My friend Denise, from Payson, Utah, shared her ideas about Grandma Camp which were great ideas for great fun! She has shared more of her ideas with me. She said:

“Relax. Don’t be uptight all the time. Always make your lap available. Be willing to take your grandchild on your lap for a hug, a snuggle, a chat, a story, or for a loving moment. Don’t choreograph every event or gathering because it never works out the way you planned. (Note from Digi-Gram: And, when it doesn’t work out like you planned, don’t get uptight about it!)

“When you have your grandchildren over for an extended time, you ought to have a family information sheet for each of your grandchildren. The information sheet should include things such as insurance information, allergies, medications, doctors name and number. It would be a good idea, too, to have a release for treatment in the event you need to take a grandchild to the hospital. (Which I hope you never have to do!!)

“Another suggestion is to get the schedule of your grandchildren’s baseball or basketball or football games. That way you will know when they are. Then, you have the option of going to the game if you are available.

“Also, be definite about your cookie jar rule. Does it stay off limits until after dinner? When and how often can the grandchildren get a cookie? Also, you need to let your grandchildren know where they can eat their treats or have food in your home. If you don’t want them eating food in the living room, the grandchildren need to know this. Make sure the grandchildren respect the grandma’s home. (Note from Digi-Gram: Discuss this with your kids so that when your children are at your home with their children, they will support you in the rules of your home. The reverse of this applies, too. Know the rules of your children’s home and support them in their rules.)

“Another thing. If the parents (your children) have specific rules about what they don’t want their kids to eat, grandma needs to honor that. (From Digi-Gram: For example, if they don’t want their kids to chew gum, you need to respect that and not give your grandchildren gum. Or, if the parents don’t want your grandchildren to have lots of sweets and sugar, make sure that you don’t gorge your grandchildren with sugary goodies.)

“We publish a birthday list for all of the family to have. We also publish a family events and traditions page. For example, we always watch the 4th of July fireworks from our son’s porch. We go down to our property the first week-end in April, and the first week-end in October for a camp out. We always have a bowling tournament in February with prizes and trophies. We give prizes to the ones who bowled a high score without using bumpers, to the person with the high score using bumpers, and the person with the highest score for a series of games. The overall winner gets a trophy that is a clock with a bowling pin. That prize gets rotated to the next year’s winner.

“I had an agreement with my mother that worked out well for us. If I needed a babysitter and my mother was available to babysit that would be fine. But if my mother didn’t feel like babysitting, she could say no and I would not be offended.

“I also want to leave my grandchildren my will of ethics. I want them to know that I support local politics, that I am honest and work hard and that I will follow through with what I said I would do. I want to instill in them my religious beliefs. And most important, I want them to know that family is very important.”

Wonderful ideas, Grandma Denise. Thank you so much for sharing them!

Digi-Gram

Walked 9.66 miles the day before yesterday. Walked 10 miles yesterday. Smiled hundreds of smiles. Answered thousands of questions. Solved a million problems. Stayed up ’til the wee hours playing card games the night before last.

Last night we pinned my sheets together, hung them from a nearby gazebo, used the rented sound system with a projector and a computer, and watched Run Away Jury in the great out of doors. And the great cold . . .

Why is it that they had to use my sheets???? And, how many nights in a row can I stay up late and then go like a crazy man the next day? I’m not as young as I used to be . . .

I am at a conference where I am overseeing the technology support. How much more energy is needed to to maintain this pace for 2 more days? Anybody have any to spare energy that they could give me??

One of the benefits of my experiences here at the conference has been that I have learned a variation of the candy bar game! Now, according to the little stats program I have that collects all sorts of interesting information about my web site, the page explaining the candy bar game has received the most hits over all of the other pages. Thus, I am deducting that there is quite a bit of interest in this game. Well, I have learned a variation of this game. Maybe this page will rival the other one in popularity.

For this variation, you’ll need a pair of dice and about 5 candy bars (more if you play the game very long). You will also need a pair of ski mittens, ski goggles, a ski hat, and a knife and fork. Actually, you could use any ‘props’ that you so desire. As I explain the game, you can see how the props are used and can then decide if you want to use different props.

Everybody sits around a table. Select someone to start. That person rolls the dice and quickly passes the dice to the person on his left. If he rolls a pair, he starts putting on the props — the hat, goggles, and mittens. Then, he picks up a candy bar and unwraps it. He uses the knife and fork to cut off bite sized pieces. When he cuts of a piece, he puts it in his mouth and eats it. He continues cutting and eating the candy bar until someone else rolls a double.

When the next person rolls a double, the first person has to remove all of the gear and give it to the person who just rolled doubles. That person then dons the ski wear and starts cutting up the candy bar and eating it.

