Congratulations to Jim Conrady of Dardenne Prairie, Missouri! Jim is the winner of the Art Kit door prize, awarded by Rich and Barb Heki, founders of Grandparents of Homeschoolers, at the CHEF/Family Economics Conference in St. Louis.

Jim already has been actively engaged in teaching his grandchildren through filming a movie with them — Sons of Georgia! We hope he enjoys learning a new art form with his grandchildren — colored pencil sketching with this set of sketch pads and a family-size colored pencil kit.

Grandparents of Homeschoolers prepared this door prize to illustrate how easy it is for grandparents to be involved in their children’s education. You don’t have to re-learn trigonometry! (Although, if you already know it, you could teach it to your grandchildren.)

Something as simple as sitting in the back yard sketching squirrels with your grandchildren is educational. You can sketch the critters, compare artwork and share ideas for improvement, talk about the habits of the animals, how God has designed them perfectly to survive and flourish in their environment. You can talk about their colors: Squirrels are not just “brown” or “gray.” They are a mixture of colors and many of those colors in the pencil set need to be combined to get the proper hues. Is it sunny outside as you are drawing? Where do those birds and squirrels go at night, or in the winter? How do they get food when snow and ice cover the ground?

By the time the drawing session is over, and the grandparents and grandchildren head into the house for cookies and refreshments, a revelation hits: The grandparents have just taught their grandchildren a science, art, Bible and weather lesson without even knowing it! And they’ve strengthened their relationships as a family. That’s what makes education so FUN!

Rich and Barb Heki, Co-Founders & Directors

Grandparents of Homeschoolers is a non-profit ministry uniting all grandparents of homeschoolers under one umbrella — our love for our grandkids! We exist to provide information and resources to grandparents of homeschoolers through a myriad of tools, online and onsite. This blog is one of them! We also connect with grandparents (and parents) via our website, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

We are excited to be ministering specially to grandparents! Whether your grandchildren are already being homeschooled, or will be homeschooled in the future, or whether you’re not sure you even like the idea of them being homeschooled, we invite you to join us on this journey of connecting with other grandparents and learning valuable tidbits of information and ideas from one another. Our ultimate goal is to unite the family — all generations — in a close relationship of discipleship and mentoring, through the vehicle of home education.

We invite you  — Grandpas and Grandmas — to share your ideas, joys, struggles and victories as you dive into this wonderful world of grandparenting those precious homeschooled grandchildren!  Stay tuned for a variety of content, ideas, information and grandparent stories from around the country on this blog.

We can’t wait to meet you! With that, here’s a brief introduction to our family. We’re nearing our 60s, so that puts us smack in the middle of Grandparent Land! We are homeschooling veterans, having served in homeschooling leadership statewide and nationwide since the turn of the century, and having homeschooled our four children from birth to adulthood. Now we are loving being grandparents! The above photo was taken on the last occasion we were able to get together from all parts of the country. Please introduce yourselves when you see us at homeschooling events. The internet is  a great place to connect regularly, but just can’t compare with a hug or a handshake.

If you’d like to receive our occasional blog postings filled with ideas, resources and encouragement in your special roles as Grandpas and Grandmas, we invite you to click the JOIN button. We also welcome parents and other special people in each homeschooled child’s life who play integral roles in the education of the grandchildren. You can lurk, or you can share stories and ideas you’ve seen work in connecting the generations through home education.