Being a Grandparent is so Special

Grand parenting tips

Nine years ago on 27th December, my first ever grandchild was born.

His parents named him Bradley, Bradley shared the same birthday as his dad which I still find quite ironic.

Now Bradley is a bright spark like many young lads of eight and constantly wants to learn and do new activities with his Nanny and Grumps (grumps is my hubby - his daughter gave him the name! I wonder why!).

Normally on a Thursday I start to think about the weekend and what I will do when Bradley comes to stay overnight.

He normally stays on a Friday night and goes home at lunch time the following day. I wish it could be longer but there just is not time in mine and my hubbies lives to extend the stay at the moment.

From the moment he arrives until he leaves we give him our undue attention and sometimes it is quite a feat to find interesting things to do with him other than the normal drawing and reading etc, etc.

My hubby suggested one weekend that we go crabbing.

I had never heard of this and investigated with enthusiasm.

Apparently, so my hubby explained you go to a marina and using a piece of string with a piece of bait such as bacon attached to the string you lower it into the water and the crabs attach themselves to it, you then lift the string out of the water and put the crab into a bucket until you leave to go home.

At first I thought this idea to be a bit boring but Bradley jumped up and down with enthusiasm at the prospect! A boy thing I thought....

So we set off with our equipment in hand and headed for the marina.

When we arrived I could not believe how many grandparents and grandchildren were doing this thing called crabbing!

Once we started the process and eventually (after about 20 minutes of trying to keep the bacon on the end of the string!) we actually caught a crab!

Bradley was in aw of this funny looking creature crawling around in the bucket of water and wanted his grumps to catch even more, this went on for a good four hours, yes four hours and eventually twenty crabs later it was time to set them free.

One winning suggestion for all of you grandparents out there not knowing what to do with your lovely bundles of joy!

Myself I am a keen gardener and when I suggested we sow some seeds in pots my Bradley was delighted at the prospect of growing his own flowers.

O.k., maybe slightly messy however the fun in explaining to Bradley what happens when the seed has been planted in the soil and on every other visit the little seedling growing, the expression on Bradley's face was of complete wonder.

And when the sunflower finally bloomed he was so proud of what he had achieved!

We have now moved onto more testing specimens like lettuce and radishes, although the gardening world say that these seeds are easy to grow I have to challenge that as me and Bradley are not having that much luck, although we will continue to persevere!

This suggestion is a firm favourite of mine as the reward of seeing your grandchild sticking his finger in the mixture is just so pleasurable.

Bradley is now after a number of attempts able to make his grump's his favourite fruit cake, something that not only am I proud of achieving but also the first thing Bradley will say to me when he arrives is 'are we cooking grump's a cake today?'

Perhaps I will see him on masterchef one day!

As I have said Bradley and I are keen gardeners and nothing gives Bradley more pleasure than using the bamboo sticks that I use to hold up the tomatoes during the season than to make a wigwam in the garden.

He designs it himself with no help at all except for when he needs to tie the top in with string and then he will ask for help.

Typical boy thing to do I think.

If you can make paper planes then this is a sure winner, especially if you have more than one child in the garden with you. My hubby and grandson love to make paper planes and see who can keep them up in the sky for the longest.

Bradley loves to collect conkers. Where I live there are many trees and many conkers. Bradley's grumps has taught him the art of playing conkers. Although Bradley found this game quite frustrating at first after a few attempts he seemed to master the game.

Bradley took some of them with him when he went home and shared them with his friends, his grumps had already put the string in so this old traditional game was ready to be played when Bradley was ready!

The others that we had collected we use around the house to keep the spiders away! (Old wives tale I know, but that said it seems to work!)

I have learned since being a nanny that the best way to have fun with your grandchild is for them to come to you and ask if they can do something. I found that if I suggested things to Bradley he wouldn't be as interested as if he had came up with the idea.

Listening to his ideas and then putting them into play is always very rewarding for me. Sometimes the ideas that my grandson has can be so unusual but can give him a great deal of pleasure.

Such as, he removed all the cushions off of the three piece suit and two double armchairs and made a den in the middle of the lounge! It was so simple but so clever that he played for hours in this den.

I have learned that if I leave my grandson to make up his own mind as to what he would like to do, he will come up with much better suggestions than mine and these ideas tend to keep him busy for hours especially when it's raining and cold outside.

I do however insist that whatever he does, whether making dens, making cakes etc that he helps me to clear away the things, and as I started this from a very young age he doesn't seem to mind. In fact he clears away without batting an eyelid.

Your ideas wouldn't go a miss! If you can think of some different unique things that could be done with an eight year old grandson then please please let me know.

I do all of the normal things like, riding a push bike, going to the park, swimming, playing football and the other things that I have listed but I want to know whether you have any other ideas.

Please let me know in the comments box below, all suggestions would be much appreciated!

And thank you in advance!