a difficult past, and your own self-care.

Starting with its foreword by the renowned Dr. William Sears, across this book you will find practical, inspiring help as you navigate the financial impacts, legal considerations, and medical issues that commonly arise when grandparents and grandchildren start becoming a grandfamily.

A Grandfamily for Sullivan: Coping Skills for Kinship Care Families Paperback – November 20, 2019
by Beth Winkler Tyson (Author), Adam Walker-Parker (Illustrator)

Are you caring for a child with BIG emotions related to loss and childhood trauma? A Grandfamily for Sullivan is a therapeutic story, designed with soothing imagery and sensitive language to help children cope with life after adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Sullivan is a scared koala who suddenly has to live with his Grandma when his parents are unable to keep him safe. He is worried about his parents and what will happen next in his life, but he is too afraid to talk to Grandma about his thoughts and feelings. One day at the park, Grandma tries to be helpful, but Sullivan lashes out at her in anger! While he is taking time to cool off, Sullivan meets a friend who walked in his shoes before. This new friend teaches Sullivan how to find the courage to move forward with his life.In this tenderhearted story, a child removed from his parents due to abuse and neglect can find hope using the same techniques that help Sullivan manage his thoughts and feelings. Throughout the story, children learn to: Identify sensations in their bodies related to negative emotions, build mindfulness skills for managing anxiety, find the courage to share their thoughts with others, understand that all families are different, and accept that life is often uncertain. A Grandfamily for Sullivan builds awareness for foster, kinship, and adoptive families, and teaches children how to empathize with peers from various family constellations. It is a must-read book to help reduce bullying and instill empathy for children who are raised by someone other than their biological parents. Come join Sullivan, his Grandma, and a wise friend as they weather the storms of life in this empowering story about family separation, courage, and what it’s like to become a grandfamily. A Grandfamily for Sullivan is a crucial resource for families broken apart by mental health issues, incarceration, and the opioid epidemic. But, this book is more than a story, it is empowering young people to take control of their mental health. In the back of the book there is a list of remarkable people who have been raised by grandparents or relatives, additional coping techniques for children, and trauma-informed parenting guidance.

Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas: Not Mommies and Daddies Hardcover – October 27, 2009
by Gayle Byrne (Author), Mary Haverfield (Illustrator)

Written from a child’s point of view, this touching picture book centers around a nontraditional family of grandparents raising their grandchild.
Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas shares a child’s experience living with and being cared for by grandparents through the eyes of a cheerful and delightful little girl. Uplifting watercolor illustrations give extra warmth to this caring and loving story, to which a growing number of children can identify―over 4.5 million children in the United States are primarily cared for by a grandparent.
Poignant moments expressing the child’s curiosity and questions give way to comforting and playful exchanges at home with Nonnie and Poppy. Spending the day with this grandparent–led family, we see that it’s not always Mommies or Daddies that care for children, and that’s okay!
Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas is the winner of the 2012 Book Award for Best Children’s Literature on Aging in the primary reader category from the The K-12 Committee of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE). It provides a great resource for children who seek reassurance about their particular experience. This unique book will appeal to any grandparent raising or providing long–term care for a grandchild, as well as any teacher who wants to educate children about nontraditional families. Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas sensitively addresses a topic that has been nearly absent in the children’s book market, until now.

Support group
Parents of Addicted Loved Ones provides hope and support through addiction education for parents dealing with an addicted loved one.
https://palgroup.org/

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To learn more about the Adventures with Grammy podcast, or to be a guest, visit adventureswithgrammy.com/podcast

Please subscribe to this podcast!

To sign up for the Adventures with Grammy newsletter, visit https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/7ZleyB4

To learn more about the books, visit adventureswithgrammy.com

To buy the personalized stuffed bears, visit etsy.com/shop/adventureswithgrammy

#grammyadventure
#adventureswithgrammy

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Music:
https://audiojungle.net/user/play_m

Please sign up for my monthly newsletter, which is for grandparents who want to make a positive difference in their

grandchildren’s lives, and for parents who want to ensure that special grandparent bond between their parents and

their children. Articles will give you exclusive content I will not share on social media and a heads-up about events,

products and books I think you will find interesting. To sign up, click here! Let me know your thoughts about the podcast:

carolyn@adventureswithgrammy.com!

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13. What do you do when your child is melting down?

Adventures with Grammy, Grandparenting, Kids and Family, , , , ,

When putting together this episode of the podcast, I reflected on what my late husband and I had said we wanted for our children when they became adults.

We wanted them to be happy, healthy, and able to afford the toys they would want to buy. We wanted our sons and our daughter to be confident and kind, and we wanted them to know how to cook, to do their laundry, and to change a flat tire. We were not perfect parents, but as I watch my now adult children, I know we gave them a firm foundation and the skills they needed to become contributing members of society. In short, we raised emotionally competent people.

