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‘I Had a Grandfather Who Taught Me Everything’: Grandparents as Family Capital in Transition to School

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Book cover Families and Transition to School

Abstract

This chapter discusses grandparents as part of starting school experiences. For many families, grandparents provide important support in their everyday lives. Their contribution is being noticed increasingly by communities and researchers. This chapter studies the impact of grandparents in adult’s recalled memories about starting school and thus offers one perspective about grandparents’ impact on children’s and families’ successful transitions to school. The results indicate that grandparents passed on their knowledge and experiences to their grandchildren and supported the connections between the generations as the children started school. Many of the grandparents provided support and care which was different from that of their parents. Memories of grandparents were often around warm and nurturing relationships. The reciprocal relationship between grandchildren and grandparents supported the transition to school process and provided important resources for the children.

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Correspondence to Tuija A. Turunen .

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Turunen, T.A., Perry, B. (2017). ‘I Had a Grandfather Who Taught Me Everything’: Grandparents as Family Capital in Transition to School. In: Dockett, S., Griebel, W., Perry, B. (eds) Families and Transition to School. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58329-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58329-7_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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