The older ones in your family are no doubt the kids’ best friends. Kind and loving, they are the stars of any family and are affectionate to no bounds!
In their old age, they are always looking for their grandkids to keep them company. In such situations, it would be awesome if you could think of some cute and fun activities that allow your kids to spend quality time with them.
Are you looking for a list of these things? Look no further! ⚡️ I’ve got you covered.
Interesting Grandparent Activities For Kids
If you want a new best friend for your child who is going to be by your side and support them, it is no doubt a good possibility that the person might be one of the older veterans at home. Fun time activities will help them bond, and let’s explore!
Build a Fort
An easy-to-do activity that requires deficient energy and low-impact work, building a fort is an awesome bonding activity that your child can enjoy with their grandparents.
Gather a few bed covers and sheets for your kid and have the grandparents stack up some pillows to build a fort 🥠 where they can set up rendezvous and create their cozy spot!
Pro Tip:
I helped my children decorate the fort with some keepsakes of their own and their creativity. This turned out to be super fun! We had a lot of fun setting it up with the older ones at home and seeing it go through.
Solve the Daily Crossword
Solving the daily crossword is a simple and fun activity for kids and the older ones. Pick up the newspaper and get cracking! Take the help of the seniors so the younglings can make a list of any new words they might learn from some advanced vocabulary.
A very cool activity that they can enjoy with a warm cup of cocoa ☕!
Host a Tea Party
Hosting a tea party is a great bonding activity as well. Set out a pretty table with a funky tablecloth and ask your children to help set out some relaxing tea, lemonade, or cookies and crumpets according to the taste of the grandparents at home and to suit your kids!
Board Games
A classic go-to bonding activity is board games. These are timeless options to consider when looking for a fun game to spend quality time with the children and the grandparents.
The rules are simple, and they reinforce a good deal of sportsmanship that can impact the relationship between the younger children and the grandparents at home while allowing them to compete amongst themselves.
Let’s Draw
A great way to express yourself and your thoughts is through drawing your feelings for a long time. Take out a few sheets of blank paper and lay them out for your kids and the old ones. Let them get to painting out their thoughts!
Unleash some creativity and allow the old ones to show all the creative ⚡️talent they hold!
Crochet Away
Sewing, crocheting, and engaging in some hands-on activities are great for seniors. Involve your children in the experience, too, and it becomes a great opportunity for everyone to learn and adopt a new hobby.
Keeping them busy with crocheting may also be awesome for the winter season when you want to wear fashionable sweaters 👘.
Read a book
An activity that will never be boring is reading a book 📖. Pick an author both the old and young ones will enjoy and have them read it to each other.
You can choose from a varied genre pool of thrillers to action, young adult fiction, or even comic fiction.
Pro tip: Grandparents are especially talented at reading out bedtime stories. Give them a small, interesting book and encourage them to read it to the younger kids! It is a great bonding activity and worked well in my home!!
Uno
Card games that are easy to follow and keep track of are great for grandparents and young children or young adults all alike. One such game that never goes out of fashion in this regard is Uno.
Just match the colors and numbers; the winner is the last person standing with no cards. With easy-to-follow rules and a friendly, competitive spirit, this is a game for the books.
Pro Tip:
In our home, we have Thursday nights assigned as game nights. We pick from a collection of games and play Uno quite often on Thursdays. This game worked out well since it also brought in a lot of laughs and a healthy competitive spirit in our family. It is also an opportunity for the senior citizens to use their cognitive abilities!
Puzzle-solving
A second activity that can allow your grandparents to show their intelligence and put on their thinking caps. Puzzle-solving 🧩 is a great bonding activity as well. Simply purchase a starter puzzle of about 100-300 pieces and get to solving.
Put together the big picture and enjoy your creation with the entire family and the grandparents.
Pro Tip:
Many puzzle providers now allow you to customize your puzzle to your desired design. This could be a picture, a family portrait, or even a favorite movie of the older ones. My family recently got a custom family portrait puzzle that the older ones at home had fun assembling.
Vintage movie night
There must have been several great movies 🎬 in the time of the older ones that were superhits and had some amazing storylines. The cinema was also different, and the actors were extremely good-looking.
