Activities To Do With Seniors

Supports Cognitive Health And Brain Function

The brain is a muscle, and you need to exercise it regularly. Studies show that those who forego taking care of brain health are more at risk of complications such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, among others.

To prevent similar complications, we encourage performing simple brain-stimulating tasks regularly. You can solve puzzles, play chess, read a book, write a journal, learn a new language, or even watch old TV films. Overall, your goal is to keep the brain by keeping it active. Note that the activity doesn’t necessarily have to be academic.

Watch Old Movies Or Classic Comedies

Whats Needed: Television, DVDs, or streaming service

Difficulty: Easy

Having a movie night, complete with old movies or classic comedies, popcorn, and cold drinks, can be a fun way to spend an evening by yourself or with others who are staying inside with you. Some streaming services only offer a small number of older movies, so you might want to purchase some classic movie DVDs if you enjoy movies that may be hard to find on television now. Turner Classic Movies on cable also offers lots of old movies to watch.

What Are Emotional Activities For Seniors

Emotional activities for seniors are a great way to help them stay connected and engaged with the world around them. They can be a great way to keep your loved one from feeling isolated, especially if they have health conditions that make it hard to get out and socialize with others.

There are many different ways you can incorporate these types of activities into your daily routine. Here are some ideas:

• Have lunch together every day
• Take walks together every morning and evening
• Go on picnics or other outings at least once per week
• Play games such as cards, checkers, chess, or even bingo!

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Indoor Gardening Activities For Seniors

Gardening usually involves outdoor activities, but you can grow something at home with enough space. Here are several indoor gardening activities for seniors to consider:

Building a terrarium is a fun gardening activity for your seniors. Moreover, the result will become a good decoration for your home.

Turn your terra-cotta into something more creative with this indoor gardening activity for the seniors. You will only need some clay pots, brushes, and acrylic paints.

Cress heads can make any interior cozier while being quite a relaxing indoor activity for the seniors.

Choose the best flowers in your garden, remove leaves, add filler flowers and wrap it up. Composition is a challenging and engaging gardening indoor activity for seniors.

Planting cactuses will be a great indoor gardening activity, even for seniors with cognitive or physical disabilities. Cactuses are among the least demanding plants, and they can grow anywhere. Plus, they are adorable.

Edible garden means your seniors will not only see the results but taste them. This indoor gardening activity for seniors requires time and effort, but the results will be worth it.

Indoor gardening activities for seniors have a friendly and welcoming community on the global web. Teach your seniors to use the Internet and post about their achievements online. This will help them to meet new people and socialize.

Physical Activity Is Essential To Healthy Aging

As an older adult, regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your health. It can prevent or delay many of the health problems that seem to come with age. It also helps your muscles grow stronger so you can keep doing your day-to-day activities without becoming dependent on others.

Keep in mind, some physical activity is better than none at all. Your health benefits will also increase with the more physical activity that you do.

Adults aged 65 and older need:

• At least 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity activity such as brisk walking. Or they need 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity activity such as hiking, jogging, or running.
• At least 2 days a week of activities that strengthen muscles.
• Activities to improve balance such as standing on one foot about 3 days a week.

If chronic conditions affect your ability to meet these recommendations, be as physically active as your abilities and conditions allow.

Dont worry if youre thinking, How can I meet the recommended physical activity levels each week? Youll be surprised by the variety of activities you have to choose from.

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Make A Family Cookbook

Is your kitchen full of old family recipes? Compile them in one place like a larger binder or recipe file, and make digital or printed copies to share with your children and grandchildren. Not only will your favorite dishes bring smiles for generations to come, but family cookbooks make great gifts for the holidays and at family reunions.

What Is An Assisted Living Community

In an assisted living community, caregivers provide resident support services, such as bathing, dressing, continence care, medication supervision, and meal consumption. If the facility includes a memory care and

Alzheimers disease wing, residents receive additional healthcare services. Assisted living residents would otherwise require some degree of home-based caregiving services, and they would likely be isolated within their houses.

The assisted living community also provides residents with several non-care services. Examples include housekeeping, laundry, and transportation to errands and doctors appointments. Family members are often relieved that their loved one is receiving the care they need.

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Fun And Engaging Indoor Activities For Senior Citizens

Indoor activities for seniors can be hard to come by, especially if youre older and have been living in the same place for years. Its not always easy to find new things to do! But dont worryweve got you covered. Here are 31 creative indoor activities that will help keep your mind sharp and your body active.

Adding More Energizing Activities

With assisted living residents creativity and adventurous spirit, they are likely to come up with another great activity idea ! Residents can harness their imaginations, and bring their ideas to frequent brainstorming sessions.

Taking it a step further, residents can share those ideas with assisted living facility leaders and activity professionals. If funds and staffing are available, the residents may even play a role in moving the activities forward.

