''Grandma, look,'' she says, plopping the little crab onto the sand in front of Lola Winter.
Her grandma oohs and aahs at the lifeless crab.
Monica is a city girl. Sanibel, a quiet barrier island across a causeway from Fort Myers, is about as far from the metropolis or Disney extravaganza as you can get. Still . . .
''Kids might make some friends here,'' says Monica. ``And there are lots of swinging hammocks that kids would like.''
Although the 12 mile-long island has neither a speck of neon nor a single roller coaster, many kids enjoy this part of the state.
But -- and this is a huge worry for grandparents who think kids will be bored -- what do you actually do with a visiting grandchild?
''You mean, after I get done hugging her for three days?'' says Judith Papier, a Sanibel winter resident whose 4-year-old granddaughter Maddie just arrived for a visit. ''The little ones like the shelling, and the teenagers work on their tans,'' says Papier, who lives summers in New Jersey. ``They just sit on the beach and keep lifting up the edge of their bathing suits to see if they are tan yet.''
Shorty Frame says it's easier than you think to entertain grandchildren: ''Swimming in the pool, that's the main thing they want to do,'' says Frame, a part-time resident. He also takes his grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the Fort Myers Shell Factory to ride the bumper boats and to Manatee Park near the power plant to watch the manatees.
The teenagers he sends to funky Fort Myers Beach, with its bikinis, hunks and jet skis.
Blessedly, most of the cool stuff for kids is free or cheap. The miniature train at Fort Myers' Lakes Park is just $2 a person. A little bird show at Sanibel's Periwinkle Trailer Park is free. Shelling on the beaches costs nothing.
Southwest Florida ''is not Disney-fied,'' says Candy Harris of Rochester Hills, Mich., who lives part time in Sanibel with her husband, Larry. She thinks that is a good thing.
''My son was 7 when we first came here, and he loved shelling so much that you would have thought it was buried treasure,'' she says.
If you don't have a grandparent to bunk with, this is the year to rent a place and give it a try yourself. The real estate meltdown has left plenty of southwest Florida properties still for rent. The most expensive rentals and hotel rooms (more than $200 a day) will be on Sanibel and Captiva Islands and south to Naples, but inland you can find better deals.
Another plus: This year, there so far are none of the red algae pileups along shorelines that drove away visitors in previous years.
CASTLES IN THE SAND
The Moffett family of Golden, Colo., rented a condo on Sanibel through www.vrbo.com. Now they're about to go home. Before they do, I ask Melissa Moffett, 7, her favorite part of the trip. She thinks and thinks. Then thinks some more.
''Melissa, what did you like?'' her dad prods.
''Shh,'' her mom says. ``Let her answer.''
Then Melissa raises her tiny little voice.
''Sand castles,'' she announces. ``Making the sand castles.''
Cost: nothing. Value: well, you know.
