What's your favourite activity to do with your grandchild?

Sleep

We've just discovered LOOK 4 A BOOK
The idea is that you hunt out books that you've finished with, place them in a bag with a note and hide them. My grandchildren love hiding books and taking photos to leave on our local Facebook group as clues. They have found new books too. It was a race to read them and go out to hide them again!
An almost free way to encourage reading and exercise.

I’ve introduced my grandson to stamp collecting. He is an avid bird watcher so decided to collect stamps with birds on them. He brings them over and we use the internet to identify the ones we don’t know and he is cataloguing them in a stock book for the moment as he finds sticking them in albums tiresome. Other than that, we mostly cook and play board games with our grand children.

Playing on floor with giant train track with large selection of Thomas trains and accessories. He is so sweet he says Nanny you can have this Thomas to play with..

Cuddling with youngest DGD when she creeps into my bed in the night. Telling her I love her and she answers, 'I love you too,' in her sleep.

Jigsaws - even if half the pieces are missing when they go back in the box !

Jigsaws and Fortnite with the older ones. Story time with the little ones.

Cuddling up in bed reading books or pretend play with fake food and puppets.

glammanana that sounds lovely.

I have long given up expecting mine to hobnob with me. They are all young adults and I can occasionally learn their ideas and activities from facebook, and from their fathers One granddaughter's work has inspired me to investigate the liminal experience in art and has helped me with related ideas.

Just talking to them,

I find my DGC an endless source of interesting offbeat, and informative conversations. My 9 year old,DGS's knowledge of animals, from germs to pachyderms probably rivals David Attenborough's at the same age. while DGD (12) has inherited the dry Yorkshire wit of her other grandma and a wide view of the world.

My DGCs are mostly all grown up and at work but when they where younger they loved camping with their grandpa,they would pack up on Friday after school and go off to Horseshoe Pass and camp in the old Abbey grounds until Sunday late afternoons we never saw them during the summer they where always off somewhere exploring.
Now I only have my GGD aged 3yrs 6mths and she likes to go to our local Park to see the fairy woods and then visit the little tea shop for juice and a cup-cake the other two are just over 1yr so are only just walking so next year we will be busy I think.

Bradfordlass

I always loved the school holidays, lots of happy memories.

JenniferEccles
I never want to hand my grandchildren back, just as I never wanted my own boys to go back to school after their holidays. We had such fun, they were (and are) wonderful company and I loved them all to pieces.

1. Finding tiny crabs in pools on the beach
2. Reading
3. Making immaginative crafty things

Spending time in the garden with a mini watering can, looking at the butterflies and bees on all my plants, feeding the birds and seeing them feed their babies.

Usually my grandchildren visit us, several time a year, they are cousins aged between 5-9 and often come together. We structure their days - indoor activities - I have a big dressing up box which contains all kinds of fun hats, clothes and accessories, they adore dressing up and concotte all kinds of costumes; cooking and baking and making perfumes from flowers and herbs in the garden. Playing cards; drawing at the kitchen table; beach walks - looking for shells and stones; country walks especially with activities ie hurdles,climbing frames etc; looking at wildlife and taking home finds. The cousins all love watching films together as a treat. Also they love nothing more than going to a restaurant or ice cream parlour, we do this once or twice.

I'm surprised no-one has said "handing him or her back" !

Seriously though, I love any outing with them, especially taking them to places they haven't been to with their parents.

I'm also a great believer in getting children used to going for long walks with the promise of a treat at the end.

Lots of the above until quite recently when they've really taken to the cinema. Dgd (9) is becoming quite the film critic and envoys the after-film discussions as much as the film itself.
A few months ago we saw the new Jungle Book. She'd never seen the 'old' version so I borrowed the DVD. She declared that she thought the new version was much better as she didn't like the silly marching elephants. "Elephants should be dignified!"
We've watched 'Lion King' together so I'll be interested to hear her verdict tomorrow when we see the latest one!
Dgs is happy to tag along but doesn't get so involved. Both enjoy the festivals of short films staged a couple of times a year at the local centre for contemporary arts.
Also, both are museum fans and are keen to get back to the V&A!

Putting on shows. I'm the script reader, they are the actors/animals.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201907/medium-601718-castle1.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201907/medium-237970-astle2.jpg

I'm fairly limited (for personal reasons) but we cook (he loves baking and cooking) do crafts, make things from boxes.
We made and painted a magnificent castle from a box which had held a fridge-freezer and he ate all his meals inside it for about a year!

When he was little, he also loved building knock-down towers from the various boxes I saved. Very occasionally we can go swimming and to a local fun place which has a variety of climbing walls where children (in safety harnesses) can tackle heights of up to 40 ft.

They love Ludo.

Others are baking, gardeming, love to help and are old enough to do so.the park. Rock pools with picnic.

As ours have grown older they seem to be more interested in family history.
I have (or had) quite a store of old photos, letters, newspaper cuttings etc. They like looking at those, especially the photos of their parents ( and themselves) as babies etc.

All boys four and six year olds
They love our local farm where the farmer has built a large double sledge run.

Playing in the forest building dens and following the gruffalo trail for the umpteenth time!

Walking around the nature reserve where last year our little grandson exclaimed
'Look gran they grow sausages here!!!'
Large Bulrush

We are members over RSPB so our grandsons are able to go with us to the bird reserves.
The volunteers run indoor and outdoor activities activities during all school holidays.
Eg pond dipping and butterfly trail.

We also have NT and English heritage membership.
Last summer
was all about Knights and Romans.

Our local agricultural college has open days.
The boys love nothing more than spending time with the reptiles, snakes and creepy crawlies

Hope to take the boys again this year to Tram museum in Derbyshire and on several types of train rides.

If weather not so good the its usually sleep overs watching Star Wars playing Hot wheels and Lego
oldest loves baking cakes, youngest not interested at moment, but loves eating the cakes and biscuits made by his big brother.

The boys also have a plastic green house in our garden where they are now picking the fruits of their labour after much seed planting earlier on in the year. Happy days
on our knees by September

Love reading about all the activities, but so many seem to relate to younger grandchildren. As another poster put, as they get older, time with Granny and Grandad is often spent on the phone or tablet, with an appearance at mealtimes.
Having said that, yesterday GS 14years and GD 11 years went cycling with Grandad, but it was a bit hot and GS streaked ahead most of the way. But it was exercise.
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