Summer Fun For Grandchildren

Summer is just around the corner and before you know it, school will be out.

(I say that will great optimism even though it is snowing outside at the moment!)

Summer vacation will probably mean that after the first week of ‘freedom,’ your grandchildren could be wandering around their home saying they are bored and have nothing to do.

Here are three ideas that can provide for your grandchildren that is fun to do – that can also strengthen your relationship with them.

I’m Bored Jar

The first idea is to create an “I’m Bored” jar. Get a large jar — a quart sized canning jar with a wide-mouth works well. Decorate the jar by painting designs on it with acrylic paint or applying colorful fabric with Mod Podge. Be creative. I know you can do it!

Then, cut out lots of strips of paper. With colorful marking pens, write activities on separate papers. (Or, you can type up the activities on your computer and print them out if you want.) Here is a start of a list of ideas that you could write down:
1. Go outside and turn cartwheels. (Or try standing on your hands.)
2. Create a comic strip of something that has happened recently to you, your family, or a friend.
3. Dress up your dog in a costume and take him for a walk.
4. Jump on the trampoline.
5. Read a book for 30 minutes.
6. Paint a picture.
7. Draw a picture on your sidewalk with sidewalk chalk.
8. Play Uno with your brothers and sisters.
9. Have a bubble gum blowing contest.
10. Paint your fingernails and toenails.
11. Have a water fight.
12. Build a tent by draping blankets over the back of a sofa and some kitchen chairs.
13. Get a block of ice from a grocery store and sit on it and slide down a grassy hill at a neighborhood park.
14. Write and put on a skit with your friends.
15. Make chocolate chip cookies.
16. Braid your sister’s hair and put lots of ribbons in her braids.
17. Make a fruit smoothie.
18. Make popsicles out of Kool-Aid and eat them after they are frozen.
20. Make a picnic lunch and eat it outside in the shade.

The rule of the jar is that your grandchild HAS to do the activity printed on the slip of paper. No wishy washy I-don’t-feel-like-doing-that attitude. If your grandchild is bored enough to pull a slip out of the jar, he is obligated to do the activity. All of the activities should be fun to do — not chores or work. Of course, you have to personalize what you write down. If you say to walk the dog and they don’t have a dog, well, that would be rather difficult. And, obviously, you can’t have them jump on the trampoline if they don’t have a trampoline!

After you have finished writing on the slips of paper, fold them in half and put them in the jar. Make sure that you have enough slips of paper to fill up the jar.

Give the jar to your grandchild. Then, when your grandchild is feeling bored, he pulls out one slip of paper and does the activity written on the paper. You might want to occasionally ask your grandchild about how his ‘I’m Bored’ jar activities are going. It would be fun to hear which ones he has done and how things went.

Summer Journal

The second idea is to create a summer journal. Go to a bookstore and buy a large sized journal. (Or, you can just use a notebook or a binder of blank sheets of paper.) At the top of the each page, write down one fun category. Give the summer journal to your grandchild along with a set of colorful marking pens. Then, throughout the summer when your grandchild is looking for something to do, she can fill out a page in her diary. You can create and fill out a diary for yourself, too.

At the end of the summer, you can invite your grandchild over and have her share her journal with you. And, you can share your journal with her.

If your grandchild lives far away, this can be one way for your grandchild to share with you what she did during the summer – and for you share your life with her.

Here are some suggested headings for the summer journal:
1. Favorite books read
2. Postcards of places visited (or drawings of places visited)
3. Funny family stories
4. Garden report (types of veggies/flowers planted and harvest or results)
5. Hand print, footprint, fingerprints
6. Jokes and riddles
7. Leaf rubbings
8. Movie reviews
9. Photos of family/friends/self
10. Sports scores (if the grandchild plays summer sports)
11. Family trips taken
12. Sleep over dates and with whom
13. Favorite water park rides
14. Songs learned to play on the piano
15. New recipes tried

I recommend that if you like this idea that you start shopping for (or making) the journal now. This will give you plenty of time to find/make just the right journal and to decide on the headings. It will also give you plenty of time to get it in the mail if your grandchildren live far away.

Just imagine, won’t it be a great surprise for your grandchildren to get a package from grandma when they least expect it?

Photo Journal

The third idea is a spin-off from the summer journal. Instead of a journal where your grandchildren write or draw things, have them create a photo journal.

This photo journal ideas assumes that your grandchildren have access to a digital camera and a color printer. The printer doesn’t have to be a special photo printer with special photo paper. The pictures could be printed just on regular paper.

Again, purchase or make a journal. This time, the headings on the pages should be fun pictures that your grandchildren could take. You could have headings that chronicle their summer by just writing dates on top of the page. Then your grandchildren could take pictures of what they did on that day.

Or, you could write different scenes that your grandchildren need to take. Possible scenes could include:
• a family picnic
• holding the family pet
• photos of friends wearing silly hats
• sitting on the patio
• sitting on a slide at the park
• photos in dress up clothes
• a dance pose
• a tug of war
• a human pyramid
• a watermelon seed spitting contest
• playing leap frog

You could also label some pages ‘Your Choice” and let your grandchildren come up with their own idea of pictures they would like to take.

Won’t your grandchildren enjoy doing these activities? And, won’t their mother appreciate it that you have helped to keep her children happily busy during the summer?

Here’s to summer fun!