Clare Family Learning Project

FL and Grandparents ‹ Back to Courses

Rationale

A day hospital in a rural area of the county provides transport for the isolated elderly to attend the centre once every 2 weeks. On investigation it was found that many of these people are grandparents who have contact with families and grandchildren.

Approach

From sessions run previously in the centre it was found that the participants enjoyed having a focus and doing some sort of activity. Also many of them loved to recall the memories of their lives.

Providing a focus for these memories through using children’s books which linked to an activity that could then be shared with a grandchild seemed a good basis for a family learning course. This is especially so as the younger generation enjoy hearing about what happened in the 'old days' and often there is not a context for this to occur naturally in the busy family situations. It also seemed important that knowledge of the old traditions should be passed on to younger generations.

Family Learning Programme

It was decided that a seasonal theme would be a good basis for the topics and that there would be a variety of activities that would encourage a range of skills. It would be kept in mind that the needs of the participants varied, some have short concentration spans, impaired sight and hearing and limited mobility.

Sessions would have a loose format and would start with a sharing of the children's books around a particular focus and a discussion where participants are encouraged to recall their past experiences in the area. The activity is introduced and an emphasis is put on sharing it with another member of the family. The session ends with a display of every ones work.