Planning summer activities with my grandkids

Ah, summer! It is my favourite season of the year. The word itself brings back so many memories – our trip to St. Mawes, backyard picnics, blowing the biggest bubbles, barbeques, endless hours with friends, learning to build birdhouses and feeders from granddad, baking cupcakes with granny and decorating them with heaps of buttercream. Those were days I will never get back. And now that I am enjoying a quiet retirement, I often catch myself recollecting memories of my childhood.

We had a very different childhood from our grandchildren. We were fearless, reckless idiots who never cared about staying indoors for long irrespective of the weather. But to stay indoors in summer months was unthinkable. And kids nowadays prefer to stay indoors, immersed in their little gadgets and gizmos. How did that happen? When did kids stopped connecting with nature and crawled back to their little rooms where they sit twiddling their thumbs in front of a giant screen? It just makes me sad.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against technology. I embrace them wholeheartedly. Without TV, computers, and smartphones I will have but little colours in my boring retired life. But I think kids should have a proper fun-filled childhood where they can live close to nature and embrace the wonders of the world – see a chick hatching or a butterfly coming out of a pupa, making sand castles, collecting shells and pebbles, tasting honey from the honeycomb etc.

At least I want my grandkids to grow up like that. But that's not my decision to make.  I only get to see them during their summer vacation when they come to stay with me for a week or two. During that time I plan a host of activities that keep them entertained and help them reconnect with nature. Here are a few activities that I have planned for them in yesteryear.

·Berry picking session

·Creating a flower bed

·Watch a butterfly coming out

·Fishing

·Playing outside

·Making lemonade and shaved ice

My grandkids enjoyed them a lot. Now as they are a little grown-up, I thinking about encouraging them to build something – a birdhouse perhaps. I have found an amazing tutorial online and am getting the required things ready. But I have hit a little snag, I cannot take my laptop outside and play the tutorial while we are working and I cannot see a thing on my tiny 5-inch smartphone screen.

In short, I need a new phone. I did my research online and I think the new iPhone X is the best there is and will suit me perfectly. Of course, the phone is packed with features I will never use,  but it has a good screen and great speakers to serve my purpose. It also has good cameras that can be used to take few snaps of my grandkids at work.

I told my son about my plan to buy that phone, and he stopped me. He said he will give me his phone as he has a good chance of winning an iPhone X from some win prizes UK site that allows you a chance to win a smartphone in lieu of reviewing them. So I looked the site up and I found that I too meet the criteria. So, I registered there too. A funny thing it will be if I win the phone, tell him to shove his old phone where it belongs, and use my stylish new phone under his nose. Heavens know I can use a good laugh. Plus, it will be one hell of a story to tell the grandkids. Don't you think so?