A while back (like last April), I shared on my site a paper city made by Joel. It warmed the cockles of my heart. (Both his city and his willingness to share.)

I recently visited his site again and was enthralled with two of his recent projects.  I e-mailed him and begged, pleaded, cried, whined, flung myself on the floor and threw a tantrum asked if I could share his idea.  He graciously said yes.  He’s that kind of person, you know.

Not only is he gracious, he is uber creative.  I told him that he has more creativity in a fingernail clipping than I could ever hope to have in ten lifetimes. It’s true. Just ask me.

One of his projects was the memory game. The picture up above is of the memory cards that you get. (It’s purtier than the memory game that I made for my children when they were little. . .  )  Simply print the picture two times on card stock, cut them apart, and you’re ready to play.  If you have far away grandchildren, this would be something easy to send them in the mail.

Joel’s second idea that I wanted to share is his thaumatrope.

Now, I think that I have a vocabulary that is larger than the average man on the street’s vocabulary.  But, Joel skunked me on this word.  (Not only is he creative, he uses words I don’t know.  Dang, I hate it when that happens . . . )  I won’t hold it against him because he probably knows that word because he’s so artistic and I am so not and this is an artistic thingie.

Thaumatrope (pronounced thaw-muh-trohp is a thing-a-ma-jig that has different pictures on opposite sides and when it is twirled it looks like one continuous picture. Joel made a bird thaumatrope. He shows how to make it and shares two templates — one in color and one in black and white that your grandchildren can color whatever their little pea-pickin’ heart desires.

Hope you have fun making these with your grandchildren — or sending them to the grand lads and lassies that live far away.

And a big thank you goes out to Joel!

(He has written a book of children’s crafts and games that promotes creativity and imaginative play.  It will be coming out this fall.  If you like these activities, you might want to check out his book!  I know I will.)

A couple of posts ago I talked about playing hula hoop with your grandchildren.  I thought that I’d better include jumping rope.  Couldn’t leave that out now, could I?

Everybody knows how to jump rope, right?  Well, once you have mastered that and can jump without wheezing, gasping and passing out for a couple of minutes, start adding different steps and tricks.

Jumping Jack.  Remember those adorable jumping jacks that we had the opportunity to do in our gym classes in days of yore?  Apply that to your jumping rope repertoire.  To do this, your legs will do the same motion that you do when doing a jumping jack.

Heel tap. Did you ever learn the Mexican Hat Dance in grade school?  This step is similar to that. You jump and land on one foot while you tap the heel of the other foot on the floor in front of you.

Toe tap.  This is like the heel tap except you tap the toes of one foot on the ground behind you.

Knee lifts.  To do this, start by bouncing twice for every turn of the rope.  Then, when you are ready, bring one knee up so that your thigh is parallel to the floor on the second bounce.  So you bounce once normally and on the second bounce lift your knee.

Here is a video that shows you how to jump and cross the rope at the same time.  He also demonstrates jumping on one foot for a while, then the other foot for a while, then alternating back and forth on individual feet. This fellow does some fancy dance steps and other tricky stuff.

So how do you use this information with your grandchildren?  First, buy a plethora of jump ropes.  You can find them in retail stores.  (You don’t necessarily need to go to expensive sporting good stores.  Unless you are into spending lots of money when you really don’t have to . . .)

Then, invite your grandchildren over.  Give them their very own jump rope that they can take home afterwards.  (If you bought a plethora like I suggested, you will have plenty on hand at your house when they come for a visit.) Explain and demonstrate some of the steps that I have mentioned here.  (Yes, DEMONSTRATE them.  That means you’ll need to practice beforehand so that you will be able to do them without getting your feet all tangled up in the rope.)

Of course you can jump while saying little chants like this one:

Fudge, fudge, call the judge
Mama had a new born baby.
Wrap it up in tissue paper
Send it down the elevator.
How many babies did she have?
(Then count until you make a jumping mistake.)

Did you ever do that chant?

Your grandchildren might know some tricks of their own.  Have them show you what they can do.

You can also hold a contest.  See who can jump the longest or who can do one of the steps that I described for the longest time.  Set up a routine and see who can be the first person to conquer the routine.  Maybe you can have a traveling trophy that the winner takes home after every ‘competition’ at Grandma’s house.

If you’re going to have a grundle of grandchildren over at the same time, have two grandchildren turn a long rope while others jump.  Watch the following video to get ideas of some fantastic things you can do! There’s a fellow in white shorts and a red shirt that does some amazing things about half way through the video.  And then the guy on the bike.  And then the line of people.  Oh my! Makes me wonder how long they all had to practice to be able to jump like this.

Hula hoops.  When was the last time that you used one, Grandma?  Mmmm???

If you can’t remember, then it’s high time that you purchase one for you — and several to have on hand when grandchildren come for a visit.

