Grandparents' Daycare Where Do We Start? Are We Going to Cope? Grandparents average over 20 hours a week daycare. Nearly 1 in 5 of us provide over 40 hours a week! I'll show you how to turn it into a wonderful and loving kids learning experience.

This page is about giving you the confidence, the resources, the plan and collaborative support to look after your grandchildren in both short and long term daycare. You will be offering the benefits of a loving, caring, happy environment while providing your grandchildren with playful learning to put them at the head of the class by the time they reach Pre-K and Kindergarten ages.

Better still, the cost will be less than one day in a private daycare center! Let me show you how.

Why Grandparents are Asked First
And it's not about money!

We're trustworthy, we can really give affection and we make our grandchildren happy like no non-family member can. These are the prime reasons why we grandparents are honored to be asked to look after our grandchildren.

We have lots to offer! We’re younger physically and mentally than grandparents have ever been. We’re fun! Our grandchildren love chatting and confiding in us. We are usually computer savvy. We can search the net for all sorts of information and activities! We can reminisce, we can tell our grandchildren stories, we can share information on our family roots, we often have more time to talk and listen to our grandchildren than their parents! Sometimes, our grandchildren think we understand them better than their parents and they know we love them! Usually we are the softies when it comes to discipline!!

No wonder grandparents like us are the Number 1 choice for daycare!

But it can be a challenge!

The average grandparent provides over 20 hours a week – and nearly 1 in 5 of us provide 40 hours a week! Potentially a lot of valuable time!

How are we going to enjoyably and productively fill every week?

1. How are we going to keep our grandchildren happy, focused and well behaved?

2. How are we going to support their learning and development?

3. What entertaining resources do we need and can we afford them?

4. What support groups can help us?

Grandparents Launching Literacy If your looking for playful learning - and your grandchildren are aged between 3 to 5, I can help you. I am Lesley Beth. I am an experienced child educator. And I'm a Grandmother. I created Jazzles as a playful way for parents (and grandparents) to launch their children into early literacy development by using music, songs and creative arts. We all love to sing!!

Using Jazzles, I'll provide you with enough joyful activities to keep your grandchildren happily interacting with you for up to 4-5 hours a day for six months or more!!

The time you spend with them will strengthen relationships and give them the confidence to take their place in Pre-K or Kindergarten with the self esteem that flows from early literacy.

Here's what you and Jazzles will achieve to secure your grandchildren's future before formal schooling:-

1. They’ll be ready to read – and probably be independently reading.

2. They’ll be able to write their name.

3. They'll develop fine motor skills through numerous creative activities.

4. They'll be able to recognize a letter and know its sound.

5. They'll know some concepts of print - like reading left to right

6. They'll recognize a 'letter' and a 'word'.

7. They'll be able to write 'letters' and some words.

8. They'll develop an understanding of the musical concept of 'beat' and enjoy a variety of musical styles and instrument sounds.

9. They'll have sophisticated their ideas about dance and drama.

In short, your grandchildren will be ahead of the rest!

And the cost of all this will be around or less than one day in private day care!

These "SuperPlans" are the OPPOSITE of repetitive drill and rote! 100's of CREATIVE and STIMULATING IDEAS developed by Lesley Beth to enable you to help your child achieve mastery of sound-letter knowledge while singing in the car, shopping, cooking, dancing, dressing up, creative art like collage, play acting, visiting a museum or theme park and more! With Jazzles, you can turn everything you do with your grandchildren into subtle way for them to learn a letter. ALL THE IDEAS YOU NEED ARE IN THIS BOOK!

The results will amaze you. Using these ideas, you will find your grandchildren more focused, more interested, listening more carefully, better able to follow directions, better behaved and more on task to "learn and reinforce" new information about letters and their sounds quickly, easily and very enjoyably.

All Jazzles Entertaining A-Z Phonics Songs and
Integrated Early Reading Resources Now Come in One Money-Saving Dual CD-CDROM Pack!
Just $29.95!

Click here to see animated clip of all the resources - opens in seperate window.

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Read the story of a Grandparent

Patrick (not his real name) wrote to me about how successful Jazzles had been for him. It was short and sweet but because many grandparents feel alone and unsupported in this role, I felt his experience, particularly as a man, might provide the confidence that most of us need.

He kindly agreed to give his insight to the challenges and rewards grandparenting daycare brings.

Patrick’s Story The Phone Call "Dad, I want to ask a real favor. You don’t have to do it but it would really help me!" This phone call added a new and unexpected dimension to my life! Erica, my daughter and her family had recently returned from living in Shanghai, China. Just a few months ago, I was regretting not seeing our grandchildren growing up. Now they were back and we were all loving being a family again!

Patrick On Time Out! "I know now why teachers value their holidays!"

