Spectacular Fall Scenery In Your Living Room

Eight Ways to Have A Great Vacation This Fall, Right In Your Home With Your Grandkids

By Debra Susan Bowman 

A friend with a heavy heart asked how she should cope when friends talked about their many vacation retirement trips. She was raising a grandchild and felt unhappy because finances and time would not let her travel extensively. Sam and I have faced the same issue since we began to raise our grandson Anthony. I shared with her how I cope by taking my grandson’s little hand in mine and take the best trips ever while we walk to the corner, travel to the park, visit the zoo or have playdates with friends.

You may envy those who can travel a lot, but don’t begrudge their ability to travel. When you are raising grandchildren you are in a different season of life and financial peace is more important than travel. Be happy for them and share their joy in their season of vacation or retirement. I wouldn’t trade my season now for anything. My husband and I get to nurture and love Anthony. We take great joy in him and in impacting his life in such a positive way.

As with anything in life, instead of pondering what you are missing, choose to ponder the blessings you have and the glorious views you have.  I did this and I declare the scenery from my vantage point is SPECTACULAR as I see a handsome young man with respect and kindness for others.

Enjoy your wonderful view in this journey! Here’s eight ways you can take a living room vacation and see spectacular scenery right in your home. Always use each opportunity to include what we call second level training. In other words, while we are having fun we’re also teaching life lessons. 

1 – Play a Game:

For 3 to 5 year olds we love to play Go Fish, Uno and Old Maid. For kids 5 to 10 we love to play kid’s Cranium or charades type games that have a lot of action. Make up new rules as you go. This is not just busy time – its laugh time! Fill your house with laughter and you fill it with life and good health. 

2 – Watch a Great Movie:

We love the Cars and Planes series, and our favorite TV series is Paw Patrol. Turn off TV channels and cable. DVDs give you total content and time control.

3 – Do a Craft: 

We draw, cut and paste seasonal or holiday pictures with construction paper. We love Hobby Lobby! Decorate your house with their art work. We had one room that needed repainting so we had the kids paint their favorite scenes and characters on the walls. What great fun we had. Art can be a great window into the soul of your grandchild. Take the opportunity to look with a great craft idea. 

4 – Put Up a White Board:

We covered a whole wall in our dining room with white board paint (available in finer paint stores) and the kids love to draw on the wall with colored markers. They have learned to write their names and numbers. Fun and learning are great bedfellows.

5 – Play School:

We have so much fun playing school and at the same time we get to sneak in lessons. The kids love to take turns being the teacher. It’s a great way to impact your kids with the value of education.

6 – Play Farm:

For the boys Sam get’s out tractors and sets up a farm. Use the opportunity to teach about agriculture, planning, design and real life.  

7 – Play Doctor:

Our kids love to play doctor. So we set up a case of play medical toys and use the opportunity to teach good health practices. 

8 – Visit Granpa Cratchet Youtube:

Don’t forget to have your kids go to our kids YouTube site. It’s a safe place for kids to laugh and learn great life lessons. www.youtube.com/granpacratchet  

Happy Vacationing! Love, Debbie