Here are some fun adlib, activities to do with your Grandkids over the holidays, or when they are over for a visit!
What inspired me!
The idea of what to do with my grandkids over the holidays was inspired, by my grandson.
WHAT HE DID!
He found a couple of sheets of stickers, that he randomly pulled out from a pile of papers.
Suddenly took it upon himself, to stick them on me.
Not just on me, but all over my face! I thought this was fun, so I reciprocated the act and covered his face up too!
MORE FUN ACTIVITIES!
With a lot of giggles, because of how we looked, soon after I thought we needed to do more spontaneous activities and keep the momentum going!
So this triggered the idea for more ‘fun activities to do with grandkids!’
FUN, YET EDUCATIONAL!
Whilst finding fun activities to do with my grandkids, I wanted the root of anything we do together to have some form of learning and, at the same time entertain the kids over the holidays, like half term.
BOND, LEARN AND LAUGH!
Here are 12 creative activities:-
- Biscuit decoration.
- Fruit face platter.
- Home-made playdough.
- Set up animal farm/fish/dinosaurs.
- Easy food, pasta.
- Arts and crafts. Make a castle or a rocket out of recycling.
- Play shops, use food at home and role play going shopping.
- Watch fun films, from Disney, Netflicks, and YouTube channels, with popcorn!
- Set up a tent with cushions, and a lamp and read story books.
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears re-enact the 3 bowls of porridge. Kids will experience eating porridge and acting out the scene.
- Grow an avocado plant. Cut, eat and grow. ( science/gardening)
- Park and ducks. Dress kids up warm and venture outdoors. Go to feed the ducks.
BISCUIT DECORATION
I found this to be a straightforward activity. Take plain biscuits like Rich tea, and make up some icing sugar. finally sprinkle colourful sugar strands, on top and allow to set. Instead of icing sugar, you can do a butter icing, although the icing sugar is easier.
FRUIT FACE PLATTER.
This activity is fun, grab any fruits you have, peel and cut or separate oranges and make a face, hair, eyes, nose and mouth. This way your grandkids will enjoy eating away a face and you can spend some time describing what they are eating. Like ‘ the hair is made out of segments of oranges’ and ‘the mouth is a curved banana’.
HOME-MADE PLAY DOUGH
INGREDIENTS.
- 2 cups of flour. (mugs)
- 1 cup of salt. (mug)
- 4 tbsp of vegetable oil.
- 4 tsp of creme of tartar.
- 2 cups (mugs) of boiling water.
- Food colouring.
- Food flavouring.
- A large mixing bowl.
- Wooden spoon.
METHOD.
In a large bowl add 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of salt.
Then add 4 large tbsp of veg. oil and 4 tsp of creme of tartar.
Mix all the dry ingredients.
Finally, add 2 cups of boiling water, in one of the cups you can add quite a few drops of colour and food flavouring. If you don’t have food colour you can use poster paint.
At first, the mixture will look very wet, but keep mixing all the ingredients until they blend and form a dough-like substance.
Form a ball, and you are ready to go! When finished playing preserve the play-dough in a sealable tub and keep it in the fridge, although as long as it’s sealed so it doesn’t dry up you can keep it on a shelf for the next day.
SET UP ANIMAL FARM FOR FISH/DINOSAURS.
Once playdough has been made, you can mould it into different bases. eg. a farm, sea or tropics.
PLAYDOUGH IDEAS.
Emplant trees, or rocks and use the dough to create a scenery. Playdough is very versatile and can be used to embed dinosaur footprints, hide animals, and build caves, or rivers the choice is yours, all you need is a bit of imagination.
EASY FOOD PASTA.
Boil up some pasta, add chicken or vegetable stock. Once the pasta is tender, drain then serve, grate cheese or halloumi.
As a bonus, you can add chicken dinosaur nuggets.
ARTS AND CRAFTS.
Find different packaging, anything that can form a rocket shape and with your kids, cut the shape stick it with tape then paint or leave it as it is.
PLAY SHOPS.
Find tins of food, potatoes, carrots books, and anything that you can use for shop purchasing.
Try to use a smallish shopping bag and play shops. Pretend you are zapping the food, with a makeshift till. I use a weighing scale to weigh and then zap food.
ADDITIONALLY.
You can use money to buy and exchange coins making out each item has a value and play buy, pay and bag items.
WATCH FUN FILMS.
Set up a movie day, where your kids can eat popcorn while watching their favourite movie. You can use Disney, Netflix, YouTube, and so on. Make the room comfortable with dimmed lights, cushions, and blankets.
SET UP TENT.
If you have a kid’s tent the ones that pop up that’s brilliant, otherwise, take a sheet or blanket and throw it over something high to form an enclosure, secure, add cushions and a lamp or torch and get cosy, reading books.
GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS.
Find three bowls, if you can three descending in size, so you have one large bowl, one medium-sized bowl and a small bowl.
Make porridge play out it’s the three bears porridge and your child is testing them out. In this case, have one bowl of porridge the others you can pretend they have porridge, or one can be for you to play along!
GROW AN ADVOCADO.
You will need an avocado, that’s ripe to show your child that you are cutting it in half. Remove the large seed. Eat the avocado, spread on toast with a poached egg is nice!
Embed three toothpicks, around it that will support the seed above water in a glass. Now let it grow, it’s a slow process but once it has sprouted you will get long roots and a stem with leaves.
GROW WATERCRESS TOO!
We also had a go at sprinkling watercress over damp tissues. That too is a waiting game, but well worth the wait! Keep on the window sill and water regularly.
I will update you with the results!
PARKS AND DUCKS.