Lest you think that hooping is confined to twirling the hoop around your waist, you’ve got a lot to learn!  Oh the things — the marvelous things — that you can do with a hula hoop.

This young girl jumps up while keeping her hoop momentum.  She drops to her knees.  Then stands back up.  She jumps up and does the splits in the air.   And then a little John Travolta dancing.  Can you do this?  Can your grandchildren?

What about hooping while standing on one leg?

What about these hula hoop tricks?

You can start out simple by just seeing who can keep the hoop going around their waist the longest.  Then, can they hoop and clap a rhythm with their hands?  Can they do it to the rhythm of music?

You could branch out to see if your grandchildren could walk and keep their hula hoop going.  (You might want to do this outside.  Don’t want to break any of grandma’s lamps — or 52 inch flat screen TV!)

Can they hoop around their arm or their neck?  Can your grandchildren can do some of the tricks that you see in these videos?

Hooping is a great physical activity for your grandchildren.  Wears out the little rascals Gets their wiggles out.  Gives them something challenging to do.

Be sure that you have lots of water during your hooping! (And maybe give them cookies when they are finished.  Gotta build their strength back up, you know!)

Have any of you played hula hoop lately with your grandchildren?

I got sidetracked on my last post when I started to write about having a bike-oree for your grandchildren.  I sure hate it when that happens. (Wait. No, I really don’t mind getting side-tracked. I travel down many interesting paths that I wouldn’t normally have taken had I not gotten sidetracked.  Let’s hear it for getting sidetracked.  Hip, hip, hooray!)

Ahem.  Where was I?  Oh, yes. A bike-oree for grandchildren.

First, give your grandchildren crepe paper strips to weave between their bike spokes.  Cut strips that are one inch wide and eight inches long.  Wrap tape around the strips at one end making a pom-pom and tape a pom-pom to the end of each handlebar.

For this activity, you’ll need some chalk and your driveway.  (If you live near a school or a church you could possibly use their parking.)

Draw a path on your driveway.  Have your grandchildren see if they can ride their bike (trike, hot wheels, even rollerblades) while staying within the lines.  When they are fairly successful, time them.  Have a little competition to see which grandchild can do it the fastest.  When that ‘path’ has been conquered, wash it off and draw a more difficult one.

To add more of a challenge, get items to place along the path to turn it into an obstacle course.  Things like boxes or buckets or grandma’s terra cotta flowerpots (especially if they are looking as dead as mine are at the moment). You could even tape balloons to your driveway on your obstacle course.  You could have the grandchildren ride between the balloons — or ride over them to pop them.

Next, give them a balloon and a broom and have them sweep that balloon from one end of the driveway to the other.  You might need to have a grundle of balloons on hand in case they accidentally get popped.  Again, you can time your grandchildren to see who can do it the fastest.  Or divide them into teams and see which team can get the most points by sweeping balloons across the ‘point line’ in 3 minutes.  (You could substitute a light-weight plastic ball for the balloons.)

Drag those boxes back out (the ones that you used for the obstacle course).  Give each child a small basketball, nerf ball, or plastic ball that came with your fat bat.  Have them do ‘drive-by’ baskets where they try to get the ball inside the box.  (Of course you will put the box 3-4 feet away from where your grandchildren will be riding.  Of course.)

Play ‘bike limbo’ where grandma and grandpa hold a broom and the grandchildren see if they can ride their bike under the broom.  The grandparents will lower the broom a little bit each time making it a wee bit more challenging for the grandkids.

Give your grandchildren a ping pong ball.  Set out a wide-mouth bottle, shortening can, or empty oatmeal box. See if you grandchildren can drop the ping pong ball into the container as they ride past it.

Get out your old embroidery hoop or cut rings out of cardboard or see if you can find some plastic rings at your local dollar store. Put out a 2-liter pop bottle.  Have your grandchildren drop the ring over the bottle as they ride their bike past the bottle.  See who can put the most rings over the bottle in one minute.

Here’s something that you can try if you’ve got a little bit older grandchildren.  (Older than what? you ask.  I dunno.  Just older . . .) Have two grandchildren ride toward each other.  As they pass, see if they can give the other person a ‘high five.’

Drag those boxes out for yet another activity.  And the broom.  Gotta have the broom for this activity.  Find something that you can put on top of the box — another box, an empty 3 liter pop bottle, that type of thing.  Something that could be ‘swept’ off the box — not too easily but not too hard either.  Then, have your grandchildren ‘joust’ by riding past the box trying to knock that item off the box.

Does grandpa have any wood on hand?  Say a piece of plywood and a short piece of a two-by-four?  Put the piece of plywood over the two-by-four.  This will be a ‘jump.’ Have your grandchildren ride over the jump.

Well, this ought to keep them (and you) busy for a little while.  Do you have any ideas that could be added to this bike-oree?  If so, I’d love to hear about them!