Earth Day Activities for Grandparents and Older Grandchildren

By Kevin Edwards | April 15, 2019 |

While it can be hard to get pre-teens and teens to connect with their grandparents, it’s not impossible. Use Earth Day to draw the two closer. Here are some activities they can do together on April 22nd.

Take a Walk

Senior Care Leawood KS - Earth Day Activities for Grandparents and Older Grandchildren — Senior Care Leawood KS – Earth Day Activities for Grandparents and Older Grandchildren

Grab a bag and go on a walk. Along the way, your parents and older children can pick up trash and recyclables that people have tossed out car windows. It’s a good way to green up the neighborhood, and the cash collected through cans and bottles can get split between your parents and kids for extra spending money.

If you live near a beach or river, picking up trash and recyclables from a waterway can help keep it from reaching the ocean. National Geographic estimates that 18 billion pounds of plastic makes its way into the oceans each year. Your parents and older children could help keep some of this plastic from getting there.

Start Setting Up Gardens

Earth Day is a good time to start assembling raised garden beds. You can purchase kits at many gardening stores. If you’re handy, you can purchase cedar lumber and do it yourself. Grandparents and older children can work together to attach the boards and corner braces.

Once that’s done, soil, compost, and manure can go in and get the garden started. Cool weather crops like beets, spinach, and radishes are a great addition in northern climates where freezing temperatures are still possible for another month.

Build a Compost Bin

If your parents aren’t composting their kitchen scraps yet, this is another great Earth Day activity for grandparents and teens. It doesn’t take much. Some wire chicken fencing and four stakes in the ground are enough to get a pile started. Put a layer of cardboard on the ground, wet it down, and add other layers. Pine needles, leaves, wood stove ashes, and kitchen scraps get added in layers.

Another idea is to set up a worm farm. It works the same way, only you have an enclosed container and worms help break down the scraps you add. In exchange, your parents get nutrient-rich worm casings to add to their garden.

Senior care providers help the elderly in multiple ways. One of the biggest is the benefit of companionship. Don’t let your parents feel lonely and alone between your visits. Hire senior care services for companionship, transportation, and household chores. Call our senior care agency to discuss prices and options.

Sources: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/05/plastics-facts-infographics-ocean-pollution/

If you or an aging loved-one are considering Senior Care Services in the Leawood KS area, please contact the caring staff at Elder Care of Kansas City, today. Proudly serving Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass Counties in Missouri as well as Johnson and Wyandotte Counties in Kansas for over 30 years. Call us at 816-333-3322.

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Kevin Edwards

Owner at Elder Care of Kansas City

Kevin’s life and the lives of his immediate family have been impacted by caregivers – either as a patient or a caregiver - for as long as he can remember.He watched his mother take care of his grandmother until her death at the age of 97.Five years later, his father passed from a neurological disorder that was subsequently confirmed as Lewy Body Dementia.In 2007, his wife, Lori, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.The symptoms of Lori’s disease required Kevin to hire a caregiver during the periods of her relapses.

Prior to purchasing Elder Care, Kevin spent over 20 years in the health insurance industry.In his most recent position, he was in a financial operations role with Humana where he worked with doctors, nurses and other health professionals developing programs to keep Humana members healthy.Their focus on primary care and medication adherence improved the lives of thousands of seniors in Kansas City and the surrounding area.

Kevin and his wife, Lori, have three children.Kevin has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Missouri.