Category: Activity Ideas

February is Library Lovers Month, and if your elderly family member needs help getting to her local library, elder care providers can help. There are also more online options from the library than ever before, so that is something to look into further. Reading has huge benefits for seniors, and doing so regularly can improve your elderly family member’s quality of life in some big ways.

Reducing Stress

Stress is a huge problem for so many people, even seniors. Reading is a great way to relax and to get lost in other worlds and adventures. It turns out that reading is also a fantastic tool for reducing stress levels quickly. Your elderly family member doesn’t have to read anything fancy or complicated. As long as she’s enjoying what she’s reading, that’s the key to getting the results she wants.

Improving Overall Cognitive Function

Reading regularly helps your elderly family member to maintain and even improve her cognitive function, too. This is especially important if your senior is concerned about brain health now and in the future. Talk to her doctor about her risk factors for brain diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to determine what else might help.
Improving Memory

It is also possible that your elderly family member can improve her memory when she reads more often. Much of that possible improvement depends on other factors, such as her current brain health. But the brain makes connections as your senior spends more time reading, and she can find that her memory is at least not getting worse if she’s reading more often.

Helping with Sleep Quality

Reading, especially before bed, can be relaxing enough for your senior that she is able to sleep more easily. She may also find that her sleep quality improves, which can be tremendously helpful in reducing stress, improving cognitive health, and managing chronic health issues. If your elderly family member has lots of trouble with sleep, either getting to sleep or staying asleep, she may want to see if there are underlying medical causes.

Offering a Pleasant Way to Spend Time

Finally, reading is just a fun way to spend some time. That alone can greatly improve your senior’s quality of life. If she feels as if she doesn’t have enough time to read books when she wants to do so, it might be time to have some help from elder care professionals. Elder care providers can help your senior with tasks that are becoming more difficult, giving her time to rest and to do things that improve her life, like spend some time reading.

Not everyone enjoys reading, and some people find reading to be difficult because of eye issues, learning disabilities, and other reasons. Exploring solutions like audiobooks or reading to your loved one could help her to enjoy reading in other ways. She may also want to explore other types of books to find something that truly calls to her. All of these ideas are worth trying out for your senior.

If you or an aging loved one is considering elder care in Edina, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

Whether it’s his changing health or a recent fall that’s impacted his mobility, your dad is struggling to get outside. He loves going outside in his gardens or for walks around the neighborhood, but he just can’t do it on his own.

A VR headset can make it easy for your dad to get outside and explore a new area. He can do this from the safety of his favorite chair. Here are some of the best tools for helping your dad explore a city or country while feeling he’s actually on his feet and exploring.

Alcove

If your dad is more interested in the activity than the area, Alcove is a good choice. He can go on a stroll through a big city or walk up a mountainside. The VR experiences include hot air balloon rides and hikes along a trail.

Ecosphere

The immersive Ecosphere software brings you on virtual treks in Africa, in the ocean to explore a reef, tour Fiji, or into the rainforest. It was created with the help of the World Wildlife Fund.

Gala360

Gala360’s tours are filmed 360 degrees in 6k quality for some of the best visuals you’ll find in a VR tour. Among the offerings is a walking tour of Kyoto, Japan. The software no longer seems to upload new content, but if your dad is new to it, he’ll have plenty to go through as he catches up.

Homestar VR

Instead of exploring a city or site, your dad can stand in a backyard and explore the night sky. He can find different constellations and have help exploring all of the planets, stars, and galaxies in the sky far above him.

National Geographic Explore VR

National Geographic is known for its amazing photography and documentaries. The magazine also offers a VR Explore program that takes you on virtual journeys exploring a historic site or kayaking in the ocean. Have him scale a wall of ice from the safety of his chair.

Wander

Wander is technically a game where your dad picks an avatar and starts exploring by himself or with others. He can stroll through London’s streets, visit the Taj Mahal, or climb the

A VR headset can lead your dad on amazing journeys, but fresh air is best of all. If he can’t walk on his own, it shouldn’t keep him from getting outside. Companion care at home services pair your dad with a caregiver who can stop by each day and accompany him for a walk.

Talk to your dad about the things he hates doing on his own. Ask him if he has any questions to ask a home care agency. Once you have a list of both his and your questions, talk to a specialist in companion care at home to get the answers you need to book services.

Source
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/virtual-reality-and-health

If you or an aging loved one is considering companion care at home in Minneapolis, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

If you have been looking at fun activities to do with your senior parent, there are tons of national “days” that celebrate all kinds of things. One day that is coming up soon is National Go Fishing Day, a great idea for something to do with your senior. This day is celebrated on June 18th and celebrating it can highlight how fishing can be beneficial for your senior. Here are a few of the benefits of fishing for your senior, and how home care can play a role:

Health Benefits of Fishing

You may be surprised to find out that fishing does have a few health benefits, which can be even more of a reason to get out on June 18th.

