11 Best Watch For Swimming Tracking

Best Watch For Swimming Tracking in 2023

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Fun Ways to Celebrate Summer with Grandchildren

Summer play ideas to do with your children or grandchildren. Take the time to play outside and enjoy the sunshine by going swimming, to the park, or on a picnic.

I think everything is easier and more fun in the summer. We don't need jackets, hats or mittens. We don't have to shovel, scrape, or defrost the snow. Most of all it is nice to be outside. Typically I don't struggle with what to do in the summer time, but rather how to fit it all in. Almost daily we went swimming or played at a park. We also enjoyed hiking area trails, camping, fishing, picnicking, going to yard sales, or just being outside.

Swimming

Swimming for us was easy. There were two pools at our complex both of which have steps, a 3-ft. shallow end, shade, tables and a hot tub. Sadly the hot tubs were seldom both working well. I think they were designed badly. Anyway, if you don't have a pool, most communities have a recreation center with a pool. Castle Rock has two or three of them. I haven't gone yet, but did occasionally go when we lived in Greeley. Recreation center pools often have splash areas, kiddie pools or other cool features.

My granddaughters had to wear weight appropriate life jackets. With two of them, I didn't like to take chances. They hadn't had swimming lessons yet and I am not a good enough swimmer to officially teach them. But I do feel confident enough to teach them water introduction, basic floating, doggy paddle, and basic kicking. Our rule was life jackets on or one adult per child in the pool with them. After an incident in a hotel pool, in which, my daughter who was five at the time almost drowned, I am a bit paranoid.

I had a backpack that I took on all excursions. For the pool, I brought water, granola bars, dry t-shirts, sunscreen, bug-repellent sunscreen, my journal, keys, phone and sunglasses. The girls either lost or broke their sunglasses which was unfortunate, since the Colorado sunshine is bright. Both girls seemed to be sensitive to the chlorine, so I rinsed them off and put lotion on their skin after swimming. This also removed residual sunscreen which I hate, and assume they don't like either.

Parks

I love parks. Even as a child I loved to play at parks. Castle Rock has several beautiful parks and is dog-friendly so Zoe, our Yorkiepoo, could come too. I had sand toys, which consisted of a Lego container, 2 plastic bowls, 2 plastic cups, 2 large tablespoons, a set of measuring cups and some plastic McDonald Happy Meal Halloween baskets. There were also two rubber snakes that I bought for them at the Wildlife Museum. I've seldom invested in official sand toys, but tossed in an empty margarine tub or yogurt cup.

You'd think my granddaughters would have gotten jealous and wanted other children's pretty new sand buckets. But it actually worked the other way around. Our sand toys were unique and popular everyday items that all the kids wanted to play with. Because it was just extra junk from around the house, I also had the luxury of not worrying when not all of it came home. We kept this, a bottle of bubbles and assorted wands, a couple of balls and a small blanket in the back of the Explorer all the time for impromptu park trips.

I didn't usually worry about structured games, we just played. If there were no other little ones at the park, I often played with them. Whenever there were other little ones, they would rather play with them. It's amazing and enviable that small children can make instant best friends. I wish it was that way for adults too.

Going to Yard-sales

We have a bit more discretionary income than we had when my children were small, so I no longer have to scour garage sales for necessities. Not to mention, I need to have a garage sale before bringing home other people's garage sale items. However, I still love to go to them. Even though I'm not a serious yard-saler and tend to shop for specific items at department stores, I still like to spend the occasional Saturday morning going to garage sales. These days I prefer to give the kids and me a budget then just go look and get whatever strikes us. When our kids were little, we spent many Saturday mornings at garage and yard sales.

Outside Games

Tag, Follow the Leader, Ring around the Rosie, Catch and Red Light, Green Light were our favorite games. Sophia and Vivian could both understand and follow the basic rules for these games. They got the concept of catch, even if they couldn't actually catch well. Some other games were still too hard for them. We loved to play Follow the Leader. This game was actually helpful in stores too. Marching, hopping and skipping through the store sure beat crying, whining, and pouting.

In addition to all of the above, we went on nature walks. Whenever there was a rain storm, snow storm or change of season it was a good time to go. One spring, I was trying to explain the water cycle which is a hard concept for a three-year-old. We were out walking soon after, and Sophia pointed out the dark clouds in the sky. Both girls already knew that it looked like it was going to rain. I got the idea to use the impending storm to illustrate the water cycle and go outside during or after each stage. So right when it started raining, we went back out on the patio to watch.

Afterwards, we went outside to play in the puddles and talked about the rain coming from the dark clouds. The next morning when we went to the park, we talked about why the slide and jungle gym were wet. Later that afternoon, we again went outside, and it was sunny and dry. So I explained that this is evaporation and the "sun dried up all the rain." I even impressed myself by how effective this was. Both girls understood quite a bit, even if they couldn't remember the big words like condensation. Shortly afterwards I overheard Sophia tell Vivian the sun dries her swimming suit like it dries mud puddles. Hands-on learning and direct observation are incredible teachers.

Just Being Outside

One of my favorite things as a kid was to just be outside on a summer day sitting in the grass or looking up at the clouds. I tried to give the girls that gift of time and allow them to just be outside at the park or pool or sitting in the grass. This is why I always brought my backpack of supplies which helped us keep the creature discomforts to a minimum and stay outside longer. As you can tell, I love summer and wanted my granddaughters to learn the joys of lazy summer afternoons in the sunshine. Sooner than I would want the pressures of school, activities, jobs and life will come along.