5 Activities To Do With A Grandparent
Sometimes it’s hard to spend time with a parent or grandparent when you don’t feel that you really have that much in common. Â You have a cell phone, internet, facebook, instagram, twitter, and practically live on a computer or devices. Â She may only have a landline phone and not even know how to use a computer. Â The generation gap is wider today than it ever has been in the past. Â So, how do you handle this? Â One of the things that grandparents appreciate most is spending time with their families, so you have to come up with activities to do with grandparents. Â Why not try some of these ideas?
5 Activities To Do With A Grandparent:
- Interview them, and ask them about specific times in their lives. Â This may be about time that they served in a war, got married, where they went to school, or similar activities. Â Make sure that you write down, or record your interview so that you have it for later.
- Put together a family tree. Â While you’re at it, get stories about each person on the tree. Â Remember, once your grandparent passes away, that generational knowledge goes with them. Â I’ve been able to share some pretty amazing family stories with my kids because I kept track of them and recorded them.
- Go through photos, and discuss who they are. Â Then write down who is in those photos and any circumstances surrounding the photos on the back, or create a key that you can go back to.
- Play cards. My mother was a wicked bridge player.  She loved a good game of bridge, and would happily play any day, any time.  Your cards or hers.
- Go out for lunch or dinner. Â Bonus- getting out, going somewhere, with a change of scenery, some good company, and a good time! Â One of my family’s favorite activities.
About Author Haley Gray
Chief executive officer at Extension Of You Home Care; mom of four young children; passionate about taking care of families; Duke MBA.
Through the experience of being responsible for her mother and father's care, she discovered tremendous opportunity for improvement in how quality care is delivered. This company is the realization of that vision and dream—to provide care to her standards, and more importantly to yours.
Haley also established Leadership Girl: http://leadershipgirl.com
Through the experience of being responsible for her mother and father's care, she discovered tremendous opportunity for improvement in how quality care is delivered. This company is the realization of that vision and dream—to provide care to her standards, and more importantly to yours.
Haley also established Leadership Girl: http://leadershipgirl.com
We look for topics that our kids have in common with grandparents — What games, sports, books or movies did they enjoy when they were young? Maybe both played an instrument in school or band? How about Boy scouts or Girl Scouts? What did they do for fun in the summer when school was out? I find it helpful to prepare a list of questions ahead of time to get the conversation started.
I loved the stories of her youth and life my grandmother told me when I was a girl. I wish now I remembered more of them and had asked her to tell me many more.
I love these ideas and did lots of them when I was younger with my grandmother. We also would choose a book to read at the same time and then discuss it later. Looking back, I wonder how much she really did like Nancy Drew????
I’m not sure how much she liked Nancy Drew, but I’m fairly certain she treasured getting to spend that time bonding with you. 🙂
What a thoughtful thing to post about. It is so true. I am a grandparent but I defy what you would normally see these days. My challenge is the other way around. My kids aren’t as heavily into SM. Their kids love spending time with us because we speak their language and talk about cool stuff. That said I could do this in reverse. 🙂
Thank you. I think that everyone is different, but building relationships between the generations can be hard, so just reaching out to each other is fantastic.
Hi Haley.
How I wish that I still have a record of any of my grandparents in a video interview about history of their life with me now. Now, I am trying to capture any moments my kids have with my parents to ensure that they have some digital memories of their grandparents. I don’t want they do the same mistake as what I did.
Those are good ideas. Also, maybe ask the grandparents what they would like to do with you. You might be surprised.
Excellent point. Not all seniors have the same interests. Some like to go sky diving, and are much more active than others. Unfortunately, my kids never got to see and experience that side of my parents, but I wish they had been able to!
Hi Haley, I did some of these activities with my own grandparents over the years. They have all passed but now I get to do some of them with my grandchildren. In fact, one of them surveyed me recently and another walked through the family tree with me. (It’s amazing how kids don’t quite get “who’s related to whom” and how it all fits together to make a family!)
Here’s another activity I enjoy with the grandkids (I have 7 grandsons and 1 granddaughter): playing basketball. Yep! (I can still put ’em in. LOL) Nice one, Haley!
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