Play is at the heart of relationships between grandparents and grandchildren. Many stories we tell about our grandchildren convey our joy in all the ways we play together. Pretend play, physically active play, nature play, blocks, puzzles and board games, songs and stories, everyday and special occasions, inside and outside.

This book is an ode to the gift of play, a celebration of the play between grandparents and grandchildren. Inspired by the joy my husband Derek and I have playing with our grandchildren, it features dozens of stories in which grandparents and honorary grandparents share their delight in play. This is not merely a how-to book with activities for young children. As you read it, I hope you will find many new ideas, tips, and practical information to enrich your play, as I have found while writing it.

I’ve studied and written about young children’s play since the 1970s when I was a mother with young children. Then, little had been written about young children’s play. Happily, there are now hundreds of resources for parents.

Today I look at play through the eyes of a grandparent. Unfortunately, what remains missing—despite the growing popularity of grandparenting books, blogs, and articles—are books about the joy and importance of play. The Gift of Play aims to help fill that gap and celebrate play among grandparents and grandchildren.

Research supports the multiple and often parallel benefits of play for older adults and for young children, such as improvements in physical vitality, emotional well-being, social interactions, thinking abilities, and creativity. Play is essential for grandchildren and grandparents—and playing together magnifies its power.

Play enriches our grandchildren’s lives and our own. Whether you’re a new grandparent or a grandparent with years of experience, I hope this book will deepen your understanding of the importance of play and give you ideas for expanding your repertoire. The very nature of play makes it powerful in enhancing close and loving relationships. Grandparents want to love and be loved, and playing is a special time to feel and express love. We play because play is fun for our grandchildren and fun for us—and playing with those we love is special.

The Benefits of Play

We know from our own experience that parents have great responsibilities, busy lives, and often not enough time to play. Yet young children need lots of time to play, especially time for spontaneous, unstructured play that promotes their curiosity, imagination, and creativity. As grandparents, we can give our grandchildren the gift of play, and when we play with our grandchildren, both children and families benefit.

Throughout this book, I discuss how play (which our grandchildren love to do!) supports their development and learning. As we play with our grandchildren, we can support their social and emotional development, imagination, creativity, thinking abilities, language development, strength, and physical abilities. Each chapter emphasizes one of these dimensions of play while showing at the same time that all play is multidimensional.

The gift of play is a gift for ourselves as well. Playing with our grandchildren makes us free to be creative and inventive. It provides the respite and energy we need for renewal. Play is a time for us to revel in spontaneous fun and recapture our childlike sense of wonder. This is a book about families. We bequeath and enrich our family heritage when we show by example that generations in our family play together—throughout childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and then grandparenting years. As grandparents, we can purposely promote playful traditions for our grandchildren. Elaine told me this story:

The Gift of Play highlights the strong traditions of grandparent and grandchild play. Each of us plays in different ways. I draw from my observations and conversations with dozens of grandparents across the U.S. and from several other countries. Some grandparents see their grandchildren often. Others find creative ways to grandparent remotely or virtually because of distance, emergencies, or health issues.

Each chapter includes insights from experts on young children’s play, development, and learning. The anecdotes, stories, and discussions in the chapters reflect both the diversity of grandparents and the diversity of play. How fortunate we are when we can play with our grandchildren!