Easy Things to Do Now with Younger Grandkids

My blog started out with a focus on younger grandkids, since Miss T was a preschooler at the time. But as my grandkids have grown, the posts have evolved to grow up with them.

Recently, friends who are newer grandparents, asked for activities and ideas for the younger set. So, here’s a roundup of some of my favorite posts for younger grandkids, along with some fresh insights.

Be the Photographer

If you visit a newborn grandchild, take lots of photos and videos. The parents may be too exhausted to record the early milestones, so you can be the one to capture the baby’s first bath or first infant cries.

Later, if you want still shots from a video, use an app like Frame Grabber that enables you to capture each image, frame by frame.

Take photos of everything that might add richness to this milestone memory–the mother and baby status chart above the nurse’s station, the ID label on the basinet, the father diapering baby for the first time…. Digital photos cost nothing, unlike film, so shoot away and edit later.

Be sure to give the same photographic attention to any additional births. As a second child myself, I was jealously aware that there were fewer photos of me than that of my older sister!

Ensure that all your precious photos are backed up in the cloud. I use iCloud Photos and Google Photos (I pay for both, having exceeded the free photo limits), and Amazon Photos, since unlimited photo storage is free for Prime subscribers. (Free video storage is capped at 5 GB.)

I’ve designated my son as my photo-sharing partner on Google, so he has access to everything I shoot.

Keep taking photos and videos to document each grandkid’s life, from mundane daily events to special occasions, such as preschool graduation.

Set a Standing Date for Family Dinners

A genius idea from our son was to propose a standing Friday night family dinner when Miss T was born. It ensures we see the grandkids at least once a week, as we have now for the past 10 years.

We don’t cook anything special. Dinner could be as simple as mac and cheese or this Make-Ahead Meatloaf.

Sometimes, it’s takeout burgers, pizza, or Chinese food. It doesn’t matter what–as long as we enjoy dinner together.

We also work our birthday celebrations around the nearest Friday night. This ensures that everyone is likely to be available.

Baby Games for Young Grandkids

How to entertain toddlers without toys is one of my favorite posts. Learn how you can use the child’s fingers and toes to play games with a fussy baby.

My best inspiration, trying to distract a crying child at a Chinese restaurant, was to make puppets from the chopstick wrappers .

My Own Food Lover’s Rhyme

Try this guacamole rhyme I made up for my own son many decades ago.

Put baby on your lap, grab his wrists, and help him clap on each word. When you get to the end of the rhyme, kiss whatever body part you highlighted for that verse:

Guacamole, guacamole, strawberry pie
Guacamole, guacamole, kiss your eye. (Kiss baby’s eye.)

Guacamole, guacamole, bread and cheese
Gucamole, guacamole, kiss your knees. (Kiss baby’s knees.)

Guacamole, guacamole, chips and dips
Guacamole, guacamole, kiss your lips. (Kiss baby’s lips.)

Make up as many more rhymes as you can using food terms: pretzels and beer (ear), bacon and eggs (legs), and so forth.

Made with Love from Grandma (or Grandpa)

Here are some things you can make for your grandchild. You can buy all of these readymade, including a customized family board book, but I think there’s more love captured in the making.

• A custom board book with your family’s photos and photos of the child’s favorite and familiar things.
• A DIY cardboard house from a large carton; this costs nothing to make and provides hours of fun.
• Bean bags and bean bag games to play for all ages.
• A doll that’s a life-size version of your child. Trace their body shape on paper to make a pattern. When kids outgrow the dolls, use them as soft sculpture in your house.
• A felt book where kids can arrange and rearrange items to tell their own stories.

I made an old-fashioned photo album for each grandchild, combining photos of their first year of life with appropriate Cricut images. The grandkids love to flip through the pages to see their birth story. It’s much more tactile and personal than a printed photo book.

Kitchen as a Playground

First, a caveat: The kitchen can be a source of danger, with hot ovens and sharp knives, so careful supervision is required. But the kitchen is also great place for play.

From baking cookies, to making pizza, to rolling sushi, I started the grandkids very young, “playing” in the kitchen. At this age, tools are toys and it’s more fun to roll out cookie dough than Play-Doh. Plus, you can eat your accomplishments.

Kids as young as three can make:

• Deviled eggs–provide cooked eggs, mayo, and a table knife; steaming eggs is the best way to ensure easy peeling.
• Old-fashioned peanut butter cookies–an easy first baking project, with supervision. Kids love cross-hatching the dough with a fork.
• Pizza from scratch–make a simple food processor dough, then let kids roll out small dough balls and top with their favorite toppings.
• Irish soda bread–use this simple recipe from the Ballymaloe Cookery School. We made a loaf as an after-preschool activity. This is fun for kids because all the sifting and mixing is done by hand.

Now ten, Miss T, a seven-year kitchen veteran, is competent and confident in her work. Since last year, she has proved to be a great help and a delightful companion as we work together to prepare food for the holidays, starting with a sleepover Thanksgiving eve.

Making Use of Downtime

There’s organized time, when you have a planned activity, and downtime, when you might be waiting for a bus.

I try to use the downtime when I can. For example, when we rode the uncrowded (only six or seven passengers) bus after preschool, we’d play simple math games. How many on the bus? How many got off? Now how many are left?

On our way to the bus stop, we observed what was going on around us; then we’d draw what we saw when we got home to strengthen her powers of observation and memory.

To this day, I try to use downtime to engage the children in conversation, whether we are working on a craft project, having a snack, or in the car.

The Attitude of Grandparents

As a new parent, I learned an invaluable lesson from my mom. She never criticized our childrearing or tried to impose her own ideas, even if she might have thought she knew better. After all, as Nana reasoned, these are our children; not hers.

Here is my own approach to being a grandparent. Whatever your way is, it’s good to start thinking about what kind of grandparent you want to be, before the grandkids grow into the age when you can begin to exercise your ideas.

When you’re a new parent, everyone tells you to treasure each moment because kids grow up before you know it. This is doubly true for grandparents. Maybe because we’re older and life is shorter, it seems the grandkids turn from babies, to preschoolers, to starting middle school in no time at all. Stay close to the grandkids and enjoy the journey.

Next Week: We’re Having a Luau

It’s always a bit of a letdown after the holidays. The weather is bleak, and all the fun and excitement are over. So let some (pretend) sunshine in with a simple, indoor Hawaiian luau you can do easily for your grandkids–and yourself. Stay tuned.

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