Things for children to do with their grandparents

With the school holidays fast approaching and border restrictions easing, many of us will be hosting visiting family this Easter. Here are our favourite ideas for ways grandchildren and grandparents can bond.

Host a movie marathon

The weather is slowly starting to cool, so have the grandparents gather the grandchildren and your cosiest blankets and host a movie marathon at home. All they’ll need is a DVD player or a streaming subscription, a dark room and plenty of popcorn – whether they school them on the classics they watched as a child or let the children show off their favourite modern movies is up to them! To up the game, move the movie marathon outdoors (via a projector and screen) and enjoy a flick under the stars on a clear night.

Old-school games

1. Hand clapping games: Remember the days when the school playground was filled with the sounds of ‘Miss Mary Mac’ and ‘A sailor went to sea (sea, sea)’? Grandparents sure do. Pass on the fun to the next generation and have them teach the children some of their favourite childhood hand clapping games.
2. Knucklebones: Originally played in Ancient Greece and Rome using sheep or pig knuckles, the knucklebones fad really took off in the late 90s with the invention of the far-less grotesque Crazy Bones. Do your parents or parents-in-law still remember how to play? If not, a quick Google will help jog their memory!
3. Racing billycarts: While the popularity of billycarts has somewhat waned, they remain just as fun as they were when you (and even your parents) were a child. They also provide the perfect way to keep the children entertained for hours, between designing, collecting materials for, building and eventually racing their own billycarts.

Indoor cubbyhouses

There’s not one child who doesn’t love to construct an indoor cubbyhouse out of strategically placed furniture, bedsheets and washing pegs. Their sheet castle could double as sleeping quarters for the duration of their grandparents’ stay, and is also the perfect place for quiet creative activities like colouring/drawing and board games.

Gardening

The weather is perfect for your little ones and their grandparents to head outside and hit the garden. Your parents/parents-in-law could get the children to assist them in setting up a small veggie patch – large pots will do the trick if you don’t have space! Or why not send them all off on a visit to your local nursery together and let them select some flowering seedlings to add a few pops of colour to the garden beds. Getting their hands dirty, in the fresh air and sunshine, while offering lessons about growing plants is a wonderful bonding experience for grandchildren and grandparents.

Share wisdom

Every grandparent has copious life lessons to share with their grandchildren, likewise, grandchildren have modern-day lessons they can also teach their grandparents. Depending on their age, why not empower your child’s grandparent to learn about how to navigate a new/different social media platform from your child? Or have them use the internet to teach your children important family history lessons?

Find some more arts & crafts activities children can do with their grandparents here!