Nature
National Parks: https://www.nps.gov/
National Geographic Society: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): https://www.aclu.org/
Union of Concerned Scientists: https://www.ucsusa.org/
Parenting
Parents Helpline: 1-855-378-4373
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: https://www.aarp.org/relationships/friends-family/info-08-2011/grandfamilies-guide-support.html
Fact Sheets for each state:
https://www.grandfactsheets.org
Hazelden Betty Ford Study – Grandparents Raising Grandchildren:
https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/education/bcr/addiction-research/grandparents-raising-grandchildren-ru-718
Mental Health
National Institute of Mental Health: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder:
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/index.shtml
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/facts.html
UC Davis Mind Institute: https://health.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute/
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd/index.shtml
Articles
How This New Law Will Help Grandparents Raising Grandkids (by Donna Butts)
https://www.nextavenue.org/new-law-grandparents-raising-grandkids/
American Grandparents Providing Extensive Child Care to their Grandchildren: Prevalence and Profile (by Esme Fuller-Thomson and Meredith Minkler)
https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article/41/2/201/648323
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (by David M. Allen, M.D.)
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/matterpersonality/201106/grandparents-raising-grandchildren
Writing
Laura Davis, Writer’s Journey, writing teacher, facilitator:
https://lauradavis.net
Books
Cabrillo College Children’s Peace Education Library:
Cabrillo College Children’s Peace Education Library provides a fabulous list of children’s books reviewed by educators of young children and maintained by Cabrillo Community College, Aptos, CA. Julie Olsen Edwards.
http://www.childpeacebooks.org
The Secret Hum of a Daisy, by Tracy Holczer
Twelve-year-old Grace and her mom have always been a family, the two of them going from place to place like gypsies, but now Grace wants to have a home all her own. Until her mother says it’s time to move again. Then her mother tragically drowns in an accident, so Grace has to go and live with a grandmother she has never met. In a town that holds the secrets of her family’s past, Grace grieves. (“I shivered in my sleeping bag, feeling the chill of the river, and wondered if my dreams were bringing me one piece of Mama’s death at a time”). Along the way, she struggles to face her sadness, forgive, and learn what being family really means.
Love, Aubrey, by Suzanne LaFleur
Here’s another poignant middle grade novel about being forced to live with a grandmother you’ve never met. After her father and younger sister die in a car accident and her mother abandons her, 11-year-old Aubrey decides she can take care of herself. First, she buys canned food (and a pet fish) with her birthday money, then she sets out to watch a lot of TV. Aubrey isn’t answering the phone, so finally her concerned grandmother shows up. Aubrey has to leave her Virginia home to live with her grandma in Vermont, where she grapples with abandonment and begins to grieve. This is a moving middle grade novel about a girl learning how to cope, heal, and move on after such a devastating tragedy. There’s a comforting, compassionate message here to remind kids that you’re never alone as long as you have a grandma.
Some Kind of Happiness, by Claire Legrand
Finley’s parents are going through a rough patch so they need some space to work things out (or not), so they send 11-year-old Finley to her estranged grandparents’ country estate for the summer with some cousins she has never met. In this dark multi-layered fantasy, Finley allows her cousins into her imaginary world at the Everwood, a forest kingdom that exists in the pages of her notebook. Writing is what helps her face her deep anxiety in this coming-of-age tale, as she learns to trust her family and feel brave in the world.
S What books about grandparents raising children have you loved?
Kids Need to Be Safe: A Book for Children in Foster Care
by Julie Nelson
Families Change: A Book for Children Experiencing Termination of Parental Rights
by Julie Nelson
Beginnings: How Families Come to Be
by Virginia Kroll