The Big Ask! " The bank wants me back at work. I can’t get the kids into day care. Can you look after them during the day? You don’t have to do it – but they’ve promised to be good and they love you!" What could I say but 'yes' because I love Erica and I love those kids! When I was a parenting, I spent too much time working and not enough with the children. I'll regret that for forever. Here’s a way, I thought, that I could make up but with my wife still working, it was clearly going to be up to the dog and me to keep the children entertained!! The First Day at Grandpa’s Day Care! Instead of breakfast in bed, the kids arrived on the dot of 8.00am. Rapid fire instructions followed covering drinks, lunch, swimming, bath time (we’re talking long day care here!) and when and what they can watch on TV. End of Day One. Jack's worn out, Scarlet's still going with spread all over her face! "Really Granddad!" A quick peck on the cheek, a few 'Byes', tears from the kids, Erica’s gone – off to balance the Euro with the Yen at the corporate bank! The first week saw bags and possessions spreading everywhere; lots of questions, healthy eating perseverance and some toilet aid (fortunately not too much). I noticed the dog hiding under the bed seeking some peace and quiet! Shocked At What Needs to Be Done In between TV and naptime, I read some stories, shocked to find that Jack (5) and Scarlet (nearly 4) had zero knowledge of the alphabet! They couldn’t recognize a letter even though attending an expensive international preschool in Shanghai. On the bright side, their numeracy skills were excellent. I discovered later that Chinese kindergarten children solve three times as many addition problems than U.S. children and are more likely to use verbal counting in their solutions. Taking A Few Lessons from Local Day Care Centers I researched the local daycares, noting the marketing emphasis on "getting your children ahead of the rest" by the time they approach Pre-K or Kindergarten. Sounds good to me as my grand kids were definitely going to be at the bottom of the pack at this stage. A common theme is playful "fun learning" which can be summarized as developing early numeric and reading skills through creative arts, music and drama. My hard luck story impressed the staff at several centers. They were willing to advise and in discussion ‘phonics’ was frequently mentioned as the latest early reading technique. (Surprising! Isn’t that how we learnt to read in the "good old days!"? Search Engines to the Rescue I searched the term "Phonics" and found all sorts of products, most of which claimed fun but didn’t seem much fun for either the kids or me (and I have to do it with them!). Searching ‘Fun Phonics Alphabet Songs’ came up on all the major engines with Jazzles ‘Alphabet Clever Songs’ - alliterative, alphabet songs supported by all sorts of creative art activities I could print off from my computer to reinforce the learning. And the cost was less than one day at a daycare center! Each Jazzles Alphabet Clever Songs CD-CDROM comes with printable song lyrics and coloring pages like these... Click Here To Order Now. Phonics Fast at Grandpa’s Day Care! Jazzles recommends children learning one letter a week. Makes sense to me. Some products say you can teach 4 letters and their sounds a week. I don’t believe it! Anyway, Jazzles has enough ideas and activities to last 2 weeks on each letter. And I get a suggested order of learning letters - so the kids can sound out words earlier and easier. (Some daycares surprised me by allowing the children to choose what, if any, letter they want to work with. I can't believe this works effectively!) Phonics Without Knowing Anything about Phonics! Each Jazzles song focuses on the sound of one letter using song lyrics packed full of words using the same letter (alliteration!). This helps the kids connect the letter to its sound. That’s phonics! Sounds simple! It is! For Grandparents everywhere, Jazzles gives you its ‘SuperPlans’ - a 6 page guide for each alphabet letter. It shows me step-by-step how to build a phonics theme into practically everything the kids and I like doing – including cooking, playing in the garden, excursions, dressing up, dancing and drama, playing ‘I Spy’ in the car and at home, coloring, cutting, collecting – and the list goes on!! Scarlet loves collage! Here is her letter E using crushed eggshells glued on to the letter E for an Egg as BIG as an Elephant! Click Here To Order Now. And of course singing – we sing the focus letter song everyday. The lyrics are repeated twice because repetition is so important at this age - I should say 'enjoyable' repetition, because I found the kids really loved these songs. We all sang along to the CD - it's easy and a great excuse to sing out of the shower - in or out of tune! And then while the kids are doing a particular letter’s creative craft, the Jazzles songs play as background music. Everyone is happy, focused and quiet – even the dog is enjoying it all! Printing Alphabet Activities Pages Jazzles resources are in the form of Adobe PDF files (or e-books) that are very simple to use. I follow the ‘SuperPlans’, select the activity page and print it off on my desk top printer. It is just black and white printing - - you don't need a color printer! Coloring is what the grandkids do - a bonanza of coloring activity but not for coloring sake. Each coloring activity is fine tuned for reinforcing sound-letter knowledge and promoting discussion. Reprinting As Often As You Like If your grandkids are anything like mine, they are quite happy to repeat the same activity page over and over – which is why home printing is such a good idea. Why buy one-shot books when you can print and then reprint what you need! The kids even ask that I reprint one or two pages each for them to do at home. They're always finding a new favorite page which is good because repetition is very important at this age - so this all makes sense. Well put together Lesley Beth! Each resource page has a strategic purpose. I discovered that coloring pages are designed to help the inexperienced carer like me explain the lyrics of each song(comprehension!). Each collage page, which the kids just love, is designed for children to have tactile experiences of materials starting with a particular letter. They love collaging the letter 'd' with dirt and 'c' with coffee and 'g' with grass clippings!! The Jazzles "Cut and Paste" activities are graduated in difficulty to help progressively develop their ability to copy and draw letter shapes, or draw lines to connect dots and objects. According to my Jazzles guide, by cutting the activity shapes and handling and gluing the small pieces of paper, children develop their finger and pencil control while reinforcing their visual knowledge of letters and their use in words and contexts. Also it helps them handle buttons and zips - sounds good to me! Is this the world's Most Popular Collaged Letter? According to Lesley Beth, her letter M collaged with melon seeds, appears on hundreds of teenage blog sites around the world. Why? She doesn't know but it looks nice, doesn't it! Click Here To Order Now. Six Months of Activities Costs Less than One Day at Day Care! Before I ordered Jazzles, I read many of its teacher and parent reviews. Basically they said kids love Jazzles and teachers love Jazzles because the songs are upbeat, amusing and everything is so well put together. My own experience reinforces that. There's even ideas for excursions to reinforce the target letter - for example if the letter of the week is 'F', buy five gallons of gas on the way to visiting a seafood or fresh fish market, where you can explain the different types of fish (all labeled - so you're looking knowledgeable anyway), buy four fish to fry for five dollars - and you can see how you are extending the knowledge of F into numerics, shopping and cooking! And that is what Jazzles is all about. Lesley Beth told me she developed this idea that working with a letter a week creates lots of ways phonics knowledge can be extended into everyday activities. For each letter she appears to have developed over 100 ways of doing so. Five gallons of gas won't go far but just another idea of how to fire up the letter F on the way the fish market! It is hard for a grandparent to create a day’s ‘play and learning’ program – let alone a month or six months. With Jazzles, you don’t need to do that – it is all there for you to use and tailor to the developmental ages of your grandchildren. Summing Up. The kids started their new schools 2005 – kindergarten and G1. At first, they both needed some additional tuition to catch up to the rest of their class, but they were so far behind they would have failed if we had not used Jazzles. Now Jack (6) is independently reading – he loves dinosaur and insect books and I partly attribute this to the Jazzles Tyrannosaurus Rex song which started his fascination for extinct animals. Scarlet is also well on the way to reading independence. Although almost the youngest in the class, she is very confident and a real little actress – which again I think Jazzles helped develop through its emphasis on suggested actions and dramas for each song. Now days, I pick them up and listen to their stories. I love it when they receive a sticker and I enjoy going round the class to see their work on the walls, or going to assembly to hear their name mentioned for some weekly achievement, or just watching them take part. I help them with their homework and get a real kick to see their reading and writing progress. Scarlet is sounding out her words really well – a direct result I know of all the fun ‘work’ we did with Jazzles. Both are top of their classes in maths but I can’t claim much for that! But I am really proud of them and happy to have given them the time that I denied their own mother at the same age!

