Conversations with Grandpa and Some

By Ernest Hausmann

Why did I write this book? I wanted to describe how children of various ages think and feel. What better opportunity could I have had than to be able to communicate with my thirteen grandchildren. My wife, Britta, and I are fortunate to have six of them living in the same community as us. These grandchildren: I get to see them often. We go on overnight hikes and work out together Sunday mornings. Four of our grandchildren live six hundred miles away in Indianapolis. We only see them three times a year. Once a year we rent a cottage together somewhere on the beach. Three others live in Jerusalem. We see them once a year. Whenever we visit we all go to a resort together for a few days. I do speak with all my grandchildren on the phone at least once a month; although only some are old enough to carry on a little meaningful conversation.

Some adults have the mistaken belief that children are just little adults and that they think like adults do. A motivation for this book was to test the hypothesis was true. As you might hypothesize this proofed not to be true. A major part of this book represents an interview with each of my grandchildren dealing with various aspects of the childrens lives. This I believe has been the case. Furthermore, I included my diaries of two trips my wife and I took with some of my grandchildren: one with my oldest grandson to the Grand Canyon, and the other site seeing to Washington, D.C. with three of the grandchildren. These diaries contain different responses made by the children after different experiences. Lastly I included a section called Gems which represents truly precious comments different children had made. This three pronged presentation,, the question and answer portion, the gems, the diaries of trips we made together, should provide insight into the thinking of children in general, or at least my grandchildren.

What is reasonable to conclude from this book about my thirteen grandchildren? All children are different is once again confirmed. This, of course, everyone knows but sometimes forgets. Therefore generalizations were difficult but individual characteristics were worthy to mention. Some features that were clearly demonstrated are: honest stating of views, a sense of humor, social consciousness and a sense of responsibility. In writing this book two conclusions come to mind with firm conviction. One is that childrens views are worthy of adult attention and it can be great fun for a grandfather to interact with his grandchildren.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 22, 2004
• ISBN: 9781469107981

Ernest Hausmann

Ernie Hausmann is eighty years old. For thirty seven years until age sixty seven he was a Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo where his main focus was on bone loss around teeth associated with periodontal disease. Since then he worked part time with a research team studying the association of bone loss around teeth with osteoporosis. For the past two years he has been Chief Scientific Advisor to a start-up company developing a marketable product; an automated measuring system of bone loss around individual teeth using digitized dental x-rays.

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Copyright © 2004 by Ernie Hausmann.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

PROLOGUE

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

GEMS

TRIP TO SEDONA/

GRAND CANYON

GETTYSBURG-WASHINGTON DIARY, APRIL 13-19, 2003

TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY,

APRIL 4-9, 2004

EPILOGUE

To my love, Britta, my wife for the past fifty two years.

PROLOGUE

Why did I write this book? I would like to describe how children of various ages think and feel. What better opportunity could I have than to be able to communicate with thirteen grandchildren. My wife, Britta, and I are fortunate to have six of them living in the same community as us. These grandchildren; I get to see them often. We go on overnight hikes and work out together Sunday mornings. Four of our grandchildren live 600 miles away in Indianapolis. We only see them three times a year. Once a year we rent a cottage together somewhere on the beach. Three others live in Jerusalem. We see them once a year. Whenever we visit we all go to a resort for a few days. I do speak with all of my grand children on the phone at least once a month; although only a few are old enough to carry on a little conversation.

Some adults have the mistaken belief that children are just little adults and that they think like adults do. A motivation for this book was to test a small sample of children to see if this hypothesis was true. A major part of the book represents an interview with each of my grand children dealing with various aspects of children’s lives that I’ve put to my grandchildren. To be able to do this requires that I’ve had a prior meaningful relationship with them. This, I believe, has been the case. Furthermore, I am including my diaries of two trips my wife and I took with some of our grandchildren: one with my oldest grandson to the Grand Canyon, and the other site seeing to Washington, D.C. with three grandchildren. These diaries contain different responses made by the children after different experiences. Lastly I include a section called Gems which represents truly precious comments of different children. This three pronged presentation, the question and answer portion, the gems, the diaries of trips we took together, should provide insight into the thinking of children in general, or at least my grandchildren.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

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Kevin, 16 years old

KEVIN

What do you like doing outside of school? What are your hobbies?

I like watching and playing sports like hockey, basketball, and football. I also like to jog and read, especially the newspaper.

I like hanging out and talking with friends.

Why do you like doing that/those particular things?

I like reading the newspaper because I’m interested what is going on in the world like with Bush and Iraq.

What qualities do you look for in a person you would like to be your friend?

Honesty, not one who lies to me all the time.

I like friends with similar interests so that we have something to talk about.

I don’t want a friend who does bad