Simple Summertime Activities For Grandkids

Over the years I have watched in awe as my mother came up with one fun adventure after another for my kids during their time with her over the summers. All the kids loved being with grandma because she was always coming up with some fun summertime activities to do. She never had a lot of money but she did have a creative mind and an adventurous spirit which was all it took to make the kids extremely happy!

She was always an outdoorsy person and loved to be in nature so she was on the lookout for great places to hike and fish or playgrounds that looked like fun. She would round the kids up and take them on a hike looking for birds or with a net in hand catching minnows and tadpoles. She knew each child’s natural bent and knew what it was that made them happy.

My son was an active child and loved adventure so she bought him a small ax and would let him go into the woods and chop away at dead trees which completely thrilled him. My daughter was interested in plants, moss, and loved learning the name of the different ones they would come across in the woods. They were both thrilled with the tadpoles and minnows as well as spending time fishing on the side of a creek bed. Mom would pack up a special lunch and off they would go on their adventure.

Many times they would come across wild berries and she taught them how to pick them without getting stuck by too many thorns and then they would go home and bake them into a pie or cobbler. Both kids loved baking in the kitchen with grandma and we liked it too because we got to enjoy a delicious treat that our kids help make. No matter what they were doing their grandma was always trying to think of a way to have fun with her grandkids.

She had a sewing kit that had bunches of different sized and colored buttons that both my children loved to play with. They would string them up for necklaces or many times she would help them thread a large needle and let them sew the buttons onto a scrap of material. She taught them simple stitches and they were contented to sit and sew on scrap material for quite some time.

She also had bags of old marbles which would thrill my children every time she brought them out. They would sit and look at the colors and shapes and pick their favorites and then she would come up with some sort of track for them to roll them on. She would have wrapping paper rolls or paper towel rolls and tape them up in different directions for the kids to roll the marbles through and see where they came out. Sometimes she would set up a game of marbles like she uses to play when she was young and the kids were always amazed at how good grandma was at marbles!

One time when we drove up there was a mountain of sand in the driveway which mom had ordered to be delivered from a local dirt/sand company. She said it was reasonably priced and she bought the kids buckets and shovels to play in the sand with and had a small inflatable pool next to it for them to pretend like they were at the beach. They loved it! With such little effort, she made the kids so happy!

Many times she went to the dollar store and bought the kids water guns and water balloons when it was hot and she would get some neighbor kids and organize some games. They would play water balloon baseball or throw them back and forth as teams and the winner would be the last one with a full water balloon. She would even let them have water balloon fights as long as no one got nasty. She always made sure the older kids protected the younger ones or they would not be allowed to play.

Something else the kids talk about when they think of fun times with grandma was a time she had set up a treasure hunt for a birthday party they had one year. She wrote out all of the clues to seek out, finally to come to the treasure which was their party favors. She went with them from clue to clue and helped when they got stumped. Mom has always been a godly woman who loves to read the word of God and is filled with His Spirit and wants to share Him with everyone she meets. So, on each clue, she included a scripture that pertained to the next clue. What a wonderful way to share the word of God with the children and make a party fun! They were thrilled.

It never cost mom a lot of money to make her grandkids happy. It was her time, her love, and her creativity that made every time with grandma a wonderful memory. So many times adults think they have to take the kids somewhere special or buy expensive things to please them but that just is not true. I know that to be a fact because of all the times my mother thrilled my kids and the cousins with things that cost little to nothing. Children are not hard to please; all they really want is love and attention from someone important in their lives like grandma.

Nancy Parker is a regular contributor to Nanny Source and she loves to write about a wide range of subjects like health, Parenting, Child Care, Babysitting, nanny background check tips, etc.