Friday, July 29, 2011

Staying in Touch


As you know, I’m always looking for ways to stay connected to my two young nieces who live 400 miles away. I tried the pen-pal thing but it flopped – they’re forgetful when it comes to writing back! I periodically send care packages with games, books and activities. In the springtime I sent a whole box full of things to encourage them to enjoy the great outdoors: jump ropes, sidewalk chalk, water bottles (BPA free of course!) and even a soccer ball! But one of the greatest tools has been the more technologically advanced options: email and Skype.

While hand written letters and postcards are nice, it’s so easy to send my nieces a little electronic note to not only keep in touch with what’s happening in their lives but to share things happening in my life as well.

Skype has been a great way to interact. Because of Skype, I got to see my youngest niece, “Bailey” perform the latest dance she learned. But even Skyping can be difficult to do when we all get caught up in our day-to-day lives. It seems that setting up regular Skype "dates" might be the way to go.

Another fun way to stay in touch is through something like "Kinect" that will allow you to play games together. Unfortunately this isn't an option for me, I have Xbox, they have Wii. I've been searching online for age-appropriate games that we can play together but haven't had any luck so far. If you know of any online games that have this capability, please leave a comment, I'd love to know about it!

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