July 30, 2021

Family-friendly ideas for summer fun with grandchildren

July 30, 2021/ Lisa Carpenter

Warm, sunny days are the perfect setting for making family memories, but they’re also ideal opportunities to encourage grandkids to get creative and let their imaginations soar.

These ideas for summertime activities encourage family interaction, and the more kids get to help plan and organize the details, the more engaged you can expect them to be.

June 07, 2018

Throwback Thursday: Sponge bombs for summer fun

June 07, 2018/ Lisa Carpenter

This #TBT feature originally published on Grandma's Briefs April 14, 2015—when Brayden was two months away from 7 and Camden soon to turn 4. Thank you for reading my rerun!

Super simple, sloppy, summer fun!

WHAT YOU NEED

Basic rectangular household sponges in various colors (two per sponge bomb)

Plastic cable ties such as these here, though I found…

July 12, 2017

Summer's simple pleasures: When did you last...

July 12, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

summer simple pleasures

Summer is the season of simple pleasures. A time for sweet, spontaneous — often spectacularly serendipitous — silliness such as those moments we remember from childhood. Our own childhood, possibly the childhoods of our children.

Simple pleasures we've set aside — perhaps even forgotten — in our ongoing pursuit of grand adventures, grand outings, grand activities to share with our grand kids. Simple stuff we've likely not done in far too long.

When did you last...

• jump rope?

• skip down the sidewalk?

• play freeze tag?

• sip root beer floats from a frosty mug?

• run through the sprinkler?

• have a water fight — with the garden hose, buckets...

June 09, 2017

10 free or super inexpensive summer outings with grandkids (Friday flashback feature)

June 09, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Many of us have heard Gretchen Rubin's quote, "The days are long, but the years are short" in reference to parenting. I say the same applies to summer time spent with grandkids. The days seem long yet the summer is relatively short, especially when attempting to pack in meaningful and, more importantly, fun activities.

Always here to help, today I re-run my previous post on ways grandparents can fill such days in inexpensive ways. (The original post featured 11 ways; this one just 10, as one is no longer available.)

10 IDEAS FOR FREE (OR SUPER INEXPENSIVE) SUMMER OUTINGS WITH GRANDKIDS
Originally published June 15, 2016 (outdated info has been removed)

free summer activities