EP 83: Cousin Camp: Making Memories with Your Grandchildren

This summer, we decided to create a camp experience for our grandkids in our backyard. This camp is referred to as Cousin Camp because you’re usually intermingling cousins together. However, our daughter has our only grandchildren, so technically, ours wasn’t a “cousin camp,” but it was still a fun way to create sweet memories with our grandchildren.

My husband and I recorded this as a podcast and shared much more information during our time together. I encourage you to listen to the episode below.

Listen to the Podcast Below or Subscribe on Your Favorite App:

Related Links:

Amazon Shopping List Ideas for Cousin Camp

Cousin Camp: A Grandparent’s Guide to Creating Fun, Faith, and Memories that Last by Susan Alexander Yates

The Gospel Story Bible by Marty Machowski

Cousin Camp Pinterest Board

Personalized Camp T-Shirts

Cousin’s Camp Podcast @Family Life Today

Our camp was a five-day, four-night literal camp at our home with our three grandchildren. The idea came about from a book by Susan Alexander Yates called Cousin Camp: A Grandparent’s Guide to Creating Fun, Faith, and Memories that Last. It was a helpful resource, and there are many free resources online, but as a Christian grandmother, I appreciated the guidance in being intentional in our time with our grandkids.

Please don’t check out on this option if you’re not a grandparent. This would be such a fun idea for parents or aunts and uncles to do at their homes. Moms, you can host a summer camp, at home, for your kids.

Before you start planning, determine the goal or vision for your future camp. Hold to this reminder: do not compare your camp experience with anyone else’s. What I’m sharing in our experience worked with our lifestyle and home, and schedule. It’s not for everyone.

Our Schedule:

After we figured out the logistics and length, the first step in our planning was to put together a tentative weekly schedule. My husband and I made a list of the various activities we’d like to include and determined how to fit different ones into each day.

Our activity list included things like: An obstacle course, arts & crafts, nature activities, a skit, songs, scavenger hunt, outdoor games, swimming, Bible time, nature center outing, playground time, storytime, journaling, quiet time, snack and meal times and free time. The kids received a drawstring bag filled with pencil pouch filled with colored pencils, a journal, and a small gift. 

My schedule wasn’t rigid but was broken down into morning, afternoon, and evening and revolved around mealtimes. I set up a whiteboard in the family room, and it was each day’s starting and ending point. We reviewed the schedule in the morning and set up the new plan every evening before bed. I used the Trello app to keep it all organized.

Here’s an example of one of our days:
Wake up 7:00 AM -Get dressed, make beds, and brush teeth
Breakfast
Bible Time
Skit and Song Practice
Playground Time & Snack Time
Bird Watching
Lunch
Swimming
Arts & Crafts (Snack Time)
Journal/Quiet Time activities
Dinner
Campfire Time – We did stories or movies and dessert during this time

Flexibility is the key. Not one day went precisely according to plan. We had rainy days and super hot weather, and one of our kiddos wasn’t feeling well one morning.

Activities:

Meals & Snacks:
Our food options were super simple, and I did menu plan ahead to make it easy. We ate breakfast cereal, fruit, bagels, and sandwiches for lunch. Dinners consisted of items like macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets. I didn’t focus too much on the food.

I kept a snack bin filled with granola bars, applesauce squeezes, goldfish crackers, and trail mix. I also kept some juice boxes on hand for snack time.

We used refillable water bottles for the week and filled them throughout the day. The water bottles were washed every evening after the kids went to bed, and the snack bin was restocked.

Bible Time:
We sat and read God’s Word each morning and utilized The Gospel Story Bible by Marty Machowski for our bible lessons. My husband engaged the kids with questions, and they wrote or drew in the journals about what they learned in the lesson. Walking through the gospel with them was part of every lesson. We also worked on a memory verse throughout the week.

Journals:
On the first day of camp, we took their photos and printed them out to put in their journals to signify their first day of camp. They utilized their journals for Bible time and quiet time to note their favorite memories each day. We kept the journals at the end of camp, and they’ll get them back next year.