Dress up your grandkids with warm clothes, like a padded jacket, hat, scarf, and wellies depending on the weather and venture out to your local park where there are ducks.
Take along some duck food like oats, and seeds to feed the ducks and any other birds as they gather to feast on the goody feed!
EXTRA CHALLENGE!
As part of your trip, you can challenge the kids to find different items, like a pine cone, leaves, stones and so on. Their collection can be a talking point at home
12 FUN ACTIVITIES YOU CHOOSE!
These are 12 easy ideas, that I made up as I went along. You can choose which one, two or all you think would be suitable for your kids to do!
They are not just fun activities to do with your grandkids when they are on their holidays, but when there is a gap they get bored, or you try to distract them if they are getting up to no good!
One of these activities will take their mind off things and they will just get on with the task at hand! It’s a win-win move!
UPDATE!
Here is an activity on another occasion that you can add to the list, that I overlooked.
I spray loads of shaving foam on a large tray and my grandson had a whale of a time squashing, tapping, clapping and making snow all over the place, regardless of this, he had loads of messy fun!
I recommend you set it outside, as once kids get their hands on it, there’s no stopping them from how messy it can get! lol
Hey there, when you click on links in this post and you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission that l can use towards resources (other than throw-outs) for project making within my website😀
LOOKING FOR ART SUPPLIES, OR EVEN EXTRA ACTIVITIES TO TWINDLE THE TIME AWAY, KEEPING YOUR GRANDKIDS BUSY THEN………
Baker Ross stocks excellent art resources and more! Update or add to your collection. They have great inspirational ideas for your kids to have lots of fun making. So why not jump in and check them out?
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HOW THESE ACTIVITIES HELP KIDS!
Any of these activities will address fine motor skills enhance the children’s learning and encourage their creativity.
STORYTIME AND ROLEPLAY!
Role play is a great activity to introduce to your kids, as when it comes to storytime, this will develop their social interaction and development.
Check out the 5 stages of a child’s development.
MAKE PLANS FOR ENDLESS ADVENTURE!
This could be a flexible fun-filled schedule or take it in your strike and do what suits that particular day.
Once you start them off you can leave them to get on with it and have some alone time, meanwhile, you can have a quick cuppa, until they call for your assistance!
YOU ENJOY TOO!
These are just a few ideas, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they trigger any other ideas for you to contemplate!
These are fun activities to do with your grandkids, it’s all about playing together, making the best of what you have, and being inventive and the best part is, they will be learning while they are playing and having fun!
Hi Julia,
My parents are Grandparents and I have aunties & uncles who are also Grandparents.
So I am going to share this article with them because I feel they could get so many good ideas from you that would help them when they look after the Grandkids.
Thank you for sharing and keep up the amazing work.
All the best,
Tom
Hi Tom, of course I love to hear that I could help to inspire or trigger off any other ideas. Sometimes we have those blank moments and struggle to find things to do with our kids and grandkids, whether it’s during the holidays, or on a visit, but ad-lib what you already have at home with easy solutions, was what I was aiming for! My grandkids are very boisterous, and on the go so I definately need to keep them busy!
Thanks for dropping by, and happy to assist!
Julia.😊
I certainly enjoyed reading this article about things to play with your grandkids. I’m a grandma too to 3 little ones (ages 7, 9 and 12). Of the 12 suggestions you included in your article, I have played a few of them with my own grandkids and some other are great ideals to try with them. I know they will like them. Your article was fun to read and will be helpful to grandparents. The site is very cute and fun looking by itself. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much for your positive feedback, I am glad to have helped in one way or another with some ideas, and you tried them out too! You have a handfal, but at 7, 9, and 12 years old your grandkids can play out these ideas with each other and put a twist on them too! I didn’t mention that my grandson, wanted to help with cooking too, like beat the eggs for cupcakes, or making pancakes, adding the flour and beating the mixture up. This could be another challenge you can set up for your grandkids of course you guide them and do the frying or baking side of things, and the best part is they get to eat them when they are ready! Please drop in now and again, as I am always adding different projects, and I so happy you like my website, my aim is to make crafting fun, easy and informative, using whatever recycling you have to hand, or any resources at home to create versatile projects that kids would enjoy doing.
So once again thanks for dropping by and sharing your experience.
Julia.😊
Hi Julia
There are some great ideas here. I love the idea of using three teddy bears to play Goldilocks and arts and crafts are always winners. One game I have found particularly enjoyed by young girl grandchildren is playing with slime. It isn’t exactly educational but one of our grandchildren loved playing with slime for years and this was just the best way to connect with her. When she was younger there was a period when we could play shop at a counter at the local playground. We both had a lot of fun with that. Thanks for this helpful list.
Best
Andy
Hi Andy, thanks for jumping in and taking a look. I am glad I could offer some ideas, to have a go at keeping your grandkids entertained and at the same time having lots of fun in doing so, if they are not all grown up now, but great to reminisce! With the three bears, my grandson insisted on play-acting baby bear in each scene of the story, and he enjoyed expressing baby bears reactions! As for slime, it definately another way to slime and gloop time away, very intriguing and super fun. Similarly, on another occasion, I sprayed loads of shaving foam into a large tray and let my grandson dive in experimenting with all that fluffiness, squeezing, splopping and clapping to create snow! I didn’t contemplate how it would go, and how ‘Messy’ it would get, but hey my grandson had loads of fun, and create a humongous mess, not only where he played but all over himself! I will add a photo showing you how he looked as an update. (this activity could be a messy activity and and extra part of the ‘fun list’ if you are up for it! )
Thanks for your super comment, and I’m glad you liked some of the ideas on the list!
Julia.😊