Are you looking for ideas of things that you can do to celebrate a grandchild’s birthday? Why not have an Olympic event? Invite all of your grandchildren to participate – or invite the grandchild’s family, or have just the two of you if others are not able to attend. Be sure to make appropriate adjustments for age and size differences. The purpose here is to have fun – not to discover an Olympic contender for the next games. You could do this activity out of doors or adapt activities to be played inside.

Here’s a list of activities that you could do.

Discus. Have a paper plate or a lid from a frozen whipped topping container. Give each contestant 3 tries to throw the ‘discus.’ Mark the longest throw. The one who throws the farthest is the winner.

200 meter run. Mark a short distance. Each contestant runs backwards the entire length. The one who does it in the shortest time is the winner.

Shot put. Blow up a large balloon. Contestants throw the balloon. The one who throws it the farthest is the winner.

Javelin throw. Each contestant throws a straw. The one who throws it the farthest is the winner.

Broad jump. Mark a line for contestants to stand behind. Each contestant will stand on one leg behind the line and make one hop. The one who hopped the farthest is the winner.

100 meter relay. (This will only work if you have a group.) Divide contestants into teams. Give each contestant a straw. Each team is given a Life Saver candy. When someone says ‘go,’ the first team member will put his straw in his mouth and put the Life Saver over his straw. He will turn to the player next to him and slide the Life Saver from his own straw to the next contestant’s straw. Contestants will pass the Life Safer from straw to straw until it gets to the last team member. The team that gets it on the last team member’s straw first is the winner.

Diving. Get 4 small buckets or pails. Fill them half full of water and place them 3-4 feet apart from each other. Each contestant will run to the first bucket and jump up and down one time inside the bucket. Then, he will continue doing this until he has jumped in all of the buckets. The player that does this in the shortest amount of time is the winner.

Hurdles. Get 5-6 boxes of varying heights (making sure they are not too high for your grandchild to jump over). Put them about 4 feet apart. Each contestant begins at a starting line and runs to the finish line jumping over each box as he goes. The one who finishes in the shortest amount of time is the winner.

Pole vault. Set up an a-frame ladder. Get a small beanbag. Have contestants stand 3-4 feet way from the ladder. Contestants will take turns throwing the beanbag over the ladder. The one who throws it the farthest is the winner.

Long jump. Mark a starting line. Each contestant stands at the line. Then, the contestant makes a standing jump. The one who can jump the farthest wins.

Swimming. Get a tub of water, a ping pong ball, and a spoon. When someone says ‘go,’ the contestant will put the ping pong ball in the water. Using the spoon to splash water up on the ping pong ball , the contestant will move the ball from one edge of the tub to the other. The one who does it in the fastest time is the winner.

Each contestant gets one point for winning an event. At the end, the one who has the most points is the gold medal winner. The one who has the second highest number of points wins the silver medal. The one who has the third highest points wins the bronze.

You may be able to find ‘play’ Olympic medals at a party supply store. Or, you could go to a dollar store to buy inexpensive prizes/toys to give to the winners. Or you could give the gold medal winner a 100,000 Grand candy bar, Smarties candy to the silver medalist, and Runt candies to the bronze medal winner. If it is just you and your grandchild, maybe you could have a cake frosted with a gold medal design on it and serve it with ice cream.

(Remember the golden birthday idea? You could do this on your grandchild’s golden birthday.)

Have a grand time!
Digi-Gram

My all-time favorite movie as a child was the Wizard of Oz. Well, as I made my last post, I embodied almost all of the characters from the movie.

My husband and I are in the process of ripping out some shrubs so that we can put in paving stones and ground cover. It was hard digging — because of our rocky soil and because of the temperature. My hair looked as lovely as the hair of the wicked witch from the west. My eyes were as baggy as the lion’s eyes. I smelled as lovely as the witch’s winged monkeys. Afterwards, I was agile as the tin-man pre-oil treatment. And, I was as mentally acute as the scarecrow.

I’ve since had one or two hours of sleep since the other post, what little brain I have is working slightly better. Slightly. I have now realized that I should have referred you, my Dear Readers, to some of the previous postings and to some of the videos of activities you can do with your grandchildren during the summer.

Here are the directions to the candy bar game, a variation of the candy bar game, monkey ball, going on a lion hunt, secret codes, Zilch dice game, Panic card game, I’m Bored Jar, build and float a boat, rhythm cup game.

If you have successful activities that you have done with your grandchildren, please post a comment and share them with the other readers.

Enjoy!
Digi-Gram

Boy howdy it’s hot! It was only 97 degrees today. But, as we were doing yard work, it felt like 117 degrees!!

Some of my readers are very interested in doing activities with their grandchildren now that school is out. I’ve got several ideas up my sleeves. I need to finish writing up one activity. But, in the mean time, here are a couple of activities that you can do in the cool of your home.

A Wee Bit O’ Fun is a math activity. It is a square with blank boxes where you can put in numbers. However, there are math functions like add, subtract, or multiply between these boxes. The answer is given at the end of the row. You have to fill in the correct numbers to come up with the given answer. This activity is good for older grade school aged children to high schoolers. (It might be rather easy for grandchildren who are in high school.) Give it a try! It’s a wee bit o’ fun!

Baby animals is a very simple cross word puzzle where you have to figure out the names of different types of baby animals. This is fun for early elementary aged grandchildren to do. Grandma might have to help with the spelling — or even writing in the words.

Goin’ Crazy Maze is definitely a challenge for someone who likes to do mazes. This is more for older elementary aged grandchildren up to high school aged ones. This will keep a grandchild busy for quite some time!

These three documents are in PDF format which means that you can download them and then print them up for your use. You can make as many copies as you would like.

Will you be having a family reunion sometime this summer? I’m in the process of getting things set up so that you can get personalized puzzles and games that you could use at your reunion. If all goes well, things should be up and running by the end of this week (before I leave for OUR reunion!).

I hope you enjoy these three little activities.
Digi-Gram