The Seattle Times today had an article about some grandparents who take each grandchild, on their 15th birthday, on a trip of the grandchild's choosing.
A trip without the parents or siblings. A trip that educates. And a trip that creates bonds.
http://www.seattletimes.com/life/tra...grandchildren/

I’m a grandmother, and know of quite a number of people who do something similar. I have travelled with the grandchildren and their parents a number of times, but I don’t plan to take them on their own. The two oldest grandkids (11 and 13) who live nearby, have done almost as much travelling in their short lives as I have in my long one, so I prefer to selfishly spend my travel dollars on myself. The other two live literally half a world away, so we visit annually, and will sometimes do a short trip with the family. Maybe when we get too old to make the 40 hour journey ourselves we will pay to have the ‘kids’ visit us.

Road Scholar, which does excellent educational trips for seniors, also has intergenerational trips as well. If I did decide to take the grandkids somewhere, I’d probably do it with them.

It is a great idea, in fact, if every grand parent is as cool as this, the world will become an interesting place to live. If grandparents want to take their grand kids, they must get them to the Asian Countries. It will be a new experience to both grandparents and grand kids..

My uncle has done that.
He did two trips - one to Disney with a batch of grandchildren ( 4-5?) then a last trip when reached 15-16 something like that.
My nephews think he is a great man.
And he is.

Really nice