Looking After the Grandkids for the Weekend

So you've got the grandkids for the weekend, what are you going to do?

This is your chance to create some great memories and maybe pass on some skills and knowledge to boot. Here are just a few ideas on how you can have a wonderful time with the grandkids by making the most of the opportunity to spend a decent chunk of time with them:

1. Kids of all ages love to play in the water

Their mum and dad may not have time to stand and supervise or play with kids in the warm water of a swimming pool, but grandparents do! It's a great way to tire kids out for an early night as they scream around water slides and use their waterwings to gain more confidence in the water. Teaching them to swim and how to tread water are real, lifelong gifts that may even one day save their lives. Everyone living on these beautiful islands of ours needs to know these things.

2. Teaching kids to knit, embroider, crochet, sew, mend, cook, saw, nail, and create

Skills that were taught to us as a matter of course as we grew up are often no longer taught at home or at school. As well as giving grandkids the satisfaction of making something well, they teach self-reliance and resilience. The best gift you can give is that of the kind, patient, supportive teacher as they learn these skills that will come in handy later in life.

Do you remember how much fun we had tie-dying T-shirts, crocheting blankets, making dog kennels and trolleys, making our first batch of biscuits, making our own sheepskin rugs? A lot of those skills are disappearing now. Give your grandkids the opportunity to have fun while learning.

3. Heritage skills and knowledge

Depending on your heritage, you may have skills and knowledge that you can pass on to your grandkids around celebrating life in general or certain festivals like the Lantern Festival or Diwali. Scottish country dancing or Myths and Legends particular to the place you were born, rituals around Passover, traditions in The Netherlands including baking certain foods – many of us come from rich cultural backgrounds and have great things to share with our grandkids.

4. An oldie, but a goodie

Just going to the park and playing on the swings and slides is something a lot of kids miss out on now due to both parents working and not wanting them to go out unsupervised.

5. Picnics and ferry and train rides

Half the fun of a picnic can be the planning and anticipation of what you are going to have and where you are going to go. Then there's the baking and making of wonderful things to enjoy at your favourite location.

6. Horse riding, fishing and kayaking and other outdoor pursuits

Time-poor parents don't get the chance to do these kind of things very often so introducing children to wholesome outdoor pursuits they may not have done before can be pretty special.

7. Teaching the grandkids…

Board games, chess or the right way to swing a bat in tennis or hit a ball. All these can be priceless!