Practically any day of the year is national something day, and with so many of them, it’s hard to keep track. You missed out on National Cookie Day, and that was a real bummer for everyone. Then National Doughnut Day flew by without so much as a sugared glaze on anything. Really, most of the fun and silly ones just get buried under a pile of laundry and school projects.
Four Fun Ways to Celebrate Grandparent’s Day
But there’s one holiday that you want to make sure your kids participate in, which is why you should mark National Grandparent’s Day on your calendar. Right about now you’re asking yourself, when is Grandparent’s Day? It is celebrated in the United States on the first Sunday of September after Labor Day.
Once you’ve got it firmly marked on your calendar, your next objective is to find some ways to celebrate it. Here are four cool grandparent’s Day activities that everyone can enjoy.
1. Conduct an Interview
Celebrating Grandparent’s Day is not only a way for your kids to show their grandparents a little love and appreciation, but it’s also a chance for them to learn something. Think about all the ways in which the world your kids are growing up in is vastly different than your parents. Your kids probably can’t even fathom the differences. Help your kiddos craft a list of interview questions whose answers just might blow their mind.
Conducting an interview will help your kids learn some things they might not have otherwise, but it will also help their grandparents feel special. The grandparents get a forum to tell stories, to reminisce, and to connect with their grandkids like never before.
Plus, learning how to conduct an interview is an important skill. You might not be trying to raise a bunch little of Barbara Walters, but you do want your kids to develop good communication skills.
2. Bring Them to School
While it’s pretty neat for your kids to learn how their grandparents grew up, it might be even more beneficial for the grandparents to get some insight on kids today. Taking grandparents to school gives them a chance to see how much things have changed. It helps keep them in touch with what’s going on when it’s so easy to stay out of touch.
They’ll get to see how different school is from their day. They can marvel at the ways things are run, the way things are learned, and the technology used to learn them. You run the risk that it might start a streak of “back in my day,” but more likely than not it will open their eyes in a good way.
It will also give them a deeper connection to their grandkids, and a better understanding of how they spend their time. The other bonus is that kids enjoy showing off their grandparents, and you should always take the opportunity to embrace that.
3. Mail a Letter
What better way to honor a grandparent than by using technology that’s more their speed? Plus, how often these days will your children have a reason, and a chance, to send a letter? Your kids will learn a valuable skill, and the grandparents get something in the mail that isn’t an ad for life insurance.
It works on so many levels. Your kids will get some always beneficial writing and communicating practice, while showing the grandparents that kids today are actually going to be just fine. They aren’t always glued to their phones. They can actually interact, engage and participant in non-digital ways. That’s because you’re raising thoughtful, intelligent, and wonderful children. Signed. Sealed. Delivered.
4. Ask for Objects
This one is a project for the grandparents, but it’s another great opportunity to allow the two generations to learn from one another. It’s a pretty simple exercise. If your parents or your in-laws are local, you invite them over for Grandparent’s Day, and you ask them to bring an object that people no longer use. They might have to wrack their brains a bit, but they can probably find something your kids have never seen, or heard of before.
You can make it into a game of sorts. Your parents show up with a VHS tape, and you all watch as your kids try to figure out what people once used it for. The adults get to have a little fun, and your kids get some much-needed perspective.
Grandparent’s Day Fun For Everyone
These activities will help strengthen the relationship that your kids have with their grandparents, and they’ll provide lots of great memories for everyone. You can continue them for years to come, and observe the way things change and they way they stay the same too.