What you Should Do Now

If you are a grandparent with a grandchild aged 3-5 and you just want to give a present of the Jazzles Alphabet Clever Songs with its printable lyrics and coloring (or picture talk) pages, choose the $15.95 CD-CDROM.

If you are helping the grandchildren develop reading and writing skills, choose the Dual CD-CDROM or the Super Resource Pack.

The Dual CD-CDROM has all the songs plus all 5 E-Books that you can print off over and over on your PC.

The Super Resource Pack contains the Dual CD-CDROM plus 3 printed books that are in the Dual CD-CDROM as printable E-Books. Some people like to have both.

What I am Going to Do for You.

First I will give you a link for you to download the Jazzles SuperPlans – this is going to give you everything you need to help you get your grandchildren reading ready.

Second, I am going to you links to Grandparent Support Sites.

Third, I am giving you access to a collaborative web site where you can share experiences and other web resources with other grandparents also running their ‘own family’ daycare center. I will read these where I can. You can cut me out of the loop - but I'd love to help and share the experiences of caring grandparents.

All Your Money Back Guarantee

Second I am going to give you a three month guarantee – all your money back if you are not happy about the progress your grandchildren are making.

Jazzles Alphabet Clever Songs and E-Books
Dual CD-CDROM Pack -just $29.95

Order With Credit Card Over Our Secure Order Form! Includes PayPal option.

Click Here To Order Now.

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For those who want BOTH Digital and Printed Activity Books:-

Jazzles Super Resource Pack
Includes: Jazzles "Alphabet Clever Songs" Dual CD-CDROM Pack PLUS 3 High Quality Soft-Cover PUBLISHED Books of the pictured resources below. All for $49.95! With Free 3 Day Shipping

PLUS...FREE* Lesley Beth's " Jazzles SuperPlans" E-Book, an extensive collection of class room tested winning ideas combining proven phonics based teaching techniques with 100's of CREATIVE and STIMULATING IDEAS. Using these ideas, you will find children more focused, more interested, listening more carefully, better able to follow directions, better behaved and more on task.

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Here is a personal guarantee from Lesley Beth - semi-finalist in 2004 International Song Writing Competition; 2005 Honorable Mention American Song Writer Magazine's Lyric Contest.

If for any reason, you aren't thrilled and satisfied with Jazzles, just email me within 3 Months and I'll refund 100% of your purchase price. !