{"id":42019,"date":"2024-08-03T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T07:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=42019"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T10:19:30","slug":"help-me-be-a-fun-grandma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/help-me-be-a-fun-grandma\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Me Be a Fun Grandma. I Need Ideas for My Babysitting Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"help<\/a>
Help me be a fun grandma. What do we do after I’ve taken them to the park — which I did with daughter Christina when she was 8. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Summer is here, and my daughter-in-law has done what I did when my kids were out of school for the summer. She has planned back-to-back summer camps to keep the kids busy while she and my son are at work.<\/p>\n

Trouble is — back then and right now — it’s nearly impossible to fill every single week of a summer with safe and fun activities.<\/p>\n

And this summer, despite my daughter-in-law’s best efforts, an entire week is coming up soon with no swim camp, no science adventure, no art immersion program anywhere to be found.<\/p>\n

Grandma B. to the rescue.<\/p>\n

Yes, I did it. I volunteered to be the child care provider for an entire week, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5:00, so that my son and his wife can do the family breadwinning worry-free.<\/p>\n

Help Me Be a Fun Grandma. Please!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which means I’m desperately in need of some ideas for what to do with a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old.<\/p>\n

I can take them to the zoo. I can take them to the park. Then what?<\/p>\n

And so dear friends and readers — help! Please, please, please share your brilliant how-to-be-a-fun-grandma ideas with me.<\/p>\n

I’m kinda desperate. Just leave your suggestions — simple or complicated, cheap or pricy, tame or wild — in the comments section below.<\/p>\n

What I’d really love to do with the grandkids is take them to Yosemite National Park<\/a>, one of the most beautiful spots on earth. Maybe we can do that one summer when they’re older. And after that, the San Juan Islands.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"help<\/a>
Son Peter spent most of his summers in organized fun. Same goes for his kids — except for the week I’ll be on duty, being grandma to an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"help<\/a><\/p>\n

I agreed to provide child care for a week this summer. Help me be a fun grandma. Tell me, how do I keep two kids, 8 and 5, entertained?\u00a0\u00a0Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2283,146,2359,2886,82,56,2887],"class_list":["post-42019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-changing-family","tag-babysitting","tag-christina","tag-grandchildren","tag-grandkids","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-peter","tag-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42019"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48720,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42019\/revisions\/48720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}