What Grandparents Need to Know

Being a grandparent has a lot going for it. You get to share good times with the little ones and then turn them back to their parents when the going gets rough. It makes up for a lot of the tough times we endured when our own kids (those aforementioned parents of today) were youngsters themselves.

But as adorable as the grandkids may be, there are times when time itself seems like a problem. How do you fill a rainy afternoon without resorting to TV or DVDs? You don't want to park them in front of a screen for hours. The whole point of this intergenerational deal is that you might actually get to know each other better and learn a few things from each other.

A new book offers good ways to fill that void between drop-off and pick-up. The Really Useful Grandparents' Book by Eleo Gordon and Tony Lacey (Broadway Books) is chock full of good suggestions from intriguing bits of history you can impart (like how the ancient Egpytians extracted brains before mummifying bodies) to science experiments using household materials to a great recipe for brownies.

With this book in hand, there's no excuse for a dull moment.