Episode #16, Summer Fun Ideas Right Here!
Take in a local Community Event Together…
Susan recommended taking advantage of local parades, community fairs or events. Join your grands in a sack race, egg toss or help them get their face painted before you grab a snow cone!! These kind of small town events never get old. Here are some for those of you in or near the Lewis Clark Valley in Idaho.
For our local listeners… click on the images for details
or a Farmer’s Market…
Click on the images for details
More ideas for summer…
Click on the image for more info…
Leverage Meals….
Susan had a few ideas around meal time. For example, having a grand child choose their favorite meal and then make a trip to the store together to shop for the ingredients sound so fun. Or with the foil packet dinners having them help you prep the elements and then have each person “build” their packet to their liking.
Idea Jar…
Writing out activities like movie night, thrift store shopping, or craft day and then allowing the child to pick something from the jar for that day’s activity is so fun for them. Susan built on this idea by suggesting having the kids come up with the ideas for the jar themselves. She also added the layer of hiding the slips of paper with ideas for them to find. One way could be to repurpose the plastic easter eggs you have left over for a fun hunt.
Grandparent Camp…
A great idea for extended visits or for times you have kids for overnight. We’ve seen grandparents go all out with camp t-shirts, backpacks and the like. Susan explained that she often just builds on a theme.
Pioneer Camp; bake bread, make an old fashioned stick doll
Astronaut Camp; provide freeze dried ice cream and go star gazing
Family Olympics; have athletic events or minute to win it games and keep a scoreboard
Another great use of this time is to prompt your grands or kiddos to write a letter to their parents, grandparents, extended family or teacher/coach/friend who they’d like to encourage or thank. Imagine the joy they could spread!
More from Martie…
We just had to repost all the tremendous ideas Martie Beck provided us back in December. They really are fun ideas for anytime of year. You can click on the image of Martie above or try this link for full descriptions of the engaging activities she suggested.
