Summer Intergenerational Activities

By Nina Chen, Ph.D.
Human Development Specialist 

Research shows that children and older adults can benefit from each other through meaningful interactions and experiences.  For instance, children who interact with their grandparents or older people often have positive perceptions about being old and learn more about life skills, history, family traditions and values.  Older people who share their time with children feel satisfaction, encouragement, and enjoyment.

Summer is here.  Have you thought about what to do when your grandchildren come to visit or when you go to visit your grandchildren?  Summer is a good time to have outdoor activities.  If you have a farm, you might want to share with them about what you do on the farm or the history of the farm.  Having a simple project to do with your grandchildren will be a fun way for meaningful interactions.  For example, hatching eggs, feeding animals, and planting vegetables and flowers, etc.

If you don’t have a farm, fishing, swimming, camping, and hiking are good outdoor activities.  Be sure to let them know about the safety ahead of time and be aware of their safety during the activity.  Camping, having a picnic, outdoor painting, or a swimming pool in your back yard can be fun for young and school age children.  Let grandchildren help prepare for the special activity (the tasks should be appropriate for their ages).  During the activity, you can tell them about your childhood experiences or what their parents did when they were their age.  Children love to hear things that happened in the old days, in particular, when grandpa, grandma, mother or father were little.

Taking a walk or taking grandchildren to a museum, zoo, historical site, or park can be fun for them to learn about history and nature.  You can teach them about trees, rocks, leaves, flowers, birds, butterflies, etc.

If  you and your grandchildren prefer to have indoor activities, you can play games, bowling, or piano, make a family tree or quilts, or bake cookies together.  If you volunteer to work in your community and it is appropriate to bring your grandchildren with you, you might want to do that.  That can be good for your grandchildren to learn about helping others and your values and beliefs.  Hopefully, you can find some meaningful activities or projects to do with your grandchildren.  The time and experience you share with your grandchildren will become a very special memory for both generations.

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