Millions of older folks, whether biologically or not, are waiting and eager, with love and wisdom, to be grandparently to children. As parents and educators, we get the opportunity to re-promote them in our homes and programs.

It will often time take creativity, and it will certainly take intentionality, but attachment theory declares children need grandparents more than they need peers.

It is the older generations who have been there, done that and who children are wired to look to for direction. When they aren't provided, they will look instead to friends who haven't been there, done that or learned their lesson, but are ready and eager to try most anything once!

This week, experiment re-promoting grandparents by receiving the stories of the older generations and giving them to children.

One fun way to do this is what we call the "Story Jar."
1. Fill a jar with bunches of story prompts ranging from puppies to politics, feelings or experiences. This will prompt new stories to share from the past.
2. Pick a time once per week when children and adults will share stories around a particular theme as chosen from the story jar.
3. Re-promote grandparents (biological or not) by inviting the older generations into this weekly story event.
4. Every week let Grandma and Grandpa, or the grandmas and grandpas at the local retirement home, know the story theme of the week.
5. Ask them to submit their stories ahead of time for sharing, or come in person or virtually to tell them themselves.
6. Repeat week in and week out as kids tell their stories of a time they played with a puppy, and hear the stories of the whole litter of puppies Grandma Harriett raised when she was a girl.

Story has a powerful capacity to promote relational connection, as well as provide the wisdom the attachment instincts of children incline them to search for.