Preparation has begun. Late Saturday night, my husband and I will be picking up three of our grands to keep them for a week. In addition to planning sleep arrangements and meals, I’ve been giving thought to things we can do together — to keep them busy, to build our relationship, and just to have some fun.
Here’s a list of thirty activities I have come up with. I’m sure we won’t get to try them all, but it helps me to have a list to choose from.
1. Read a book together
Curl up in a cozy chair or sheet tent with a “real” book or read a book online. Here is a link to one site which contains a selection of several books for readers up to ten years old.
http://www.wegivebooks.org/
2. Make a snack
3. Play a board game
4. Do a science experiment
There are several examples on sites such as Pinterest or Grandparents.com. Here’s a link to just one that I found on Grandparents.com.
5. Make a scrapbook
6. Exercise
I created a YouTube playlist of “Exercise” videos geared specifically toward my grandchildren’s ages and interests. Please feel free to use it.
7. Journal
8. Play Wii
9. Indoor Ping Pong
10. Create a video
11. Play “School” on your stairs
Remember the game where the “students” sit on the bottom step and the “teacher” stands before them with some small object in her hand. The teacher places her hands behind her back and hides the object on one hand, brings her hands out in front of the students, and the students take turns guessing which hand the object is in. If the guess is correct, the student is “promoted” by moving up a single step. If the guess is incorrect, the student remains on the current step. First student to the top wins.
I pulled this one out of my bag of tricks just last week with my three-year-old grandson. He LOVED it and asked to play it again this week when he visited!
12. Cook a meal together
13. Dust–Sweep–Run the vacuum
14. Dance crazy
15. Play “Hide and Seek” indoors
16. Build a blanket fort
17. Make cookies
18. Make and fly paper airplanes
If you are unsure of your paper airplane making skills, there are tons of video tutorials on YouTube. Just type “making paper airplanes” into the search box. You can watch the tutorials before your grandkids arrive or make it part of the activity and watch together. Below is just one link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEAaOttZae8
20. Thumb wrestle
21. Visit a library (weather permitting)
22. Play “Simon Says”
23. Put together a jig saw puzzle
24. Build with Legos
25. Play dress-up
26. Shoe box ice skate
- Create a “masking tape” race track
http://www.themotherhuddle.com/masking-tape-race-track/
28. Enjoy a book online
There are some websites different than the site listed in #1 above where you read the book to yourself. Below is a link to a site where the books are read to you by members of the Screen Actors Guild. To become the best actor/actress you can also seek the help of experts. The Actor’s Group Orlando is helping out people to master acting skills.
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29. Have an indoor picnic on the floor
30. Share prayer requests & pray for each other
I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy some of these activities with your grandchildren before winter is over. I know I’ll be using some of these ideas next week.
If you have any other ideas for grandparent/grandchild activities that aren’t listed here, please add them in a comment to this post. It would be great to build a list we all can use.
Enjoy your “grand treasures” and make some memories!
