Fill Your Summer Days With These Grandkid-Friendly Activities

No Pool? No Problem

Having a large pool isn’t a requirement for summer fun. Try a baby pool filled with balls for a makeshift ball pit, or top it off with water and add some toy fish and fishing rods to make pool time an outdoor adventure. 

On cooler days, spend time outdoors playing cornhole, or you can invest in a portable horseshoe set. Don’t have much of a yard? Instead, you can get messy and creative with a rainbow of chalk. Draw your favorite flowers on the sidewalk or create a racetrack on the driveway!

Beat the Heat With a TV Series

When the days get too hot, thousands of TV series are available on various platforms to keep you inside and cool. You may be able to show your grandkids the oldies, like your favorite Western or “I Love Lucy.” You could also go retro with “Happy Days” or films like “Star Wars.” 

For the younger ones, you may want to check out Disney+ for the latest animated shorts. Find one you both like and form a tradition of watching an episode each time you’re together, or set up digital meeting times where you can watch together online. If there’s a cliffhanger, you both can enjoy the suspense until the next episode by making a guessing game of who predicts the ending correctly. 

Serious Fun in the Kitchen

There are many benefits to sitting down and enjoying a meal with your family; however, what is arguably more fun is cooking in the kitchen beforehand. Share your favorite brownie recipe or decorate a cake — the young ones may even enjoy learning secret family recipes, like Grandma's famous spaghetti. 

Get them comfortable with the act of guessing measurements and taste testing. Maybe there's an old trick about knowing the perfect pinch of salt or eye-balling a tablespoon's worth of butter. Show them it's OK to be messy; maybe there'll be a flour cloud or a cake-mix spill and a good laugh. You could even watch a couple of cooking shows on YouTube to help you get started. 

Want to make it even more fun? You can invest in some inexpensive kitchen gadgets, such as this singing pasta timer or these frying molds. In the end, they'll see first-hand that the secret ingredient will always be a grandparent's love. 

A Little Summer Competition

Whether it's board games or digital games, there's a variety of options you both can enjoy. Do the grandkids like to go old-school and play a game of Life on the dinner table, or will they prefer you each to go head-to-head on a virtual game? You can teach them a thing or two about Scrabble, and they can show you how to build your own virtual village. 

Take the competition outside by creating tic-tac-toe out of chalk or setting up a game of ladder toss. Whether you're digital farming or playing Jenga, you're guaranteed a few laughs and sore thumbs. 

Build and Create Memories

Let the imagination take over through art and creation. You could build a sculpture out of macaroni, tie-dye a shirt, hammer together a birdhouse or paint on a blank canvas. You can teach them a thing or two about safely using tools and kits or show them the perfect stroke of a paintbrush. 

Help them paint vases to either keep or give to friends and family or get your hands dirty by building a terrarium. These activities will not only give you precious time with your grandchildren, but a piece of art for each of you to admire.   

Whatever you do this summer, have fun. Cherish the moments with your little ones, and before you know it, they’ll be heading back to school talking about the fantastic summer they had with their grandparents.