Relationships with children are much like plants, they need constant nourishing!
 At home, this type of nourishment comes easily through the activities and time spent with your children. However, when you are away this becomes more difficult to accomplish.
If work takes you away from your child more often than you would like, these fun ideas will help you and her to have some special times, even though you're miles apart.

• If you have a favourite aftershave put a little dab on your child's pillow to remind her of you.
• Buy or make stickers of your own and your child's names and stick them over the names of two characters in a book. You can also get pictures of your own and your child's face and stick them over the characters' faces. Wrap the book and tell her to open it on the first night you're away.
• Make an audiotape of you reading bedtime stories.
• Send or email home a photo documentary of what you do all day when you're away. Be sure to include things like what you eat, how you travel and so on. Get your child to do the same.
• Launch a postcard attack - send a postcard every day for a week. Try to find funny or unusual ones.
• Try including surprises with your letters - foreign currency, coasters, plasters, your own art, flower petals, glitter, pictures from magazines, stamps or bus tickets - to show you are thinking of her.
• If both you and your child have access to the internet, send her some online greetings cards. The BBC's CBeebies site at www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies has a good selection for little ones.
• Find unique things to write your letters on -- paper in her favourite colour, stickers or pictures of things she likes.
• Send home some money so that your child can go to the zoo or an indoor adventure playground.
• 10 If your phone at home can be used as a speakerphone get your partner to put it on the table at dinnertime so that you can all "have dinner" together.
• Before you leave home, hide some "treasures" around the house - these could be little toys, stickers, chocolate shapes and so on. Draw a treasure map of where you have hidden these things, then send it through the post. If you have a cordless phone at home, you can talk to her and give her hints as she hunts for the treasures.

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  Older kids
• What can a dad (or granddad) do who is living a great distance away from the kids? I quizzed a number of friends about this challenge to stay emotionally close while being far apart physically, and have added a few of my own ideas to these suggestions for keeping connected.

Reach Out and Touch Them on the Phone. Talking regularly on the telephone is a common and positive way of staying in touch. We have a cell phone with unlimited night and weekend minutes and free long distance, so we are on the phone regularly with our distant kids and our granddaughter. Every Sunday we make a point to call and talk with them. That was a tradition started by my dad when our young family lived 1500 miles away from home. On the phone you can hear voice inflections and emotions that you lose in other forms of communication. Having a regular day of the week and time of the day to call can help build some anticipation for the call.

Take and Share Digital Shots. Pictures can help distant family members stay in touch. Whether they are emailed or posted to a family picture web page, digital pictures can get photos back and forth easily and inexpensively. And if you don't have a digital camera, you can always take regular photos, have double prints made, and mail them back and forth as well.

Speaking of E-mail. I have found the best way to communicate with my college aged daughter going to school away from home is via email. I try to send her email cards from time to time, just when she least expects them, and to send an upbeat "what's new at home" email every week or two. We still talk on the phone, but e-mail adds another dimension to our relationship.

Ponder Postcards. One of the things some of my contacts said about postcards was that they are quick, easy and fun. They have the personal touch of a handwritten note, but they also don't have to be long and involved. They are especially fun when you are traveling for business or pleasure and come from wherever you are.

Videos Can Be Fun. At Christmastime, our family still at home made a video for our granddaughter. We bought some little books for her for Christmas, and then each of us took a turn reading the books on video for her. Now when her mom gets out one of the books, she puts on the video and can follow along with grandpa, grandma or one of the uncles or aunts as they read to her. Combining a picture with a voice can really help the kids feel close and connected with you.

Surprise Gifts. One of my friends tries to find a little trinket (stuffed animal, poster, cute socks) and send it along with a note every month or so to a daughter who lives far away. It doesn't have to be expensive, and it is always a nice surprise for her.

Get the Book. One of my friends ordered a phone book from the community where his kids live (or you could find information online) and orders pizza or other goodies to be delivered to his kids. I loved this idea because it was easy and creative, and lets the kids know that dad is thinking about them regularly.

Whatever your strategy, staying in touch when you are far away is important for dads and grandfathers. The relationships you build under less than ideal circumstances will communicate your love and concern all year long.