Fun & Simple Grandma Camp Ideas for Toddlers

Discover fun and simple Grandma Camp ideas for toddlers! Includes planning tips, activity ideas, supply suggestions, and snacks from our first-ever Grandma & Grandpa Camp.

I recently heard of the term “Grandma Camp” from one of my friends – and then I started noticing it popping up everywhere! It’s a fun new trendy term to describe planning a dedicated time to spend with your grandkids. It can be completely flexible based on many factors- time of year, when grandkids can come over, their age, etc.

We’re only 3 years into this wonderful & delightful world of Grandparenting – with a 3 year old granddaughter and a 4 month old grandson.

A few weeks ago, we held our very first ever “Grandma Camp” with our granddaugther. She lives many, many miles away so those 2 days with her were very, very precious indeed. The first thing we did when planning this special time was to invite Grandpa, too! So, technically, ours was Grandma & Grandpa Camp!!;)

How to Plan for Grandma Camp

(Disclosure: Affiliate links are included in this post for your shopping convenience.)

Honestly, we didn’t do a ton of extra planning to get prepared for Grandma camp. Our sweet little granddaughter is 3 years old, so the main thing we did was think through how to get a comfortable and safe place ready for her to sleep.

We put our guest bed mattress on the floor against a wall, and then propped pillows up on the far side so she didn’t flop herself off the bed in the night. If you have grandkids over to sleep lots, you might want to invest in a side rail for a bed, but this method worked like a charm.

After her parents dropped her off at our house, one of the first things we did was take her shopping at our grocery store – something her Mom & Dad said she loved to do. We let her help us pick out her snacks and some fun things to play with at Grandma & Grandpa’s house. I have a tote full of toys and books our boys loved, so that worked for reading time, but honestly, the toys our boys loved just don’t seem to be things that our sweet little darlin’ is drawn to!! (Understandably so!)

We also have dear friends who are farther along in their grandparenting journey and are set up with all the fun grandparent things. They graciously offered to let us borrow things to use during the few days of the year that our granddaughter is here – which is golden for us in our small townhouse without a lot of storage.

Fun Grandma Camp Ideas and Simple Supplies for Toddlers

The point of Grandma camp is NOT to have the latest & greatest toys and activities, but to make our grandkids feel so loved and special. We were pretty relaxed about our schedule and what we did, but we did have a few options that we picked up to have ready for “activities and play time”! Many of these are simple and inexpensive ideas, but they have stood the test of time. If you want to stock up on some “Grandma supplies”, I’ve linked some options that can be purchased from Walmart.com here. Or, if you’d rather shop on Amazon, you can find them all in my Amazon Shop USA List Here or Amazon Canada Shopping List Here.

1. Blow Bubbles: I confess that I don’t ever remember blowing bubbles with my boys, but goodness, Remi loves it! May we all find such joy in watching a light-as-a-feather bubble floating to the ground or catching it with our hands…
2. Play with water: We are fortunate to live by lots of water options (pools, lakes, & the ocean), but we chose to take her to a lake with a nice sandy beach. Although we packed along lots of toy options, her favorites were a bucket and watering can. She also had tons of fun helping water our backyard flowers with the spray nozzle, so I’m sure any kind of water toys would be a hit. I found this cute sprinkler (I used to love to run through the sprinkler when I was a kid!) and water table that looks like tons of fun.
3. Build with DuPlo- I have a ton of lego blocks left from the boys, but they were a little small for a 3 year old. However, she loves to build DuPlo towers with her dad, and she loved the little farm animal and bus set she had to play with here.
4. Hug a Dolly: Remi was quite concerned about her “babies”(dolls) that she left at home (since they didn’t fit in her suitcase for the airplane), so we let her choose one to snuggle at our house. The cuddle “Miss Rachel” doll (the non-singing one!) was her choice – since she loves to watch Miss Rachel on YouTube. (A great kids’ show, by the way!).
5. Go for a walk: Remi has specific needs since she has cerebral palsy affecting her legs, but she loves to go for walks in her wheelchair. We took her to our favorite walking spot right beside the ocean, and she loved showing “Miss Rachel” (her dolly) all the pretty things – and smelling lots of flowers as we went!
6. Bake cookies: Last year, we had so much fun baking cookies with Remi. I chose a simple peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe that can be stirred in a bowl, and she loves to help. One thing my grandma friend told me about that’s a huge help in the baking-cookies-with-grandkids department is a standing tower. Have you heard of them? They are like a step stool for kids with a guard all the way around so they don’t fall. They loaned us this one, and it worked beautifully. (It’s also handy for teeth brushing time.)
7. Color or play with sticker books: Remi loved stickers last year when she visited, and she still does. Now she also loves to color in her sticker book, too, so that was a fun activity that also works well in restaurants.
8. Read books: Reading books and singing songs is something we remember doing with our boys. I love pulling out the books we read to our boys and now reading them to the grandkkids…
9. Play hide and seek with yellow ducks: I found a set of little yellow ducks that I’d totally forgotten about. She played and played with them. One of her favorite games was to hide a yellow duck and then we needed to find it. Such simple fun…and such cute little giggles when we found it!

Snacks for Grandma Camp

We discovered that our granddaughter’s eating habits resemble very much her daddy’s at her age!;) He had a very particular palette, so we empathize with her parents when they struggle to get her to eat healthy things. But, at Grandma camp, we let her choose her snacks!;) (It was only 2 days, after all!)

Here are some of the things that were a hit for her:

1. Go-Go pouches. Mercy sakes, these are a wonderful invention!! Her favorite was apple strawberry, and she ate up the whole box of 4 in 2 days. At least she got a little fruit in her.;)
2. Goldfish crackers. When we asked her if she liked these at the store, she said, “Yes, I like them. I wish they were gold duck crackers, though!” (She’s very much into yellow ducks these days…) We sometimes served these on a little plate with cheese cubes and cubed ham. The crackers always disappeared first…
3. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. What can I say? I like it, too!;)
4. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Sometimes she likes jam, but right now her preference was honey.
5. Muffins. Breakfast was a bit tricky, but we found she really like blueberry muffins. (The hot oatmeal was a big fail…)
6. Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (that she helped bake) with a glass of milk.
7. Dunk-a-Roos were a hit on lake day, and the goldfish crackers might have been dipped in the frosting, too.;)
8. Water. We got her a little water bottle with a straw that she loved to drink out of, and made sure we offered it to her lots.

Do you have Grandma Camp Stories, too?

I absolutely love to hear all your genius ideas and memories you’ve made at your own Grandma Camps! Feel free to use the comment section below and let us know the creative ideas you’ve used!