Remembering My Grandparent: A Kid's Own Grief Workbook in the Christian Tradition

by Nechama Liss-Levinson, Rev. Molly Phinney Baskette

Overview

Honest, caring words and activities—from a Christian perspective—help kids work through their grief.

The death of a grandparent is often a child's first encounter with grief. Why did this happen? How do I feel? Drawing on concepts from psychology and a broad perspective on Christian faith, Remembering My Grandparent provides a sensitive and practical resource that will help children ages 7 to 13 cope with the death of a loved one. Kids can write, draw, pray, create, and express feelings via concrete, hands-on activities including:

• Part One: Remembering after the Funeral
• Part Two: Remembering throughout the Whole Year
• Part Three: Remembering during the Holidays
  • Becoming a Memory Detective to uncover clues to their grandparent's own childhood
  • Recording favorite memories, photographs and events
  • Turning Christmas, Easter and other holidays into times of special remembrance
  • Open and gentle, this book will help kids—and their parents with them—understand difficult concepts and communicate deep feelings as they grow through their season of mourning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683362593
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	11/01/2006
Edition description:	Workbook
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	864,467
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	7 - 13 Years

About the Author

Nechama Liss-Levinson, PhD, is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice and author of When a Grandparent Dies: A Kid's Own Remembering Workbook for Dealing with Shiva and the Year Beyond; Talking to Children about Death; and Remembering My Pet: A Kid's Own Spiritual Workbook for When a Pet Dies, as well as many articles on developmental milestones in the Jewish family, and the emotional impact of death and illness on children and adults. She lives on Long Island, New York, with her husband and two daughters.

Nechama Liss-Levinson PhD is available to speak on the following topics:

• Musings, Milestones and Mayhem at Midlife
• Not Your Bubby's Bubby: Being a Modern Jewish Grandmother
• Talking to Children about Death
• When a Grandparent Dies: Helping the Whole Family to Cope
• Whose Bat Mitzvah Is It Anyway? Coming of Age and Coming Together

Rev. Molly Phinney Baskette, MDiv, is senior minister of First Congregational Church of Somerville, United Church of Christ, in Somerville, Massachusetts, and has worked with children in crisis in the United States and abroad.

Table of Contents

What This Book Is About and How to Use It
A Message for Parents
A Message for Kids

Part One: Remembering after the Funeral
About the Funeral
After the Funeral
How My Grandparent Died
My Special Remembering Prayer
Be a Memory Detective
My Memory Detective Notebook
Memory Detective Biography
Photo Memories of My Grandparent

Part Two: Remembering throughout the Whole Year
Names in My Family
My Family Tree
How I Am Like My Grandparent
Complaints Department
My Grandparent's Gravestone
Visiting the Cemetery
Remembering by Giving
Memory Detective Mind Benders

Part Three: Remembering during the Holidays
Christmas
The Taste of Christmas
Ash Wednesday
Easter
Vacation
All Saints’ Day and Día de los Muertos
Thanksgiving
Remembering My Grandparent in the Circle of Life

Glossary & A Note to Kids Who Used This Book

Editorial Reviews

"An excellent resource to help children understand complicated concepts surrounding life and death."
—Catholic Library World

"Provides children with a focus on something positive and constructive, giving them a concrete way to express their feelings of loss.... Excellent.... A treasure to be preserved by children to one day be shared with their own offspring."
—Montreal Anglican

“Offers tools to help youngsters understand and work through their grief.”
—Publishers Weekly

“At Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, we struggled to develop an episode to help young children deal with death. The authors of Remembering My Grandparent have taken exquisite care to get it right. They understand that the loss of a grandparent is not a one-time event but an ongoing feature of a young child's life.... The exercises give room for grief to blossom into a blessing. I am glad my own grandchildren will be able to use this book some day.”
—Eliot Daley, former producer of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and author of Father Feelings

“Finally, a book to help parents help their children cope with the loss of a loved one. Opens the discussion on a topic most families don’t discuss because they simply do not know how.”
—Rev. August Gold, author of Does God Hear My Prayer and Where Does God Live?

“A much-needed tool for helping a child remember, honor and celebrate a grandparent who has died. [Will] strengthen the family bond between parent and child that is often stressed by the experience of death and grief.”
—Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Streets, chaplain, Yale University, and faculty member, Yale Child Study Center

“Beautiful. Heals and celebrates ... a godsend at the time of a grandparent’s death. The pages unfold with clarity and simplicity, which lets grief be grief ... and then hope.”
—Rev. Maren C. Tirabassi, author of Improbable Gift of Blessing

From the Publisher