Grandparenting 101 With Richard and Linda Eyre
The Eyres, after nearly 40 years of writing and speaking to parents throughout the world, have now turned their attention to where their own life is—grandparenting, partnering with and parenting adult children, and finding balance between family, ongoing work, retirement, estate planning, and travel. The goal is living the fullest and richest autumn season possible (Linda and Richard prefer to call it “Indian Summer”) and at the heart of it all is grandparenting!
Grandparenting today is where parenting was 50 or 60 years ago—there are few books and resources available to give us the answers and ideas we need. And yet many of us will be grandparents for four decades—more than twice as much time as we spent parenting a child in our home! And becoming an effective proactive grandparent is not easy. We have to learn how to communicate with a new generation of kids, and we have to learn to teach and to give to them in ways that do not bypass or step on the toes of our children, the parents.
That’s why Richard and Linda have developed Grandparenting 101, a fun and impactful online Zoom course on the art of developing solid, lasting, difference-making relationships with our grandkids.
Doing this well—making the most of this high-priority new role of grandparent—takes a plan. And it’s not just grandparenting—it’s learning how to live well in this new empty nest (or almost empty nest) season of life. What Richard and Linda do in their latest books, presentations and social media is to explore ways in which we can inventory our skills, our assets, and our opportunities even as we come to appreciate and understand our stewardships and priorities more clearly. And they have distilled the essence of their books and their thinking into the 6-part Zoom Class called Grandparenting 101.
Here are some of the valuable, difference-making things that are included in this groundbreaking online course:
- Building trusting, confidence-giving relationships with individual grandchildren
- Long-distance grandparenting: How to stay close to grandkids who live far away
- Why the Empty Nest hurts and how to ease the pain and learn the pleasure
- How to give advice without offending adult children
- Extending financial help that empowers rather than entitles grandchildren
- Setting specific goals for the kind of help and support you want to give your grandchildren at different ages
- How to have fun with grandkids. How to use and develop a sense of humor that works with them (“The top ten ways to enjoy your grandkids”)
- How to set boundaries that protect your own life but that don’t offend parents–in order to create the synergy between parents and grandparents that makes life better for the kids.
- Working with and finding compatibility with “the other grandparents.”
- Traveling with grandkids
- How to help and influence grandkids’ values and faith
- Fun activities for getting cousins to enjoy being together despite the age gaps
- How to prioritize relationships over achievements for the rest of your life
- Making sons- or daughters-in-law a true and real part of your family
- Two questionnaires–one to draw out the true nature and feelings of your grandchildren and the other to gauge where and how your children want help with their children
- How to release your role of manager and replace it with your new role of consultant
- Why “just over the hill” is the best place to be in life (“the remarkable gifts of age”)
- Working from the inside out—designing the new YOU
- Becoming a “gatherer” and planning awesome family reunions and trips within budget
- The “Ten Empty Folders” approach to planning the rest of your life
- Why 65 is the new 45
- Being the “story-link” that connects your grandkids to your ancestors–the “trunk” that links “branches” to “roots”
- The art and power of Grandparenting: Eight things you can do which parents can’t
- Seven Decisions you can make now that will enrich the remainder of life
- How an Empty Nest Marriage is different, and how to make it better
- “Grandfather’s Secrets” and “Grammie Camps”
- Helping grandkids overcome entitlement and develop GRIT
- It takes a village (or a orchestrated extended family): Forming an efficient partnership with your kids for your grandkids
- The top-ten “practical practices” and the top-ten “potential pitfalls” of Grandparenting
- Why Grandparents may be this world’s greatest untapped resource
- Curriculum or syllabus for the full course
How the course works:
We all understand that every family, and every grandchild and every grandparent is different and unique, so this course does not try to present one-size-fits-all answers and solutions; rather, it gives you the stories, the examples and the ideas that will help you form your own unique and personal set of grandparenting goals and plans.
The Zoom courses happen every month for six months, and participants will also receive weekly study guides and materials which follow up on each Zoom course.
