Improve Your Quality of Life

Spend Time With a Child: It can be fun for both of you.
Some things I've done with my two grandsons (ages 9 and 12):

• Offer them use of one of your old cameras.  We were out doing errands on one of their days off school.  The 9-year-old asks me from the back seat of the car, "Papa, could I use your camera?"  I usually have one or two cameras with me.  This time I had both.  "Sure, you may use the small one.  Let me talk you through the features while we go."  When we arrived at the house less than an hour later, my grandson showed me a frame by frame picture show he had made using three leggo characters I purchased for him at the leggo store. At the house he wrote a script to go with the mini album he made all himself.
• Collect cardboard (paper towel and TP rolls, flat pieces from used tablets, small bar soap boxes, etc.) from a variety of regular purchases you make. Keep them in a corner of the game, play, or family room.  When they visit, it becomes an instant invitation to try making things.  Provide tape, tube of glue, crayons or markers, a pack of construction paper, scissors, etc.  There is no end to what they can create.
• Take them to a movie on the day is first comes out.  We saw The Lorax recently. Fun, Fun, Fun.
• Have them sleepover and when you do, have plenty of options for them to become engaged with.  Before we had a ping pong table, things were dull at our place. Since getting a full size table, it is the first thing they go for on virtually every visit.
• Ask them to help make their meals.  On sleepovers, my youngest grandson's first thing he says in the morning, "Papa, can we have some pancakes?"  That is because over a number of previous sleepovers, we spent time at the stove having them perform each step to make pancakes from scratch.  That is from opening the pouch of powdered batter, to adding water and stirring, to buttering a pan, and spooning batter into a pan.  We learned to watch the clock and time how long till each side is a golden brown, just how they like it.  Then they serve themselves a pancake.  Final note:  Offer them one of your cookie cutters so they can cut a shape out of the pancake before eating it.
• Handy with tools, build something with them.  In the garage one day, the 9-year-old sees a pile of scrap lumber and asks, "Papa can we make a car?"  Having no idea what would be the result, I said, "Sure."  Some weeks later, he had both designed and built a "Car" from wood scraps.  Using his skate board as the wheels, he placed the "thing" he built on top of his board and rode it down the driveway with the biggest grin I had ever seen.  It was a day of accomplishment for him and a very special day for me.     

These are all proven to add fun to a day.  The kids will now have things they learned from you that they can later suggest we do again.  There is no time more special for a grandparent than time spent with a child.  Be a part of their life.  You won't regret it.