Children aged 0 through pre-K were invited to bring the special “grand” in their life — Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Papa, Opa and/or Oma — to this celebration of two generations. The program included crafts, Bingo, interactive fitness activities and a photo booth, as well as a story time with the children's librarian and sing-along.
Advanced Planning
Grandparent's Day is frequently overlooked, so our recreation department and public library joined forces to create a short program for grandparents and little ones. This year, 2019, marked our third time offering this annual program, and each year has grown, with new attendees every year.
The first year we planned this program for 2.5 hours. Not only was this too long, but we also failed to include the greatly admired children's librarian. In the second year, the program was abbreviated to 1.5 hours, with the librarian offering a special grandparent-related story time. This is our third year, and we had over 40 people — grandparents and their grandbabies — in attendance. We held the program on a Friday morning from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
We began preparing for the September event over the summer, when we selected the date with our recreation department. A week or so before the event, we prepared small crafts suitable for children ages 0 to 5. Two days prior, we purchased items (e.g. snacks, fruit, juice) from Sam's Club/Costco.
Marketing
We marketed this program in our city's recreation brochure, on Facebook, and in fliers posted around town. We also added the event to our recreation department and library websites.
Budgeting
The program required less than $50 for food and paper products.
Day-of-event Activity
Two staff members, plus the children's librarian, set up card tables, each with a unique craft. Crafts included a Handprint Tree, made with paints, an "All About My Grand" fill-in sheet, and popsicle stick picture frames — we took pictures onsite and printed them. We also put out a special chair for story time, in order to create a different area to shift the attention from crafts to story time.
Program Execution
People started to arrive 15 minutes early, but crafts were already set up on tables. All the crafts were simple and self explanatory — people were able to visit each station to complete the craft, where all the materials were set out.
The librarian started the special story time after one hour — 30 minutes before the program was scheduled to end.
Takeaways included hand prints done with paint and other mementos for grandparents.
Advice
This program attracts newer grandparents, young grandparents with maybe one or two young grandchildren. In the three years we have hosted, we have only had two families return because their children age out. Be sure to have plenty of activities and snacks!
Supporting Materials
- Feedback (Coming Soon!)
- Programming Librarian Facebook Group
More Programs
Parks & Rec: A Health Programming Partner
Audiences:
Mixed-Age Play
Audiences:
