How to Stay Better
Connected to the
Whole Family
Creating and maintaining relationships with far-flung family members can be easy and fun, with the right tools and a little initiative.
Healthy relationships with family members are essential fora child’s development, helping them discover who they are and develop empathy for others. But staying in touch with relatives can be challenging. How are your kids going to bond with their grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins, if they don’t live close by? The good news: keeping in touch with extended family doesn’t have to be a chore or just an occasional activity. With the right tech, you can easily express your love from afar and feel more connected with those who matter to you than ever.
Here are our top three tips to help you to enjoy virtual gatherings with your loved ones even more.
Unlock the fun of video chats
Video chatting with kids isn’t easy. They’re squirmy, easily distracted, and usually focused on making silly faces at the camera when talking to grandparents. But there are ways to make video chats enjoyable for children and the relatives on the other end of the line. When possible, try to schedule video calls at the same time every week, fitting the call into your child’s schedule, so they expect the call, and can look forward to it. Avoid scheduling the call at times when children tend to get cranky, like right before dinner. And set up reasonable expectations for the call: kids and relatives can read a book, play simple games like tic-tac-toe, do some colouring, or any other simple activity that will keep their interest. If you’re worried about all this added screen time, there’s no need to worry. A video call with family is a constructive activity, and has actually been shown to be beneficial, especially for young children, who learn conversational skills from face-to-face interactions, whether on-screen or in real life.
Start a grandparent group chat
If your children are a little older and you trust them to have their own phone, a super simple way to stay connected is through group chats, where you can have one long-running conversation with family members. This can be through your standard text messaging app or other messaging platforms that are compatible with multiple devices and software. Through family group chats, you can also teach your children good manners and etiquette for digital conversations, which will serve them well in the future. If grandparents or aunts and uncles aren’t super tech-savvy, why not get your children to teach them how it’s done? You could even set up video chat sessions for their lessons. That way, your child and relatives can bond, and your family members will learn new skills that make it easier for you to keep in touch. You can then easily keep track of the conversation on your phone, or watch and even mute the conversation, so you don’t get overwhelmed by alerts.
You can keep track of how much your kids are texting, and set limits where you need to, using parental controls. So you don’t have to worry about them chatting during meals or when they should be doing their homework. And even if the adults in the family group keep chatting after bedtime, your children can get the sleep they need and catch up on the family chat the next morning.
Get creative with virtual messages
Letters endure because the written word is a powerful thing. You don’t need an excuse to send a letter to family, but you can find one by celebrating all holidays, birthdays and anniversaries with a card. Handwritten notes are special, but sending Live Messages with moving written text over a favourite image can be just as impactful. Or you can start with a blank slate in the Samsung Notes app and create your own cards or illustrated letters to send to loved ones. If you really want to flex some creative muscles, try the PENUP app⁴, a powerful tool for digital drawing and painting. Why not have your kids express their artistic side and show their grandparents how much they’re missed in glorious bright and vivid colour?
¹ Compatible with smartphones and tablets running Android 5.0 or later and with more than 1.5GB of RAM.
² 6 hours uninterrupted play time, plus 15 hours extra when charged with the case. Battery life is based on usage of music or calls with Bluetooth and ANC turned on, and Always-on Mic turned off.
³ Feature only supported on devices running One UI 2.5 or later.
⁴ PENUP available for download on Galaxy Store or Google Play Store.
Use your imagination
The vibrant screen of the Galaxy Tab S7 makes using this tablet the ideal tool to whip up cards, create art, mock-up PDFs and more. The S Pen makes writing and sketching easy and enjoyable, so you can focus on your masterpiece.
Galaxy Tab S7 | S7+
Galaxy Note20 5G | 20 Ultra 5G
Galaxy Buds Live
