Activities

I found some really good activities for grandparent to do with the grandkids, when they are a little bit older. Especially now, when the fall is setting in and winter is just around the corner, going outside is less and less of an option.

The site lists 100 tips and activities and it will be highly unlikely, you would not find one that would not appeal to both you and your grandkids. I will list the first 25 now and the rest of them in the coming posts.

1. Go to a football game. If you score tickets to a professional game, terrific! If your alma mater is nearby, even better — and cheaper.

2. Support the local high school team and go to its Homecoming Game. If you had attended the school, feel free to brag to anyone and everyone about the grandchildren in tow.

3. Stay at halftime, or until the end of the game, for the marching band. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the marching band is so beloved that tens of thousands of fans remain for its postgame show, known as "The Fifth Quarter."

4. Do the leaf thing. Rake 'em, put 'em in a big pile, and join the kids by jumping in. Let the little ones bury you, and then emerge as a leaf tickle-monster.

5. Take some of the fresher leaves and press them in books for art projects. Make your own autumnal journal with pressed leaves and lamination. Add leaf prints by placing a leaf, vein side up, beneath a piece of paper and then rubbing a crayon sideways along the paper's top side. Voila! A leaf print for your journal.

6. Go for a drive and take in all the foliage and the dramatic changing of the leaves. Make it academic by getting a guide to the local trees and learn the definition of deciduous. If you rent a car to do this, make sure it's a convertible.

7. Go hiking! Mountains are particularly alluring in the fall.

8. Take a camera on your adventures and snap some pretty fall landscapes. Make sure you and your grandchildren are in the photos.

9. Enjoy all that Halloween has to offer: decorating the house — both inside and out — making or buying a costume, and trick-or-treating for hours.

10. Head to a local pumpkin patch and have every member of the family pick one. Then, have a carving party. Forget the traditional scary factor; see if you can carve one that looks like you or your grandchildren. That should get a few laughs!

11. Toast the pumpkin seeds, either in the oven or on an outdoor grill.

12. Decorate gourds and place them around the house leading up to Thanksgiving.

13. Build your own scarecrow of hay and some old clothes.

14. Go to an apple orchard that offers apple-picking. Take home the ripest and make apple pie or, if you have a press, make homemade cider. Creative chefs may want to try their hand at mulligatawny soup or apple-pecan-stuffed pork chops.

15. Fill a wide bucket with water and bob for apples.

16. Still have apples left from that trip? Make candy apples. Get your wooden sticks, heat up sugar, corn syrup, water, and food coloring. You dip the apples in the very hot syrup, roll 'em in peanuts, and you have a tasty seasonal treat.

17. Crochet a blanket together.

18. Cuddle up with your grandchild and that blanket in a hammock.

19. If you live in a region where the weather will change, and you are treated to an unseasonably warm spell, squeeze in a last swim of the season.

20. Go clothes shopping. Fall colors, like burnt orange, and fabrics, like corduroy, make everything all warm and fuzzy.

21. Play Chutes and Ladders or Scrabble in a coffee shop. Trust us, the others there for the free Wi-Fi will be jealous.

22. Find a dance, theater, or opera production based on a spooky story. Things like Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, and other dark classics become popular again in the fall.

23. Cook with fall produce. Make pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread, butternut squash soup, pot roast with turnips, or baked cinnamon apples. (Excuse us for a moment. We're getting hungry.)

24. Make a bonfire, then eat beside it (don't forget the s'mores), play a guitar, and sing some songs.

25. Host a lobster bake. Be sure to melt plenty of butter.
~Grandparents.com.

I hope this helps to make your time with your grandkids even more enjoyable and y'all have a great time.