Grandville — As preschoolers in Heidi Voetberg’s class noticed older adults approaching the playground at the Grandville Early Learning Center, their excitement could not be contained.
“I see them! They’re here!” one student announced.
“She’s wearing purple — my grandma’s favorite shirt is purple!” another shouted.
Voetberg smiled as she adjusted their expectations slightly:
“Yes, they’re not our grandmas, but they are someone’s grandma,” she told the class. “We’re going to be borrowing them as grandmas today!”
As the sun peeked around the clouds, residents of the Grand Village retirement community joined students from the Little Dawgs preschool, Early Childhood Special Education and the Great Start Readiness Program for an afternoon of multigenerational spring fun: planting. Together, the residents and kids decorated flower pots, filled them with soil and carefully placed flowers into the pots, patting down the dirt around them.
The visit was part of the Early Learning Center’s ongoing partnership with Grand Village, principal Julie Scott said. In the past, residents have enjoyed holiday concerts and worked on crafts with the students.
Scott said it’s all about teaching kids the importance of giving back to their community.
“We want to bring joy to others,” she said. “We love having (Grand Village residents) here, and can see how much they love being around the youth that they maybe don’t get to see often.
“And we don’t know what kind of relationships these kids may have in their homes. … They might not have the elder generation to pour into, so we’re hoping to give that to them. It gives me goosebumps just even talking about it.”
Regular connection with a different generation also helps young children learn how to interact with others, how to share and the importance of kindness, Scott said.
“It’s something that all of our kiddos can be involved in, and I just love to have that inclusivity,” she said.
The flower-pot project came with one additional lesson: generosity. As students admired their finished product, with rows of pink flowers safely planted in their pots, Voetberg explained that they were going to give all the flowers to Grand Village. That way, she told them, the residents who couldn’t visit would still be able to enjoy a gift.
“We are going to be a blessing for other friends today, too,” she told her class. “Sometimes, that’s hard for fours and fives to learn, but we are happy to be a blessing to them.”
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