A great bonding opportunity is to take a trip down the lane of time and watch your grandparents’ favorite movie with them. This is a superhit activity and is sure to bring in some awesome bonding time and conversations.
Vintage karaoke
Much like vintage movie night comes vintage karaoke 📀 night. The belters of the grandparents’ generation are surely not the genre of music that we listen to today. Plug in a microphone and a karaoke system to play some vintage melodies.
Ask them to write down a few recommendations of music from their time that they would like to sing and get singing! You could also find a few amazing songs for your playlist while making it an unforgettable evening of song and cheer.
Interview your grandparents
A classic get-know-me.
This is a great opportunity to get to know the seniors and ask them any questions you are curious about. Where did they study? Did they have a crush they haven’t told the other about? What was their favorite hangout spot? What is their favorite food to eat?
Get all your answers as you want them!
Bake some cookies
Whether it’s beating eggs in the kitchen or icing cookies 🍪 out of the oven, baking together is always a stellar activity to do with the grandparents and never goes out of style.
Bake some cinnamon cookies if it’s autumn and some vanilla cookies if it’s Christmas, and set off that baking teamwork with the older ones in the kitchen. It’s sure to leave you with a face smiling and a tummy full!
Poem Writing
Write a poem for each other together! Put down the grandparents’ best qualities in a rhyme scheme on paper and ask them to write your kids a poem appreciating them, too. You can also ask them to add what they admire about each other.
Pro tip: Write the poem on some handmade paper. This activity doubles as a card-making activity as well. Explore your writing side!
Model it out
This is an excellent opportunity to delve into some physical activity that is light and not very exerting for older people. Bring out some super soft playdough and choose a topic to model a few clay models out of.
A great pro tip is to cut a few square sheets of paper and write down different topics that are easy to model, like fruits and vegetables, famous places, continents, and even people. Bond over your excellent craft skills!
Learn some card tricks.
Old people are great at card tricks and probably have some great card game strategies up their sleeve. This is a great opportunity for young kids to learn from them. Pick out a deck of cards 🂪 and get learning!
Learn how to shuffle like a pro, play easy matching games, or just learn how to find someone’s mystery card.
Find and Seek
A spinoff of hide and seek, this outdoor game has made a light impact indoors. Pick some things lying around at home and hide them in the nooks and corners of your house. Now challenge the seniors to find these household objects around!
Make some great memories, and you could even reward yourself for finding the objects.
Get Musical
Fill a few glasses with water and pick a spoon to make some music 🎵. You can fill different glasses with different amounts of water and get help from the older ones! Mimic some popular vintage songs and try to replicate them in your glass musical system.
Nature Walk
Getting some morning or afternoon Vitamin D is great for both young and older people. Take a nature walk with your grandparents to the nearest park or community garden to get some well-deserved sunlight.
Your body and mind are sure to be in a blissful state after this.
Plant a vegetable garden.
Gardening is a big part of anyone’s habit or hobby system. This light work, hands-on activity can be a very soothing and result-oriented thing to indulge in. Pick out a few seeds from the vegetables and fruits in your fridge and get to gardening!
Super Smoothie
Make a smoothie 🥤with and in the taste of the household’s grandparents and make it nutritional. Thus, the name Super Smoothie! Add some healthy elements like kale, berries, and other fruits and vegetables of the season that are sure to supercharge your energy.
You could even pour it into an empty ice tray and create some smoothie cubes that you can later add to milk and turn into a super smoothie. Or make a smoothie bowl. This is a great opportunity to bond with them in the kitchen!
Conclusion
Grandparents are the guardian angels at home and are no doubt everyone’s best friend. Having some important time blocks with them over the week is a great way to bond with them and keep them engaged!
I hope these activities helped you brainstorm with me and come up with some awesome ways to make blissful memories with your grandparents.
Comment below if you would like me to add a few more memory-making activities or if you have any feedback for all the activities listed above. – I would love to hear your thoughts and feelings! 💗
I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. Here to help you with play-based learning activities for kids. ( Check my Next startup Cledemy.Com)