My Nanna and Grandad

Note: When you are reading this story look for the word that is not spelled correctly.

Hello. My name is Michelle. I am seven years old. I have a sister called May and she is five years old. It is school holidays and we have been to stay with my Nanna and Grandad for a few days.

Nanna and Grandad are in a house with a very big garden. There are lots of trees too, but we are not big enough to climb the trees. Grandad has put a swing on one of the trees, and we can go very high. Grandad pushes us higher and higher. Nanna gets a bit worried and says we go too high, but we think it is exciting.

When May and I stay with Nanna and Grandad we share a room. We have a bath at night after dinner and then we can watch television for a while. Then we have to have a drink, brush our teeth and go to bed. We like to play when we are in bed, so Nanna and Grandad call out to us to be quiet. Sometimes they come in and growl at us, but they are not grumpy. After a while we fall asleep. They leave a light on in the bathroom all night so we are not scared if we wake up in the night.

Grandad takes us for walks. Today we went for a long walk to a lake. It’s been rainy lately, so the grass was very wet. The lake is quite big and has lots of birds. Today we saw some geese, and some pelicans, and some ducks, and some other birds, but I don’t know their names. There were some other people there too and they had some bread to feed the birds. They gave us some of their bread and we fed the ducks and geese. Over the road in a paddock were some horses. They were brown horses. I think horses are lovely.

When we came back Nanna had lunch ready. Nanna always makes us eat vegetables. I don’t like vegetables. I think all nanna’s make people eat lots of vegetables. They think it is healthy. But Nanna doesn’t make me eat too many, and usually she makes me food I like. I like pasta, so last night Nanna made us pasta for dinner. After I had eaten all my pasta I had a piece of bread and honey. Then because we had eaten all our healthy food we were allowed some ice-cream for desert. I love ice-cream, it’s yummy.

There are lots of birds that come into the garden. There are pigeons with funny things on their heads and pretty Rainbow Lorikeets. There is also a possum that comes at night and Grandad puts out a carrot every night for him. In the mornings a bird comes to the back door. Nanna says it is a Pied Butcher bird. He is black and white and not very big. He comes every morning and talks to her. Nanna says he is asking for some bread. So she gives him some bread and he talks to Nanna while he is eating the bread. Sometimes he will fly off with a big piece in his beak.

Grandad is very old. He told me today that he was 99 years old. Nanna says she is 99 too. That is very old. Nanna said it was Grandad’s birthday tomorrow, and he will be a year older. When I asked if he would be 100 Nanna said, no, he would still be 99. When you get to be 99 years old you never get to be any older. I asked nanna why he had a birthday then if he didn’t get any older. She just said that’s how it was when you were very old. I’m not sure if that is true or not.

Grandad is bald. Well, he has got a bit of hair round the back, but not much. He was sick a few weeks ago, his leg was sore and he had to go to hospital. He must be all better now, because he can walk to the lake and make the swing go very high.

Nanna is not bald, but she is a bit fat and roundy. She makes sure we wash our faces and clean our teeth and have enough water to drink every day. She tries to hide vegetables in our food, but I always know. Nanna says I am a very fussy eater and hard to please, but she smiles when she says that, so I don’t think she is very upset about it.

Last night Nanna said she would teach us a new game. It was called cards. I had not seen cards before, not like these ones. They have pictures on them and numbers. There are hearts and diamonds and spades and clubs. You can make a run by putting all the numbers in a row. There is the arrow for 1, then 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. I have forgotten the next one, then there is a queen and a king. Nanna taught us all about cards and how to read the numbers and pictures. She taught us a game called patients. Patients means you have to wait a long time for something, and Nanna says you have to play some games a long time and wait for them to come out. I’m not sure what it means to come out, I don’t think the cards go anywhere. Anyway, I’m not sure about cards yet. But Nanna says you can play lots of different games with cards. I know Mummy and Daddy play cards too. Nanna and Grandad play lots of games with cards and add up lots of numbers. Grandad says Nanna wins most times but that’s because she usually cheats.

 

They always have some books and drawing things for us to play with, and some toys. May loves Nanna’s toy dinosaur. She calls it Littlefoot. I like the fluffy teddy bear called Vanilla. They also have a little toy cat in the car. His name is Scruffy. My cousin Amanda gave it to Grandad a long time ago when he was in hospital, and now it lives in the car and goes everywhere with them. It is black and white but the colour has changed and now he is mostly an old brown colour. Grandad says he has faded with the sun.

So that’s my Nanna and Grandad. They are my Mummy’s mummy and daddy. I have another Nan and Poppa too, but they live a long way away and I don’t see them so much.  I love staying with Nanna and Grandad but it is always best when I can go home to my own things and be with Mummy and Daddy.

 

Questions for review.

 

1. Who is telling this story?
2. What is her sister’s name
3. How old are the girls?
4. Where have they been?
5. Describe who she is talking about.
6. What is her favourite thing while staying with Nanna and Grandad?
7. What toy does May like?
8. What toy does Michelle like?
9. Who is scruffy?
10. What are ‘cards’?
11. Do you play cards?
12. There is one word spelled incorrectly in the story, can you find it?
13. How should it be spelled?