Do these hot summer days have your grandchildren wound tight like a spring – coiled and ready for action?  If so, get their hands focused (and busy) making foldables.

And what are foldables?  I’m glad you asked.  Foldables are things you make out of paper simply by printing, cutting, and folding.

PaperFoldables.com has a plethora of free patterns of people, animals, pinatas, and ‘thingies’ like a jellyfish and a typewriter.  (Do today’s kids even know what a typewriter is?)

Go to PaperFoldables.com.  Click on the desired foldable.  The pattern opens in a new window. Print it on white paper.  Cut along the lines.  Then fold.  Viola!  You have a finished paper foldable.

For older grandchildren, you could encourage them to create their own foldable.  This will definitely get their creative juices flowing.  They could either base their design on one of the Paper Foldables’ patterns or create their own from scratch.  Make sure you have plenty of paper and crayons or markers on hand.

What if your grandchildren don’t live close by?  Not to worry!  Download the pattern from the Paper Foldables web site by right clicking on the picture of the foldable and saving it to your computer.  E-mail it to your grandchild so he could do it at home.

You might ask him to send you a picture of his completed foldable — especially if he created his own design.

Hey!  Maybe you might want to make your own!  Now that’s a thought.

Here’s another thought.  Challenge all of your grandchild to a paper foldable contest.  Regardless of where the grandchildren live, they can all participate.

Have each one of them create a foldable of their own design.  Then, submit a picture of it to an unbiased judge (grandpa).  The judge then awards prizes:  most original, most colorful, most clever.  Whatever.  (The judge would need to make sure that every entry wins an award.)

Then, send out a family newsletter via e-mail with pictures of each entry and the names of the winners.  Ya know, this could even turn into an annual family event . . .

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