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Go To The Local Senior Center

Check out the local senior center to learn about what kind of entertainment options they have available for their patrons. The senior center is a great place to meet other people in your age group with similar interests and you might even decide to eat meals there several times a week just to socialize or enjoy scheduled special events! In addition to fun activities, many senior centers also provide health-related screenings and other important resources to senior citizens in the communities they serve. If you have a special skill like a nursing or nutrition degree, you might be able to contribute your expertise as a resource to the people there as an outlet that would help you keep your skills sharp while contributing something of importance to the community.

Listen To Radio Lento

Radio Lento makes it possible to listen to the relaxing and tranquil sounds of the great outdoors from home! The Radio Lento podcast is full of immersive 3D soundscapes created by recording the authentic sounds of nature with highly sensitive microphones. Great for falling asleep to. Submitted by Mary.

We want to hear what you’re doing during lockdown. Send your suggestions of activities for older adults to Jacob, our resident Curator of Positive Ideas, at

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Outdoor Activities For Limited Mobility

Although a senior may not be able to get around so well anymore, they shouldnt always be confined indoors.

A report from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health states, A growing body of research suggests that exposure to nature and time outdoors also provides health benefits, particularly for mental health and an improved sense of well-being.

If you want that for your senior parent or loved one , here are some outdoor activities to incorporate into their routine.

Benefits Of Regular Physical Exercise

Many assisted living activities involve some type of physical movement. With indoor and outdoor exercise options available, residents are encouraged to move their bodies daily.

When older adults engage in regular exercise, they receive numerous proven benefits. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that dedicated older exercisers often develop improved muscle strength, and over time they build more stamina.

Consistent exercise also helps to build healthier bones and joints. With a stronger body structure, seniors lessen their risk of falls and possible fractures. These older adults may also experience decreased arthritis-related pain and joint swelling.

Seniors who remain physically active are less likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, and colon cancer. And, exercise reduces older adults risk of dying from coronary heart disease-linked problems.

Finally, physically active older adults may notice reduced anxiety and depression symptoms. At the same time, they experience more feelings of well-being, a generally sunnier mood, and a higher quality of life.

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Make Your Own Cookbook

Whats Needed: Recipes, scanner or camera

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate

Many seniors have a collection of recipes they have collected over the years. You can preserve your familys favorite recipes by organizing them into a format that others can enjoy. You could scan recipes to make digital copies and create a cookbook to share with the family. The final product will be shipped right to your door! And its only $20.

Fun Activities For Seniors: Over 100 Ways To Play

Whatever your age, interests, or abilities, you can enjoy pastimes that make you laugh, lose track of time, or feel like a goofy kid at heart. And plenty of activities cost little or no money. Some of the best types of diversions for older adults or elderly people include:

• Outings and excursions

According to one study, four of the top five activities most commonly cited by seniors as being their favorites are, by their nature, very active. They include walking and jogging, gardening and yard work, playing sports, and other physical pursuits.

But fun takes many different forms. So check out the following list of things to do for inspiration. And learn why play is so important.

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Unique Activities For Seniors

In addition to all the fun indoor activities for seniors weve already listed, here are few, more unique, ideas that would be great to join in on.

Chair yoga

A modified version of yoga for seniors and those with mobility problems. Improve flexibility and stiffness, lengthen muscles and build strength with simple poses.

A team sport similar to lawn bowling that dates back to the Roman Empire.

Pickleball

The fastest-growing senior activity in popularity, pickleball is a paddle sport combining elements of table tennis, badminton and tennis to hit a wiffle ball over a net.

Music programs

Sit back and enjoy a musical performance, or learn more about music. Do you play an instrument? Get together with others to play together.

Visiting entertainers and lecturers

Stimulate your mind and your curiosity by attending performances that can include anything from magicians to White House butlers.

Tea dances

Dust off your dancing shoes and take a turn around the dance floor. A tea dance is an elegant afternoon activity.

Art shows

Show off your arts and crafts talents in an art show, or host a local artist to talk about their own works.

Whats it worth antiques appraisal fairs

Similar to the popular PBS series Antiques Roadshow, you can learn more about antiques and whats valuable in todays market. Bring in items of your own to appraise during an appraisal fair.

Senior Olympics

Learn a language

Senior talent show

Casino games

Line dancing

Zumba Gold

Indoor gardening

Wine tasting

What Games Do Seniors Enjoy The Most

When searching for fun activities for seniors, its important to select games that you are going to enjoy. One of the reasons for this is that you need to make sure that you are engaged.

This will help guarantee that you see the biggest benefits from social activities. So, what games are popular?

Well when looking at activities for the elderly, we certainly suggest you consider cup stacking. As well as being fun to play it helps boost both hand-eye coordination and motor control.

As such, you will be getting fantastic health benefits from this particular possibility. Its easy to play too. Everyone participating gets cups that they need to try and stack within a certain time.

