Granny/Savta/Grandma Project With The Kids

I'm one of those annoying grandmothers who tries to keep the kids "busy" and "productive. The idea of just hanging around the house drives me crazy. 

You may remember some of my other "projects," some successfully done when they come to me, like soap-making and jewelry making.

As you can see in the pictures, I decided that painting on sweatshirts would be a great idea. I got the idea, because I have all these "souvenirs" from my time working at Yafiz, where I had to wear shirts and sweatshirts with the logo. Since I'm not the most talented in the artistic realm I thought that I could get my grandchildren to paint over the logo, so I could wear some of the clothes.

There ended up being just a couple of problems with it.

1. It's not cheap.
2. Only the youngest one out of the four grandchildren I was visiting even bothered trying to decorate/paint their new clothes.

At least she was enthusiastic, as you can see. She painted my old shirt, her mother's, father's and her own.

I left the special fabric markers with her and hope that she has fun decorating more clothes. Why not? She's named after an aunt of mine, an artist who had studied textile design.

Too bad the older kids weren't interested. Maybe they'll paint their clothes when I'm not around...

Can You Describe Your Kids' Jobs?

Recently I was talking to someone who told me that her sons both had new jobs.

"What are they?" I asked.
"I'm not sure." She answered.

I had the same description for the job one of my sons does, and besides "something in/with computers," I haven't a clue as to what my son-in-law does. And it's even more complicated to describe the job of one of my daughters, which seems to constantly morph into something else. And of course, in Israel, there are also those with jobs too sensitive to be talked about...

None of my jobs have been so vague and creative. Working in a store is pretty simple to describe, whether I'm selling shoes, pants, bagels or potatoes. All of which I've sold at various times in my life. And when I was an English Teacher or Gym Teacher or Creative Dance Teacher I didn't have to explain anything. It was all in the title.

Apparently, this just isn't a local problem. The New York Times has an article about all these new job with creative titles:

Your Job Title Is … What?

...I don’t mean to judge — my own job is hardly less opaque. I am the vice president for content at Contently, a company that helps brands expand their content online and publishes commentary on the changing media landscape (including that of The New York Times). Or, as my mom tells her friends, “Sam works for one of those start-up companies that nobody knows what it does.”
Me and everybody else, it seems.
I have had meetings with brand ambassadors (a bit like celebrity endorsers, but with more tattoos). I have coffee with thought leaders (those with “authority” in a given field) and customer happiness managers. (Your guess is as good as mine, but I assume that it used to be called “customer service.”)...

As a blogger, I know that the better my title the more hits my post can get. I wonder if these impressive job titles give better salaries than the old conventional ones. Do you get more money for a job that can't be described?

Homework, Deja Vu

Today when I was babysitting for the grandkids, my grandson was doing his homework.  He's in the first grade.  He seemed to be having a good time filling in the missing letters to make words and then draw a picture of the object to prove that he understood what he had written.  On occasion he asked an older sister if a specific word had one of two similar sounding letters.

Then he seemed stuck, saying he couldn't do one of them.  So I asked to take a look and I saw that he was doing it incorrectly. The workbook exercise he was doing was actually much, much simpler.  All he had to do was to fill in the letter they gave per line, then read and understand what the word was and draw a picture to prove it.

When his mother was a year older than he is, she failed an entire section of an IQ Test for making a similar mistake.  She was supposed to complete a word with the missing letters and then draw a picture to prove she knew what she had written.  She invented objects that combined two words.  The educational psychologist who explained the results to me gave me examples, which were brilliantly creative.  But no points were given for that entire section, and she didn't get into the gifted program.

Watching my grandson quickly do his homework once he didn't have to struggle and wasn't challenged at all gave me some clues as to why I always hated doing homework as a kid.

Is There a Word Other Than "Brilliant" for This?

OK fellas, caption this!

Nu?  You must have something to say about this.  I was sure glad that I had my camera with me.  The next time I passed it was filled with drying laundry.

And More Presents, Arts & Crafts

Even more successful a gift for the grandkids than painting shirts was beading with pipe cleaners.

These old-fashioned, classic crafts are fantastic activities for the kids.  My grandchildren really enjoyed them.

Creative Carnivals!

The pictures were taken at the Shiloh Crafts Exhibit, which was on display the evening of our 29th Birthday of Shiloh Celebration.

Things aren't as simple as they used to be. It seems like the blog carnivals are becoming much more than a listing of links.

It didn't really surprise me to see that No Pasa Nada's Carnival of the Mundane was a "screenplay," but when I saw that Soccer Dad wrote Havel Havelim as Jeopardy... I hope that piques your curiosity to see those two great carnivals!

Wow! What will I have to do next week when I start the real work on KCC? Hint! Hint!