The first Sunday after Labor Day is traditionally considered Grandparents’ Day in the United States. This holiday celebrates the special role that grandparents play in families, and especially their relationships with their young grandchildren. Although this holiday is not as commercially popular as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, it recognizes important parental figures in many children’s lives. For that reason and many others, students at Denair Elementary School took Friday to celebrate their grandparents.

Students in every grade invited their grandparents to visit their classrooms and learn more about how they spend their days at Denair Elementary School. After the classroom visit they took their grandparents to lunch picnic style on the playground. Many students had two sets of grandparents visiting, some had one or two grandparents, and others were happy to share grandparents with their friends.

Roy and Patty Little from Turlock celebrated Grandparents’ Day with two of their grandchildren, Mia and Spencer Little. They were also joined by several of Spencer’s friends during their picnic in the grass. The Littles have been celebrating Grandparents’ Day at Denair Elementary School since Spencer was in first grade. Spencer said that he liked having his grandparents come to school for the day, and that “everything” was his favorite part of Grandparents’ Day.  

Jonathan Ibarra’s grandparents came from Salinas for Grandparents’ Day. Jonathan is in fourth grade and his grandparents have come to visit every year that he has attended Denair Elementary School.

“It’s really nice to spend the day with him like this. I think more schools should do something like this,” Mrs. Ibarra said.

Grandparents’ Day has been an observed holiday in the United States since 1978. It falls on Sept. 11 this year.

To contact Andrea Goodwin, e-mail agoodwin@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2003.