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Star Wars Day Grandma Camp

This is a two-day Grandma Camp, for an 8 year old. It worked out really well and I’d do it again.) I started with a list of foods and a list of activities and then decided to connect some of these to Jedi Training, making sure he did something that fit into the different elements of a Jedi’s training:

  • 1: Trial of Skill: Puzzles and games
  • 2: Trial of Courage: Handling hot soap base and going on a bug walk
  • 3: Trial of Flesh: Yoga
  • 4: Trial of Spirit: The Force
  • 5: Trial of Insight: Scavenger Hunt

Day 1: This is run-of-show and we followed this plan until the end when Sabacc came after Light Sabers and ice cream was eaten while watching one of the movies. That made more sense anyway. Ice cream should not be eaten during Sabacc, obviously.

Day 2: This is the run-of-show but we ended up not following it as closely as planned. We did everything on this list but things were slightly out of order in the middle. It all worked out. We also had a small The Child figure that he could have painted if he got bored or we found ourselves with more time. Instead, we watched more movies and chilled with Star Wars games on the iPad.

  • Ronto Wraps, Leia Buns, Bright Suns Parfaits, Moof Juice, Green Milk (milk with some squirts of chocolate syrup and green food coloring), Mandalorian Cereal.
  • Jedi Training: BB8 Soap making
  • Jedi Training: The Force (with balloons)
  • BB8 quesadilla, Blue Milkshake (We vitamixed some vanilla ice cream, a shot of chocolate syrup, milk, blue food coloring), Han Solo Carbonite Jell-o (we mixed red + green jell-o to make a brownish color.)
  • Galactic Slime (We just purchased silver glitter slime with Star Wars croc charms and Star Wars confetti mixed in and then we made some teal colored slime for the fun of it with glitter glue, eye drops, and shaving cream.)
  • Jedi Training: Blowing Up the Death Star (A storm trooper action figure was inside of the death star and we used a water gun to blast it. While he enjoyed this activity, I would do this one differently. Following these directions did not work out as well as I would have liked. Doing it again, I’d start with a bath bomb recipe and mold the death star myself by hand and add some light carvings to it.)
  • Jedi Training: Bug Hunt (He needed to face his fears of flying bugs and find a bug to hold/pick up. It was rough but he did it.)
  • Jedi Training: Scavenger Hunt
  • Go home: Jedi Mix during the drive home, while listening to Origami Yoda. (our Jedi Mix was thin pretzel sticks dipped in red and blue chocolate to look like light sabers, orange m&ms, white cheese balls, Mandalorian The Child cereal.)
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Grandma Camp Books?

Way back when JMP was a tiny thing and we were just daydreaming about the time when his mother would let us have him for more than a few hours at a time, I started reading all of the books about Grandma Camp that I could find. There weren’t many and some of them were BAD. Some nice people sent me Sharon Lovejoy’s book, Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars and I enjoyed that. So I thought I’d look again… surely there would be more, new, better Grandma Camp books now.

Turns out, not so much.

Interestingly, I found myself requesting what I thought was a new Sharon Lovejoy book about Grandma Camp, (Camp Granny). Imagine my disappointment when I realized it was Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars with a new name.

So, I’m still looking for more, new, better Grandma Camp books. (Even decent grandparenting books would be nice.) Know of any?

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Grandma Camp #1 — DONE!

I know, I know! I needed another blog like I needed a whole lot of things that aren’t good for me and sure enough, months have passed since we finished our first Grandma Camp with JMP and Squish. I have about six posts, half-written in Evernote and there has just been too much other stuff going on to finish any of them. But, I’m committed to finishing them NOW. (Or at least starting to finish them now? Whatever.)

Let’s just start by saying… we did indeed hold Grandma Camp in April and we survived. Barely, kidding/not kidding/kidding.  We I also learned a lot about our grandsons and our grandmother-y natures.

Waking up #grandmacamp

A post shared by Denise Tanton (@dtanton) on

Here are some things that I learned.

  • As with a million other areas of our lives, TW and I have distinctly different approaches to grandparenting. That played out in the pre-planning and in the execution of Grandma Camp. It was generally amusing and sometimes frustrating but it was also sometimes helpful.
  • TW sees herself as a very hands on Granolay Crunchy ThatGrandma. That is obvious by the nature of her pre-planning and grand ideas for things to do (or not do) during Grandma Camp.
  • I’m not Granola Grandma. It’s not that I was against any of her ideas, I was just pretty sure we were going to be too tired and our first Grandma Camp was going to be really chaotic. Being a Grandma is exhausting — being Granola Grandma is even more so.
  • We both planned way too many things.
  • Trying to work a full 8-hour day while also doing Grandma Camp was great in theory and a little less great in execution. We did it but nobody enjoyed it all that much. I think we can do it that way again, we just have to have some better plans for rain, for conference calls, for tired toddlers, and grouchy kinders. (Not to mention tired Grandmas and antsy dogs.)
  • More OUTDOOR TIME must be scheduled AND we MUST adhere to that schedule.
  • Paint is always better than markers. I knew this but had somehow forgotten.
  • Pre-make your bubble mixture (and if you think you already have bubble mixture, double check before the grandchildren arrive because you probably do not have bubble mixture.)
  • Remove all of the COCKWAT (chocolate) from the house before the kids arrive and do not cave to the demands for COCKWAT. Once COCKWAT is provided, only COCKWAT will do.
  • Don’t plan too many “new” foods/dishes when the picky eater is attending Grandma Camp. And by too many, I mean more than one per camp is too many.
  • It might seem like bathing these two boys at the same time is a great idea. It really usually isn’t. And while one is bathing, the other MUST be distracted elsewhere. No watching/helping allowed.

There’s more, but those are the big ones. And those are the lessons I’m going to be reminding myself of when we do this again. (And we will be doing it again. Soon. And, often.)

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Grandma Camp: It’s Happening!

When JMP was just a tiny thing, we talked about the time when he’d be old enough to spend a few days, or a week, or a month (!) with me and ThatGrandma for Grandma Camp while his mommy (and his Aunt Steph or his daddy) went off for some “craft time” of their own. (In mommy and Aunt Steph language, that means drinking without children time.)

Just when Pippin reached the age where he was old enough (and his mommy was at the point where she might consider letting him go for a bit) along came The Squish. So no Grandma Camp plans were made, instead we spent a lot of time getting to know The Squish and doing things as a big happy family. That was awesome, but we still dreamed of Grandma Camp.

And here we are! We’re planning our first Grandma Camp for Pippin and The Squish while mommy & daddy do a little house hunting. And since they are hunting for a house that’s pretty close to where The Grandmas live and another baby is on the way, odds are high that we’re going to have the opportunity to do a whole lot of Grandma Camping in the future.

EPIC! It’s going to be EPIC! Or SICK! Or PRETTY COOL (as Pippin would say.)