All registered members will also receive the opportunity to order the full series of Alexander’s Amazing Adventures–12 brilliant and dramatic stories to listen to with grandchildren that teach the 12 core values of life (Based on the Eyres New York Times #1 Bestseller Teaching Your Children Values.)
Since the 6 installments each stand alone and since they repeat, grandparents can join at any time and their membership will carry through all 6 classes.
Membership, Pricing and Registration
The classes and materials are designed to be part of a $1,000 course. But a survey was taken that revealed that this price would exclude some grandparents from membership, and the Eyres were determined that no grandparents should find themselves unable to participate because of cost. The survey results looked like this:
60% were either certain or likely to enroll in the six-month Grandparenting course
5% were less interested because there is too much content
35% were less likely to enroll because of the cost.
That 35% was too high, and as a result we have adopted a “Pay what you can” approach, and at least for the remainder of 2022 grandparents will be able to choose from three types of membership:
- A Regular-fee membership of $200 per person where the membership fee covers their share of the course costs and charitable contributions.
- If the regular membership is difficult to afford at this time, a Half-fee Scholarship membership of $100 per person is available where the fee is coupled with a scholarship covering the balance.
- A Double-fee Sponsoring membership of $400 per person where half of the fee paid goes toward covering the costs of grandparents who can’t afford to pay the full registration fee at this time, and also toward helping less fortunate families around the world.
Whether grandparents choose to pay $400, $200, or $100 when they register they will all be full members and receive the same materials, invitations, Zoom classes, and Q&A access as every other member. And if a grandparent feels that even the half-fee would be a hardship, he or she is welcome to fill out this form and request a full waiver of the registration fee. We are determined that any and all grandparents can register and attend regardless of their current circumstances. Some are joining from much poorer parts of the world, and the goal here is to be open to all.
Registration is now Open
Click on one of the three types of memberships above (the blue links) to register for Grandparenting 101.
A Movement
What the Eyres have felt so deeply as they talk to grandmas and grandpas young and old around the world, is that we are all trying to become the best grandparents we can bebut that none of us want to rediscover the wheel–if there are established good methods and grandparenting ideas, we want to know about them.
Better, more proactive grandparents have the power to not only strengthen our own families, but our communities and our whole society. Working together and learning from each other is part of that. As we become members of Grandparenting 101 we become part of a movement.
As a member, half of your registration fee will go toward the costs associated with the seminars, and the other half will go to the Eyrealm Foundation, a non-profit charity which is dedicated to helping less fortunate families across the world and to recognizing and promoting efforts that strengthen families.
In summary, here is what the Grandparenting 101 course includes:
- Six extended, interactive Zoom seminars, one each month for six months
- A weekly grandparenting email for the full six months, each one containing ideas and “best practices” that expand on the Zoom seminars
- The opportunity to order the 12 Alexander’s Amazing Adventures audio “values stories” to listen to with grandkids which will come to you one per month.
- Personal access to the Eyres by email so you can ask and get answers for personal questions
- The satisfaction of knowing that half of your registration fee is going toward helping less fortunate families across the world
- Any-time access to recordings of the Zoom classes
- Free repeat registration for Regular or Sponsoring members to the following six months of new Zoom seminars which you can continue to attend every month for as long as you wish.
As you can see, ValuesParenting and the Eyres want you to join us in deep involvement in this important and joyful thing called GRANDparenting. We want Grandparenting 101 to help each of us grow into the best family leaders and supporters possible and to become part of a large coalition or movement of difference-making grandparents, sharing ideas and motivation with each other about this core-of-life role!
Here are some of the books that relate to the online course (and that will be made available at author’s price to those who register and participate).
This course is called Grandparenting 101, but our surveys revealed that most of us don’t just want a survey course, or beginners’ classes; we want to be the Masters of Grandparenting and of leading our 3-generation families. We want to get our “Doctorates” in helping our Grandkids to survive and thrive and succeed. So even though we call it Grandparenting 101, lets think of it as Grandparenting 505–an advanced course for those who want their “Grandparenting phD.”