Emotional Competence is the focus of part one of today’s podcast. Positive discipline is the focus of part two. Each guest is an author, and each guest will give us tips on how to raise well-adjusted human beings.

Our first guest is Doug Noll, the author of the book De-Escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less (Simon & Schuster, September 2017), which was the winner of the Book Excellence Award for 2017.

I invited him to be a guest because of his passion for teaching parents, grandparents and educators why understanding child development and using appropriate discipline strategies lead to children becoming resilient, emotionally competent adults.

For his innovative work, Doug Noll has been voted as one of the Best Lawyers in America since 2005, by US News & World Report and has been recognized since 2006 as a Northern California Super Lawyer. He is listed in the Who’s Who of International Commercial Mediators. He has been honored as Lawyer of the Year in 2014 by Best Lawyers in America. In 2014, Doug was honored as a Purpose Prize Fellow by Encore.org. In 2018, Doug was named the Distinguished Neutral of the Year by The National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. Along with his colleague Laurel Kaufer, Doug Noll was named California Attorney of the Year in 2012 for their pro bono Prison of Peace project.

De-Escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less will teach you how to calm an angry, upset person of any age while remaining centered and calm. You will also learn how to calm yourself down quickly and efficiently. You will be able to take insults, provocations, and disrespect from others without losing your cool. You will be able to stand in the presence of very strong emotions and say exactly the right thing in exactly the right way in exactly the right moment. In short, you will gain an immense amount of control over your emotional life. You will learn how to solve a problem without anger. This will give you a power you never imagined possible.

De-Escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less: Noll, Douglas E.: 0001582706557: Amazon.com: Books

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougnoll/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/doug.noll.52/
https://www.facebook.com/DouglasNoll
Twitter https://twitter.com/dougnoll
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtAHXdBT1Y0Pl7SGrM_HcFw
Pinterest www.pinterest.com/b990204361f85f4a8ac1a25a9a0920

Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.html

Our second guest is Joyce Fields, an author who has combined her passion for writing with her mission to inspire people to make the world a better place. The mother of two sons, eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren shares with us the 12 “ingredients” she says families need to raise great children. The book Her book is Mother’s Dozen: An Easy Recipe for Raising Great Kids, draws upon the values her family has passed down from generation to generation.

Joyce Fields was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She now resides in Arcadia, California. She has been in love with reading and writing her entire life. She coupled her passion for writing with her mission to inspire people to make the world a better place, resulting in her writing eight books and sharing inspirational messages with various audiences.

Background
Joyce started her career as a stenographer at a major utility company, working her way up through supervisor of word processing, then as the office manager for an automotive advertising agency, and, lastly, as an executive assistant at a large non-profit health maintenance organization. She is also a professional proofreader. She wrote her first book, Line of Serenity, in 1997. Being the oldest of seven, she wanted to capture the way their parents raised them so that the way they did it would not be lost. Many people read the manuscript and told her that she should publish it. The book covers 1944 through 1977 and includes family recipes and photographs. Recipes, because food was–and still is–an important part of her family’s fabric; photographs, so that descendants can see what their ancestors looked like and be amazed to find a resemblance to an ancestor. You do not have to be a family member to enjoy this book! For older readers, it is a walk down memory lane; for younger readers, it provides a peek into the past. Joyce gets her inspiration from living and observing life. In addition to Line of Serenity, she has written books about parenting, which is also available in Spanish, relationships, children’s fiction, children’s non-fiction, bullying, health, spirituality, and the power and simplicity of quotes. One of her quotes was chosen from more than 5,000 entries and appears in the 2013 Women’s Advantage Calendar.

Web site: www.Goodshortbooks.com
E-mail: goodshortbooks@yahoo.com
BLOG: Lineofserenity.wordpress.com
Books on Amazon

The Marshmallow Experiment and the Power of Delayed Gratification (jamesclear.com)

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To learn more about the Adventures with Grammy podcast, or to be a guest, visit adventureswithgrammy.com/podcast

Please subscribe to this podcast!

To sign up for the Adventures with Grammy newsletter, visit https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/7ZleyB4

To learn more about the books, visit adventureswithgrammy.com

To buy the personalized stuffed bears, visit etsy.com/shop/adventureswithgrammy

#grammyadventure
#adventureswithgrammy

https://www.facebook.com/grammyadventure
https://www.facebook.com/grammyadventure-102964711349425
http://instagram.com/grammyadventure

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtr9e59lIBxSeHJk52jJB3Q

https://linkedin.com/in/adventureswithgrammy

Music:
https://audiojungle.net/user/play_m

Please sign up for my monthly newsletter, which is for grandparents who want to make a positive difference in their
grandchildren’s lives, and for parents who want to ensure that special grandparent bond between their parents and
their children. Articles will give you exclusive content I will not share on social media and a heads-up about events,
products and books I think you will find interesting. To sign up, click here! Let me know your thoughts about the podcast:
carolyn@adventureswithgrammy.com!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download