The object is to hurry and get the props on and then start unwrapping and eating the candy bar as fast as possible so that you can eat the candy bar all gone before someone else rolls doubles.

Instead of ski gear, you could put on gardening gloves, sun glasses, and a straw hat. Or, leather gloves, a western belt with a big buckle, and a cowboy hat. You get the idea. The idea is that players have to put on some type of clothing that takes up time to put on and then have something on their hands that makes it awkward to unwrap and eat the candy bar before the next person rolls doubles.

I hope you have fun trying this variation.

A happy, but tired party-animal,
Digi-Gram

Darlene T. from Salem, Utah, wrote to me to share some of her ideas about being a grandmother. She said:

“One thing that I learned from observance is just to love the grandkids. Our job is not to discipline — just to love. That doesn’t mean that we can’t teach or set right examples, but we don’t have to make discipline the main focus. My mother tried to just discipline and some of my kids ended up with bad vibes. So just love them.

“One thing that I do is to have a “birthday dinner” for them at their birthday time. They can choose the entire menu, get to use a red plate, and get sung to. I do buy them a gift, but I don’t give it to them at their birthday dinner which I have on the Sunday before their birthday. Everyone is excited to sing and see what their menu is. Because of this year being a little different (note: Darlene fell while skiing and broke her hip), my one granddaughter did not get her birthday dinner. When she and her mom (my daughter) were helping me shower and get dressed when I got home from the hospital, she mentioned that she does not feel like she was 9 years old. It dawned on me that she has not had her “Oreo” cake that she requested and has not been sung to. Her birthday is still not complete.

“Another thing that I have tried to do but have not done every year is holding “Grandma’s Summer Camp.” At first, I let little ones in diapers come, but now with so many (we now have 28 grandchildren) I only invite those that are potty-trained and those who can swim. (Note: Darlene has a swimming pool at her home.) We do lots of fun things such as horseback riding, swimming, and participating in the Spanish Fork children’s parade, which means we have to make a float. One year my 5 year old grandson walked a llama in the parade. (Note: Darlene and her husband have an assortment of unusual animals and that was where her grandson had access to a llama!)

“I ‘baby-sit’ every Tuesday for my daughter that works that one day a week. I really look forward to it because all I really do is just pick up Justin from kindergarten at noon, and then we do errands. He gets in the car and says, “How many stops, Grandma?” I try to make them fun stops. He likes Costco, going to a candy store, and of course Carl’s Jr. Then I go to their home and help the older kids with homework especially the 2nd grader with spelling words. We just make a game of it and have a great time.

“But as I said earlier, the main thing is just to love and accept them. I wish I would have done that with my own kids- — just give undivided attention and make games of it. Maybe that is why grandmas are good.”

Ideas that I loved:

• Having a special red plate for the birthday grandchild to use for the birthday dinner
• Making a float and participating in a children’s parade
• Grandma’s summer camp
• Making errands fun when you have a grandchild accompanying you

Well, I’m off to buy a special red plate!
Digi-Gram

Summer is here. What can you do when grandchildren come for a visit? Something a little bit more physically active than wielding the TV remote? Monkey ball — that’s what!!

Monkey ball is a great activity to play with grandchildren from ages seven or eight until they are seventy eight!! (My! How old would grandma be if her grandchild was seventy years old??) All you need is a basketball for each player, a long strip of cloth or bandanna for each player, and a cement or asphalt surface.

Each grandchild tucks one cloth in his back pocket or from his back waist if he doesn’t have a pocket. Determine the boundaries of the playing area. If you are playing on the driveway in front of your garage, the cement area would be the area where your grandchildren had to stay inside. They couldn’t go out of the boundaries. Not on the grass. Not on the sidewalk. Not in the road. If you are at a park, determine your boundaries so that everybody knows where they are. If anybody goes out of that area, they are out of that round of the game.

To play, everybody just starts dribbling the ball. While dribbling the ball, everybody tries to catch the ‘monkey’s tail’ from another player so it comes out of that player’s pocket. If you are successful at pulling out their monkey tale, that player is out of that round of play. Continue play until there is only one person left. (If it gets too hard for the last two people to get the other player’s ‘tail,’ then call it a draw and start the next round.) When you get to this point, start another round of play.

Continue playing until your grandchildren get tired or interest wanes. Grandmas are allowed to sit out when they get winded. Then grandma can be the cheerleader.

Have a jug of lemonade nearby to hydrate thirsty players. And, ice cream sandwiches would be a great afterwards to help cool down hot players.

Happy Monkey-ball-playing!
Digi-Gram