Grandparents Day, celebrated to honor, laud and applaud grandparents and all that they bring to our families, communities, and our nation, is fast approaching. Being honored for contributions past and present is admirable. But on day to day moments you share with your precious grandchildren, exactly what are some of those special little  things you can share and hand down to the next generation?

You don’t really have to be an expert in anything to leave your mark on the next generation. From cuddles and kisses and baking cookies together to singing lullabies or telling jokes and teaching them how to whistle, there are a multitude of little things you can teach your grandchildren to do. And they’ll remember you for it, big time.

Top 25 things you can teach your grandchildren, for fun and fun memories:

1. Bake cookies – get out your favorite(and theirs) cookie recipe and make it together, carefully guiding them in the way you prepare these yummies, and let them help measure and mix for a tasty memory that will last forever. Licking the bowl, of course, is mandatory. Let them copy down the recipe to save or make this an ongoing project in a recipe book.

2. Grow a sweet potato plant – you don’t have to go outside to plant and grow this ivy-like plant, which sprouts in a week or two and grows and lasts for decades! Talk about lasting memories.

3. Polishing finger and toe nails – there isn’t a little girl alive who wouldn’t get excited to have her nails painted, and what a beautiful memory. Hint: the brighter the color, the better.

4. The great library adventure – not only can you find books to read to your grandchildren, but a wealth of DVDs are available – FREE. Reading aloud and watching movies together make for some of the cuddliest times and memories.

5. Give a little whistle – teaching kids to pucker up and blow, in just a special way, is like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Purely magical.

6. Making blades of grass whistle – yet another magic trick, placing a long reed-like blade of grass or leaf between your hands and blowing to create a whistling effect elicits sheer glee from the little ones.

7. The magic straw – the little ones, especially, will be delighted when you show them how to hold water or soda in a straw by placing your finger over the top and THEN AGAIN by taking your finger off and letting the liquid drizzle into their mouths. Awesome!

8. Playing simple card games and shuffling cards – teaching kids simple games like Fish, War, Old Maid can be rewarding for both grandparents and grandchildren. One, they’ll love to learn the games; two, they’ll love to play the games; and three, they’ll really love it when they master the game and beat you! Speaking of card games, you can also show them the cool way to shuffle the cards, letting them fan the cards in a bridge. And if you own one of those battery-operated card shufflers, all the better. They’ll feel so grown up – and remember the fond times they played cards with you.

9. Create a family tree - the Internet makes it relatively easy to do geneology searches.  This can be a whole family project that you initiate.  Think of the pride that will come of a completed tree, a project that will outlast, well, maybe even you.

10. Blowing on a dandelion and making a wish – it’s magic, really. Make a wish and blow, letting the little feathery seeds fly away and make dreams come true. It doesn’t get better than that…

11. Unless, you capture lightening bugs – oh, the memories of our youth…to go outside at dusk and watch the intermittent twinkles. Catching the bugs in jars... poking holes in lids. We still remember those special times – pass those special moments and memories on to the next generation for posterity.

12. Tying shoelaces – even though most of the sneakers today have Velcro(R) closures, taking the time to teach the little ones how to tie their shoes is special – and something that you don’t do in just a day. Make a cardboard shoe, poke a few holes, and lace them up with a shoelace. Tie a bow and let the kids untie it. Then show them how to re-tie it and repeat on each visit. The day they learn to tie a shoe, you will go down in history as THE best teacher.

13. Finger snapping – click. click. click. When you snap your fingers, kids are amazed at the clicking sound and want to know how you did that. Show them how and have them practice. When they master this great art, sing, “When you’re happy and you know it…snap your fingers.”

14. Make a sailor hat out of newspaper – folding the paper in half, form a triangle by bringing the left and the right corners down with straight edges matching in the middle. Fold up the bottom on each side and voila! Sing “Row, row, row you boat” and you’ll have formed a bond of epic proportions. You can also find books on creating other origami shapes -- things made out of folded paper.

15. Make a paper fortune teller – a little more intricate than the hat, this calls for starting with an 8”x8” square, folded in half to make a rectangle, and in half again to make a small square. Open the folds to see a large square sectioned into four smaller squares. Fold each corner point into the middle and crease (you’ll have a smaller square.) Repeat. Fold the square in half. Unfold and fold the square in half the other way. Unfold and pull the four ends together, making a diamond-like shape. Pick up each of the four square flaps, and put your fingers inside. You will be able to move the four parts around. Write any four colors on the four flaps. Flip it over, and write 8 numbers on the triangular flaps. Write 8 fortunes inside the flaps (underneath the numbers).

16. Have a tea party – real or make believe, this is a wonderful way to point out the proper use of silverware and the use of good table manners. (Not to mention, a great way to share some great make-believe time and get better acquainted not only with your grandchildren, but their little friends – imagined or otherwise.)

17. Crochet, knit, cross-stitch, needlepoint, sewing – any kind of stitchery project in which you’re proficient and “known for” will do – it takes patience, but it’s well worth it when your grandchild fashions the first scarf or embroidery sampler and can say, “Grandma taught me!”

18. Bird and/or leaf identification – this is an easy one, especially if you have a camera handy. Take a walk in the woods with your grandchildren and take pictures of all the birds you see and/or collect different leaves. Get books with photos and identify each one and put them in a scrapbook and label them. The kids will think you’re a genius and remember this project forever – they may even save the book for their own kids! (I did.)  The book also makes a great show-and-tell prop.

19. Assembling puzzles – they’ve got puzzle now starting at 8 pieces and up to 1000. Working together to put the puzzle together, you can show them tricks, like finding all the straight edges, finding the corners, finding like-colored pieces, etc. You’ll be amazed at how quickly the kids master the small puzzles and go on to bigger and more intricate ones. This can be an ongoing activity when you get to the really large puzzles. And there’s special glues that you can apply to save and frame the puzzles. Think of the hours of special memories you’ll make that grow and grow as the kids do.

20. Napkin folding – show the kids how to fold napkins for everyday and special occasions This goes along with showing them how to set the table, using the correct silverware at each place setting. This is not only fun, but practical – and little hands love to be big helpers.

21. Make a chocolate milkshake or ice cream soda – have blender? For a soda, add ice, chocolate milk, ice cream and blend. For a soda, add soda and ice cream and blend. Pour into tall glass with 2 straws and that’s one of the best sharing experiences known to man (or woman).

22. Picture coloring – everything’s better when you do it together. Talk about what your grandchild wants to color and together you can create masterpieces. You can do your rendition and the child can do his/hers by watching or copying. Either way, you can’t beat it for fridge art and lasting colorful memories.

23. Thumb wrestling – when the kids get bigger, and feistier, there’s nothing like a good old fashioned thumb war to test their superiority. Ready...set...go!

24. Find the North star and the Big and Little Dippers – these can be just the beginning. The night sky offers a wealth of opportunities for sharing your knowledge and locating different constellations. To this day, every time I find Orion’s Belt, I think of my grandpa, who first showed me how to find it.

25. Blow bubbles – today there are all kinds of elaborate bubble blowing machines, but there’s nothing like the old-fashioned little jar of bubbles with its single little wand. Kids love to chase and catch the bubbles (and so do little dogs, by the way). When they’re bigger, they like to make their own bubbles.

Next time you’re looking for something to do with your grandchildren, you don’t need to look past your own living room to make each memory-making moment special.

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