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Assisted Living Activity Calendar

Schedule fun activities that work well for your general population that allow you to celebrate unique observances, like hosting a Colory Therapy activity for residents to color on National Coloring Book Day, participating in a Backyard Sandcastle Contest on Sandcastle Day, or even crafting Doll House Artwork on National Doll Day.

Specialized Activity Calendar

Explore Senior Employment Opportunities

If you find yourself itching to get back into a work routine, there are a lot of resources designed for seniors to help find potential positions to apply for.

Here’s a great resource page from the U.S. Department of State that includes information on training, job fairs, and job postings specifically for Seniors.

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Activities To Add To Your Senior Program

When providing activities for your nursing facilitys residents, it is a good idea to include a variety of activity types that will appeal to different interests. Our friends at notjustbingo have shared several activities to consider for your senior program:

Social

• Play fun conversational games and ice breakers like Table Topics and Word Teasers
• Organize Story Telling Activities in which each participant uses their imagination to create fun and interesting stories
• Add daily, afternoon socials for residents to socialize with one another

Spiritual

• Contact local religious leaders to perform religious services at your facility for your residents
• Provide spiritual singing activities, like hymn sing-alongs
• Organize a Meditation Club, in which you practice meditation with residents, or a Bible Study Club, in which residents regularly read passages of the Bible together

Physical

• Get your residents moving with fun exercises that uses props like Parachutes or even Resistance Bands
• Add dance breaks to encourage residents to move, or supplement your regular Exercise Class with a Chair Fitness session
• Schedule weekly walks through your facility. Include outdoor nature walks or even an indoor walking tour to show-off the parts of your facility that your residents do not normally see

Reminiscing

Tactile

Educational

Cognitive

Community

Sensory

Outing

Musical

Family

Do you recommend another type of activity that you use for your senior program?

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Recommended Guidelines When It Comes To Exercises For Seniors

For adults who are 65 or older, don’t have any limiting health concerns, and are generally fit, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week . Seniors who want to achieve even greater health benefits can up their moderate-intensity exercise to 300 minutes a week or vigorous-intensity exercise to 150 minutes a week. The CDC also recommends taking part in muscle-strengthening exercises that work all major muscle groups at least two days per week.

Aerobic exercisealso called cardiois any activity that makes you breathe harder and raises your heart rate. It includes activities like mowing the lawn or shoveling snow, as long as you’re doing the activity for a minimum of 10 minutes at a time. Doing it at moderate intensity means that you should still be able to talk. An example would be going on a brisk walk. Exercising at a vigorous intensity means that you would only be able to speak a few words without having to stop what you’re doing.

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Top Games For Seniors And The Elderly: Fun For All Abilities

Get ready to play! It’s time to learn about the best games for seniors so that you can reap the benefits of having fun. After all, joy, amusement, and mental stimulation are necessary for every senior’s overall well-being. And we all have days when we just want to pass a little time by doing something engaging.

Games provide convenient ways to have fun, either alone or as part of a group. They eradicate boredom, relieve stress, and make parties and other social engagements easier, more enjoyable, and less intimidating. They also help exercise our brains. For some people, playing certain types of games might be beneficial for things like mood, memory, concentration, reasoning, and imagination. Games might be especially helpful for your brain if they require you to learn something new.

Plus, countless games can be modified for seniors or elderly people who have physical or cognitive limitations. For example, it’s easy to find or create games that have large type, which is good for older people who have vision problems. And if time or attention spans are a concern, many games can be played and completed in less than 30 minutes.

The variety of senior-friendly games that are now available is astonishing. So to help you narrow down the possibilities, we’ve provided some of the best examples within seven main categories:

What Are Good Hobbies For Seniors

Staying active when you reach your twilight years doesnt always mean intense or strenuous exercise.

Indeed, its possible to instead focus on different hobbies that could be tremendously beneficial. Luckily, hobbies can easily form a long-term part of an elders life.

This is true whether they are in an assisted living facility or receiving in-home senior care. There are numerous options to consider when looking at senior hobbies.

Pets

For instance, it could be worth getting a pet. Did you know that pets offer a comfort system? They help reduce stress by helping release a hormone known as serotonin.

This isnt the only big benefit either. Research suggests that caring for a pet will also help with levels of depression.

It reduces the chances of an elderly person developing a heart problem. Owning a pet is definitely one of the top fun activities for senior citizens.

Dancing

Dancing is another one of our highly recommended senior activities. It is a great option because it helps seniors stay both mobile and active. Aside from keeping seniors fit and healthy, dancing will also help you improve your functioning, balance, and gate. It could even help reduce the chances of developing dementia according to some research.

Gardening

Are you looking for activities and hobbies for seniors that will get you outside? If so, then you should definitely consider gardening.

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