Grandparenting Archives - Page 3 of 6

Nov 10 2020

Simplified COVID-19 Daily Life

Since school closed in March, my life is much fuller and demanding as I help my grandson, Kenji, with his online learning each day. I have made the following changes with my family to simplify life and expand my time to support my grandson:

My new schedule for online learning is now 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. on Monday through Friday. My daughter and I alternate supervision of my grandson’s learning based on the demands of her job.
Kenji’s mother is the primary tutor for my grandson while I provide added supervision.
Although my household chores remain the same, I am far more flexible when coordinating our cooking and cleaning needs.
My work is now scheduled in my office after 2:30 p.m. and can be challenging to complete on busy days.
Our family still limits outside shopping and outdoor play. I used to take my grandson to the farmer’s market but we no longer enjoy those play dates. Our daily walks are now in neighborhoods instead of downtown. We enjoy looking at people’s gardens instead of participating in the hustle and bustle of our downtown shopping area. With the recent California wildfires, we must now monitor air quality to ensure that we only go outside when the air is relatively healthy.
Mental health continues to be a focus for our family as we keep our spirits up with lots of play and reading.

[Read more…]

Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting

Joyce Iwasaki has over thirty years of educational experience working with diverse students in grades from preschool through high school. Joyce’s extensive background includes teaching elementary school, serving on early childhood advisory boards, and advocating for educational initiatives as a legislative aide. During her tenure as a legislative aide, she helped create legislation that allowed incarcerated mothers to keep their newborn babies with them while in prison. Additional legislation was enacted to allow incarcerated pregnant mothers to remain unshackled during labor and delivery. Ms. Iwasaki established and served as the president of an educational scholarship foundation for fifteen years. Her foundation awarded college scholarships to emerging student leaders who provided service to their schools and communities. Joyce is active in performing arts and cultural organizations. She also provides ongoing support to her daughter and family by raising her grandson in her home.

Mar 31 2020

Preparing My Grandson for a Third Cultural Heritage Experience

My grandson’s mom recently returned from an extended trip to the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. During Mom’s travels, Kenji’s dad relocated his business to Bangkok, Thailand. When I talk with my grandson about his mother’s recent trip and his dad’s business relocation, I realize that my grandson will be expanding his cultural heritage to another new country when he lives with his father in Bangkok. Our family will prepare for this new cultural experience by participating in the following activities:

Continue to talk with Mom about her recent trip to the Elephant Nature Park and view the pictures of his mom’s trip on Facebook.
Have Dad send Kenji pictures of his new cultural experiences in Bangkok and talk about these experiences during their FaceTime phone calls.
Meet with family friends to look at photos of trips to various sites in Thailand. During this visit, Kenji will also receive some historical postcards that he can use when he writes notes to his father. Kenji and his dad can talk about these postcard pictures during their FaceTime phone calls.

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Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting

Mar 10 2020

Mom Is on a Trip

While Kinji’s dad visited his son in the United States, his mom traveled to Thailand. When Kenji was with his father, he did not miss his mother because he was excited to spend this time with Dad and his relatives. Once I took care of my grandson at his home for four more days (beyond time spent with Dad?), Kenji commented that he missed his mom when playing because his mom was always there. I immediately acknowledged Kenji’s feelings about his mom’s absence. Through this encouragement, he returned to playing with his toys.

When mom was gone, we also talked with her on the phone. Initially, Kenji did not want to use the FaceTime feature when talking to his mom because he said it would make him sad. Eventually, Kenji decided to talk to his mom on FaceTime. During the conversation, he said it was hard to see his mom’s face and not be with her. After that phone call, we stayed busy until mom’s return with school and various outings. [Read more…]

Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting

Feb 11 2020

Wonderful Experiences with Dad Across the Miles

Although Kinji’s dad works in Japan, my grandson thinks his relationship with his father is quite normal when he shares extended time with his father in the United States or in Japan. Between visits, their close relationship is maintained through regular FaceTime phone calls throughout the week. Ongoing phone conversations focus on:

Their daily life activities and Kinji’s new Lego creations
My grandson’s exciting adventures at school
Kenji’s participation in various afterschool programs including Karate and swimming
Math discussions on prime numbers, multiplication, and how to identify number patterns

[Read more…]

Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting

Dec 17 2019

Giving Thanks for Our Families

My grandson lives between two countries; the United States and Japan. His mom works full time in the United States while his dad works full time in Japan. The value of having parents in two countries is that my grandson is able to live and appreciate his cultural heritage as a descendent of the Japanese culture and a fifth generation American.

Favorite Activities in Japan

When my grandson visits his father in Japan, he enjoys:

going to baseball games
playing at amusement parks
visiting indoor children’s discovery museums
exercising at indoor gymnastics activity centers
attending entertainment centers

[Read more…]

Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting