Board games and projects around the house are great suggestions.

Walks, exploring the area depending on your mom's mobility.

Anonymous wrote:Otherwise DS ends up watching videos while Grandma putters on Facebook-- fine in moderation, but we will be at her house for a week. It's in a small town in the Midwest, so not a ton we can do out and about. Help!

We play board games. Ticket to ride, chess, connect 4, uno, settlers of catan are among the favorites. We also try family movies, but that’s hard because my parents only want to watch religious movies - and what teen on planet Earth wants to do that.

More miniature models -
https://www.littlebuildingco.com/?srsltid=AfmBOortjXI8QWh5ZzbaYNyuXYAgGvZaB8CHK-PJG0qpJZofWUT930XR

how about a miniature model kit?
If you go this route, I strongly suggest each person have a tweezer and maybe some dental tools.

https://www.rolifeonline.com/collections/diy-miniature-dollhouse?srsltid=AfmBOooM4P5FFIvtXvBANgfire5RU_7B10EL68wdkGaSzSR9NfHrRDP2

Puzzle
Baking & decorating desserts
Neighborhood walks
Home improvement projects
Board games
Crafts
Thrift store shopping
Visit any local points of interest, even if small

A new jigsaw puzzle, and they can cook/bake together.

You could work on a book like this together. Could get some good conversations going: https://thatcove.com/products/i-want-to-have-your-story-by-that-cove?variant=50928287973704

If you’re creative you could send them out on a scavenger hunt together: make a rubbing of the oldest gravestone in the local cemetery, try an ice cream flavor neither of you have ever had, take a picture next to a statue of an animal, each make a basket at three different basketball hoops around town, take three pictures of the number 67 in the wild. Some kind of prize if they can get everything done in 3 hours. Or if you’re really creative make one where you hide clues all over town they need to find.

Any projects around the house that your son could help with? Last time we visited my mom she had just bought a small piece of furniture that needed to be assembled and my 12yo was happy to do it.

I second the recommendations for legos or puzzles or board games. Other kinds of building or science kits maybe?

Weirdly, my kids spent a whole afternoon going through old National Park brochures my parents had collected on their travels and had sitting around. If your mother has any old travel materials or photos or anything like that, it could be an interesting project.

Family tree kit? Or some other kind of family history/story collecting? (There are books and kits you can buy to help with this, or I'm sure you can find prompts online.)

Hiking in local state parks. Have a backyard campfire and roast hotdogs and s’mores. Carve pumpkins or make gingerbread houses. Find an indie record store or thrift shops. Flea markets. Give us a town to work with and we can find the Largest Ball of String in a 2 hour drive, and do one excursion a day to something like that. Watch classic holiday movies together.

If she’s a cook, you could task them with making a family cookbook with her recipes

Get a 1,000 piece puzzle (if she has table space for it) and make sure it’s somewhat easy (like various candy bar wrappers or children’s book covers) so they can get it done in a week.

If she’s active, subscribe to the Geocaching app ($30 for upgraded access, worth it if your family is serious about geocaching) and learn how to do it via YouTube videos then just go out and find them, bring a pen and tweezers for logging on the papers that are inside.

A week!?!

Baking or learning some kind of skill. You could get a themed cookbook. Painting Christmas ornaments.

Crossword puzzles.

What activities goes your son like? My son likes fishing, basketball, and board games. Fishing and board games would work for my mother and she would also be up for going to a local high school basketball game.

But that’s my family. Start with your families interests.

If I can get some fun gift ideas that they can do together, that will help. I've done puzzles and Lego sets before, and that's worked.

Otherwise DS ends up watching videos while Grandma putters on Facebook-- fine in moderation, but we will be at her house for a week. It's in a small town in the Midwest, so not a ton we can do out and about. Help!