My Grandma Doesn’t Hear Me

ABOUT THE BOOK
FAMILY ACTIVITIES

My Grandma Doesn’t Hear Me

By: Fatima Sharaf Al-Dein, Illustrations: Tina Makhlouf

Grandma has a hearing problem, which leads to comical misunderstandings in conversations with her grandson. But there is one sentence she hears perfectly at the end: “Grandma, I love you.” This book plays on rhyming words in a warm and playful interaction between the two generations.

Family Activities

Video

Dear Parents,

The grandmother in our story has a heavy hearing, and her jumbled responses to the words of her grandson make us smile. But she communicates with him and listens to him well, not with her ears but with her heart. The grandmother spoils her grandson by preparing his favorite juice, making up games to keep him entertained, worrying about him getting wet in the rain, and singing songs with him. When they embrace each other at the end of the story, it is as if they are whispering to us: we don’t only express our love and our concern for others with our words, but also with what we do for them.

Family Activities

Grandmothers and grandfathers have a special place in most children’s lives. And the grandparents’ house has its unique smells, tastes, and distinct sights that inhabit the memory of children when they grow up. We can talk with our child about the things they love in their grandparents’ home or in the house of any other person who is close to the family and to our child. Is there a corner in the house that they favor? What do they like to do in their grandparents’ house?
The grandmother in the story expresses her concern for her grandson in different ways. We can talk with our child about their interactions with their grandmother or grandfather and how they express their love to each other. For example, preparing a favorite dish, buying small gifts, or telling the grandchildren interesting stories. We can also talk about what we can do to express our concern for our grandmothers and grandfathers.
Some grandfathers and grandmothers may suffer from health problems, such as hearing loss, blindness, or limited mobility. What can our child do to help the elderly in their family?
Do you remember the hilarious “broken phone” game? The family members sit in a circle, and one of them quickly whispers a word in their neighbor’s ear. The second has to whisper what they heard in the other neighbor’s ear…and so on, until the whispered word reaches the last person in the circle, just to discover that what they heard has nothing to do with the original word!
We can test various methods to enhance the delivery of sound to a far location, such as encircling the mouth with both hands, and ways to improve the hearing of sounds, such as tilting the outer ear forward. Are there other methods?
Together, we can design an amplifier from household items, such as: a cardboard tube, metal foil, or paper cups. We can test a number of amplifiers from different materials and compare them: which sounds best?
These suggestions were developed by a working group in the “Lantern Library” from the Ministry of Education, Early Childhood Development Center (Bidayat), and the Grinspoon Foundation.

المربية العزيزة،

هذه قصّة عن طفل وجدّته ثقيلة السّمع، وعن حوار طريف بينهما يبدو على السّطح كأنّه "حوار طرشان" لكنّه يكشف بين ثناياه المضحكة عن أنّ الجدّة تُصغي للطفل بقلبها وبإحساسها على الرّغم من ثقل سمعها. هي تخمّن ما يقوله حفيدها وتصيغه بطريقتها الخاصّة، وبين هذا وذاك تكشف القصّة عن علاقة دافئة بين الاثنين تُفصح عنها تعابير الحبّ في الصفحة الأخيرة.