ROUND TABLE TALK «GOOD OLD DAYS»

Erasmus+ project «Bridging three generations: timeless games and toys» activity,

Grundzāles pamatskola, February, 2017

Project Nr. 2015-1-TR01-KA219-021800_8

ParticipantsOne greatgrandmother and her 2 greatgrandsons and her grandson’s wife

Grandmother and her 3 grandchildren

Mother and her son

Pupil’s aunt

Principal Valda Elstiņa

Description of participants - adults

• All participants represented one part of our society (relevant to our topic):

• Greatgrandmother Ērika Trifanova– keeps family’s history alive, has time to bewith grandchildren and appreciates each day spent together

• Grandmother Mirdza Zeibote– a woman who wants to be with grandchildren andspends a lot of time with them, especially because parents have to work – theyplay, talk, work together

• Mother – she is quite old, the son is the youngest in her family and thegrandparents have past away, so the son can have only memories and pictures ofhis grandparents, not real relationships

• Aunt – grown in children’s home, they don’t even know who the grandparentswere

Description of participants - children

• Grandchildren of Ērika – Gustavs, 12 years old, and Egils (7 years), and grandson’swife Jana, also the mother of Egils and Gustavs

• Grandchildren of Mirdza – Sandis, 16 years old, Haralds, 10 years, Estere, 8 years

• Son Kristers – 10 years

How do you define relationships withgrandchildren?

• Ērika: I am glad when they visit me, they get acquainted with physical work, no one refuses to help.

• Mirdza: We see each other quite often, especially with smaller ones, it is every dayafter school before parents come from work. There is not greater joy than to seethem. We play Ludo, Loto, Snakes and Ladders, Domino. The older grandsons helpin the farmsted.

• Krister’s mother: He does not even know his grandparents, because he is the lastson and is born after grandparents' death. So he can have just our memories aboutour parents.

• Sandis: I want to meet her, to help her if she is not able to do smth. It is joy to bethere.

What can you learn from grandparents?

• Gustavs: «houskeeping» things, a lot of info about past

• Egils : I have learned that we need to work, you should not be lazy

• Estere: I have to tidy up my room

• Haralds: I have to help

• Sandis: Virtue of work, all kind of skills you need in farmsted, for example, to make haystack, but he admits that these skills are dissapearing because ofmodernization.

• Jana (grandson's wife): How to care about flowers (escpecially dahlija and phlox), talked about II world war, about the first school.

Ērika Trifanova

Haystack

What can you learn from grandchildren?

• Ērika: We also need to follow the time, to get acquainted with new technologies.

• Mirdza: To take everything easier, not to worry so much about trivia.

• Kristers’s mother: Learned how to mow with trimmer (the son learned it first), how to use a PC or other modern gadgets.

What are you talking about?

• Mirdza: We are talking about life: nowadays and previous times – school now andthen, about parents' life when they were children.

• Sandis: About relatives, history of family, family tree.

• What do you think about modern gadgets?

• Mirdza: Grandparents should atract grandchildren's attention by asking, rousingto do smth together, by asking them to work together in farmsted.

Which generation is happier?

• Ērika: That is an another world. 4 generations are not comparable. Work, work andone more time work – it was our time slogan, nothing else.

• Mirdza: Grandchildren are happier because they have more oportunities – theycan go everywhere and do whatever they want.