Keeping in touch with Grandkids through tech

BY DANIEL MEYERAND WEND Y GUILD SWEARINGEN

Today’s advanced technology allows grandparents to communicate on a daily basis with their beloved grandchildren, even if they live thousands of miles away.

Maintaining a relationship with someone from afar can be difficult, but the challenge of staying in touch can be conquered if there is a strong enough desire to learn how to navigate computer programs and comprehend how to efficiently use a smartphone.

For instance, Michael and Joanna Cerrone of Hamburg, New York, are determined to have their daughter Magda and Joanna’s mother in Poland know each other and form a unique relationship. That focus has helped formulate a shared goal to adapt with the times and take advantage of technological advancements that allow for frequent communication despite obvious physical barriers.

By using cell phones to access video chat programs such as FaceTime and Skype, the Cerrones can easily contact Joanna’s mother, Bozena Obst, who lives over 4,200 miles away in Ostrow Wielkopolski, a city located in central Poland. Their frequent conversations often include long stretches of interaction between grandmother and granddaughter, lively talks that include back-and forth banter, often in Polish.

Magda enjoys speaking to her babcia in Poland. She has quickly grasped the basic fundamentals of the Polish language, which thrills her parents, who are so pleased that they are able to maintain regular communication. The familiarity of speaking several times each day allows them to bond, even though they are several thousand miles apart.

Magda Cerrone hugs her grandmother Bozena Obst. Photo courtesy of the Cerrone family

Maintaining this sort of familiarity through technology like Skype and iPhone FaceTime can help grandparents avoid the awkward or clumsy interactions that can hamper many long-distance relationships.

“Without the technology, it would be extremely difficult to maintain the incredible relationship that Magda and her grandmother have,” says Michael. “We are blessed and fortunate. It’s also allowed Magda to stay in touch and become familiar with her aunt, uncle, and cousins who also live in Poland.”

The advanced technology and the family’s commitment to take the time to stay connected means that the 4,236 mile distance between grandmother and granddaughter has become less of a burden.

Bridging the communication gap with tech

The website A Place For Mom (www.aplaceformom.com) offers this advice for keeping in touch with grandkids far away:

Skype: Connect online through social media and tools like Skype (skype.com). Skype is a telecommunications application software product that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, the Xbox One console, and smartwatches via the Internet and to regular telephones. Skype additionally provides instant messaging services.

Email: In a study on intergenerational online communication, one teenage girl reflected on the difference between keeping in touch with her grandmother who uses email and her other grandmother who refrains from any sort of computer use. She shared that it was easier to write to her grandmother who used the computer, especially since she is constantly online herself. Meanwhile, she described correspondence with her other grandmother as “having to write her whole letters back and the events are delayed, and I am trying to think back to what happened.”

Apps: The apps below offer some great ways to connect, especially for families who live apart:

1. Ancestry websites are a great way for grandparents and older grandchildren to explore their family’s history together. Some popular ones include Ancestry. com and MyHeritage.com.

2. Keepy: Share art-work, school projects and other things that grandparents love to put on their fridge, but might not have room for.

3. Kindoma: Draw, play or read together in real time.

4. Redeo: Lets you read together while your young grandchild turns the pages.

5. Scoot and Doodle: Collaborate together on homework.

6. ooVoo, Rounds, Skype, Voxer are examples of apps that allow you to send photos and videos, talk and text in real time.

7. Wheel of Fortune is a popular game app that grandparents and grandchildren of all ages can play together, no matter the distance.

Daniel Meyer is a freelance writer and contributor to Forever Young and Buffalo Spree. Wendy Guild Swearingen is editor of Forever Young