Scavenger Hunt:
With a simple scavenger hunt and a clipboard, they were kept busy whenever they had free time to explore nature.

Obstacle Course:
My husband built a simple but great course the kids loved. They spent the week trying to beat their best time and everyone else’s.

Swimming:
We have an above-ground pool, and it was a convenient option to have on hand for the week. Our weather was scorching. Papa and I enjoyed it, too!

Playground Time:
One morning, we spent a couple of hours at a local playground, and this activity became a favorite on all their lists.

Arts & Crafts:
I’m not naturally artistic, and it’s not my thing, but I found some fun painting projects online, and we did some rock and canvas painting. I used disposable plastic tablecloths on our tables and found some disposable art smocks. Arts and crafts time ranked up there with playground time. Hobby Lobby was a helpful stop in finding supplies and art activities.

In addition to planned craft time, we had a table set up with various art supplies to utilize it whenever we had a free time slot in the day.

Outdoor Activity Area:
My husband set up different outdoor games in a specified area so the kids could choose various options when they had free time. We had sidewalk chalk, bubbles, bikes, scooters, and other options on hand. The Flying Turtle has been in our family since our kids were little and was a top free-time activity choice. 

Indoor Play Station:
In case the weather was rough, we set up an area with blocks, legos, dominoes, and board games for indoor free time. We didn’t have much indoor time, and when they did, dominoes were the popular pick.

Nature Hike:
We headed to a local nature center and took a hike. We observed what was going on in the woods. We spent some nature time at home, identifying various birds and reading fun facts about them. We had a lot of frog catching going on.

Skits & Songs:
We are not a musically gifted couple, so this stretched us a bit. We utilized YouTube and Spotify to help dramatize a story and our songs. The kids loved working on both the skit and songs. Down by the Bay was my favorite song choice because we could keep making up all kinds of fun rhymes throughout the day. How about one of their favorite verses, “Did you ever see a Nana eating a banana? Down by the Bay.”
You get the idea there.

Campfire/Bedtime:
In the evenings, we read stories, had a couple of movie nights, and made fun campfire treats like S’mores and banana boats. Since it was sweltering, we didn’t have a campfire but utilized the microwave and oven to make our yummy treats.

Closing Ceremony:
The kids could share with Mom, Dad, and Great-grandpa some of the items they worked on all week. We made a program and set up a display area for artwork, their journals, and anything else they wanted to display to their family. They shared their skit, songs, memory verses, and favorites from the week. We gave them awards based on various character traits we saw displayed throughout the week—things like courage, responsibility, compassion, cooperative spirit, joyful heart, and encouragement.

We ended the evening with pizza and ice cream sundaes.

These were most of the logistics, and I’d love to share a few of our takeaways from the week.

Final Thoughts:

Our extended time with our grandkids reminded us that raising children is not easy. It allowed us to see what a good job our daughter and son-in-law are doing. Our grandchildren are very respectful, loving, caring, and kind. We saw areas of discipline that need some help, and we can assist them as their grandparents.

Keeping well organized and having a schedule with planned activities helped us to enjoy the week with them and simplified our days. 

We will never regret taking the time to do this. It was a special week together, and we plan on doing it yearly, Lord willing. We were reminded again so clearly how fast life goes by, and we don’t want to waste the precious time we get with the grandkids.

Don’t overthink your camp activities and schedule. As my husband shared in the podcast, the obstacle course was pretty basic, but our grandkids felt like they were participating in American Gladiator.

They desire your time and attention the most. One of our favorite takeaways was having time to laugh and play with them.

Remember, there is eternal value here as well. While making those sweet memories, we are also showing them Who and What is most important in our lives and that all of this fun is an outpouring of a forgiven life in Christ.

When they pulled out of the driveway to head home that last night, my husband and I cried like babies. We missed them, and they weren’t even out of the driveway yet; they only lived 20 minutes away.

If you are in Christ, you have the most wonderful privilege of sharing Jesus with them. I pray they will hear the gospel from our lips and see its importance lived out in our lives.

This is one way to spend intentional time with your grandkids and even to bring families together so cousins can develop closer relationships. It was a blast, and we’re already beginning to plan for next year.

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