I am such a fortunate grandmother because I was able to do projects with my grandchildren when they were small. Well, with the youngest four anyway.
I was not able to do those types of activities with the two older boys, Joshua and Jeremy, when they were little because I was still teaching. They were great appreciators of my miniatures, however, and used to stand on a small stepladder to peer into my McKinley wallhanger house beside the front door and happily checked out the Easter Egg dome and Edsel Feeding the Deer during the appropriate holidays. Those little boys are now young men. The oldest has his Master's, will be married in the spring, and now works in Arlington, VA, in some job which I wouldn't understand even if he could explain it to me; the other has been married six years, taught two years of physics and environmental science, and is now working in a highly technical job in the oil and gas fields of New Mexico and West Texas..
When I think of doing projects with my younger grandchildren, I like to paraphrase the last refrain from an old poem, "Song for a 5th Child" by Ruth Hamilton:
The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm playing with my grandchildren and children don't keep.
And now, in 2018, I realize once again how true this is; the youngest kids are all grown up, too. Joel is 24, working two jobs, Jenna is 23, an accomplished artist, Joseph, 25, graduated from Texas A&M and is working in San Antonio, and Laura, 19, is a freshman in collegel! So, on the rare occasions nowadays when it happens that we get together to play, it's more likely to be a movie marathon, as when Joshua, Joy Anna (Jeremy's wife) and Jenna came for a sleepover and we watched all the Harry Potter movies in one weekend.
In addition to the 40 miniature projects shown here, there are probably others that have been part of some other theme throughout this website. For instance, Jenna's Harvest Hutch was done in a workshop with a woman and her two daughters.
You will notice that Jenna has the largest number of projects because she lives in El Paso. Joel did fewer, but the ones he did are memorable. Joseph and Laura lived elsewhere so their projects were during holiday breaks and on summer visits.
Joel came over not too long ago and created an entire outer space world that fits within a six-inch dome, but the story has not been completed for it.
After a recent visit Laura and Jenna both worked on miniatures again. Both required stories, which each has basically written but still require a bit of tweaking. Laura's is a bit more complex because it relates to an entire world she has created, and it is taking more time to get together, especailly with the creation of some of the characters.
So, even though we don't play in the same way now that they are all grown up, they all assure me that not only do they still have their tools and the rolling carts I once gave them for their supplies so long ago, but they remember everything I ever said. Jenna has said she would like to make dolls again, and that is on our agenda when I finally get my workroom reorganization and the purging of my stash finished. And Laura has another project in mind when she has time free from her college studies.
They know how to make Nana feel good and I am very proud of their talents.
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These may be called Children's Projects, but they compare with the work
of many adults I have seen.
