Most older folks rate spending quality time with their family as one of their top priorities. Encouraging your kids to visit and get to know grandma and grandpa is important, but sometimes it can be hard to find activities that please and entertain both young and old. How can your family make the most of time spent with grandparents and other elderly relatives?
Looking at childhood pictures is a great way to spend an afternoon with grandma and grandpa. Seeing their own parents and grandparents as kids in pictures helps children understand their relatives as formed people, not just adults and authority figures. It also gives children a sense of how their family’s past has had an impact on their lives. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can organize photos, videos, documents, and keepsakes into a family tree. This can be a fun, ongoing project your family can add to every time you visit with elderly relatives.
Spring cleaning with grandma and grandpa is fun for similar reasons. The cleaning part may be a chore, but your kids will surely be delighted by the unearthed treasures they find from your childhood or their grandparents’ early years. Heavy-duty cleaning the can be taxing on older folks, so you’re also doing them a big favor. And who knows, you may even find one of your kids wants to take over the family stamp collection.
Cooking is another activity that can unite people of all ages. Ask elderly relatives to teach you and your kids some of their favorite recipes. Perhaps you have some favorites from your childhood you want your kids to try? An afternoon with the grandparents is a great time to make sure your family recipes get passed down through the generations – write them down and save them to make sure.
It’s worth your while to build a lot of precious memories while your kids are young and your parents are still active. The grands are ready to share a lot of love and knowledge, but only if you and your children can find common ground on which to engage. We hope these activities can help you strengthen the generational bond in your family and that your next visit with grandma and grandpa is the best ever!