It’s Physical Activity

Staying fit can be incredibly hard as you get older, but fishing can be a good way to get outside and move around. It won’t be draining or physically exhausting, but it will help get a senior moving.

Fishing Helps a Senior Socialize

Fishing with family and friends is a favorite pastime, particularly for the grandkids. A fishing vacation is a great opportunity to spend time with your family, create lasting memories, and have a good time. There are many things to do, from just relaxing in nature to engaging in friendly competitions to see who can catch the largest fish.

It’s Stress Relieving

This is a time for you and your dad to openly talk; it allows you both to get out in nature where you can feel stress-free. Limiting the amount of stress a senior feels is crucial when trying to help them live healthier and longer.

What To Do Instead of Fishing

Not all seniors will like fishing, but maybe your senior mom still wants to celebrate a fun day like this. There are other ways to celebrate this day. You can take your senior mom out on the lake to watch the sunset on a dock or on a boat. You can go fishing and bring back your catch to cook up a nice meal for her. Lastly, you can play go fish, the card game! It’s a way of “fishing” without ever leaving the house.

How Home Care Can Help

Finding ways to keep your senior parents happy while living out the rest of their days can seem impossible. Especially when they have so much free time, and you don’t. If you can’t seem to find the time to help your senior mom or dad throughout the day, it may be time to look into home care providers to help with everyday activities. You may be there for the fun activities once in a while, but your senior parent may need more help than that. It is okay to turn to home care for that additional help that is often needed when an elderly loved one chooses to age in place.

Source
https://nationaltoday.com/national-go-fishing-day/

If you or an aging loved one is considering home care in St. Paul, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

How often do you also think about including your brain in daily exercises when you’re working out? Physical activity is also one way to exercise the brain, but there are others.

A study determined that physical activity involving muscle contractions improved attention and memory skills. When mice were put onto treadmills and studied, researchers found that the hippocampus area of the mice’s brains developed new neurons.

Physical activity does help the brain stay healthy, but there are other ways to exercise the brain. Here are some of the best options.

Play Video Games Together

Some video games work on hand-eye coordination. Purchase detective and puzzle games to play with your parents. There are mysteries and puzzles to solve to advance the game’s plot. Games can be set in the past, present, or future.

Some games have you playing as a character, such as the Sherlock Holmes mystery games. You follow the story, look for clues, put the clues together using analytical skills, and solve the crimes or mysteries. There are many games where you must solve puzzles to escape areas or complete a challenge to move to the next level.

Assemble a Jigsaw Puzzle

Purchase jigsaw puzzles to work on together. Challenging puzzles take time, and they require a lot of critical thinking skills as you match colors, patterns within the picture, and shapes of the pieces.

Do a Crossword Together

Print out the daily crossword and complete it with your parents. You may know words they’re struggling to fill in, and they’ll know some you don’t. It works on recollection and vocabulary. Purchase a crossword book if you don’t feel like printing them out.

Take Dance Lessons

Take dance lessons together. Learn by watching videos or enrolling in a class. Dance is a great aerobic workout, but it also requires memorization and counting to get the steps down. You have to remember how to complete the movements in the proper sequence.

Visit Escape Rooms

You’re looking for a fun family outing to go on with your parents. Have you looked into an escape room? Often, you can have a group of up to ten people. The rooms are private, so only family is within the room. Escape rooms are cleaned between groups to prevent the spread of germs.

Work together to solve the puzzles, unlock doors, and work your way to the escape. There are different themes, and escape rooms change regularly. You can visit regularly and try a different room each time.

How Personal Care at Home Can Help

When you aren’t able to be there to help your senior keep their mind busy, personal care at home can step in to help. Personal care at home providers offer more than just medication reminders and ambulatory assistance. Companionship and social engagement are just two of the many other benefits of personal care at home providers.

Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6770965/

If you or an aging loved one is considering personal care in Edina, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

Senior home care can help a lot when a family is worried about their loved ones. However, the senior is still a part of your family, and you should make an effort to go see them multiple times a month. They will want to see your kids and spend quality time with you. It can be so important for a senior’s mental health to still feel included in their family.

When seniors get lonely, it can impact their mental and physical health more than you might know. Fall is coming up in a few short weeks, and it’s time to get your older loved ones out of the house and enjoy some fall activities with your family.

Ask their senior home care providers for ideas if you are worried about what activities your senior parent or grandparent can’t do. They will tell you how mobile they are and how long of activities they like to do. This year is going to be the best year to enjoy activities outside. Here are some fun fall activities you can take your family and beloved senior to do.

Fun Fall Outdoor Activities

There are so many fun ways to spice up senior living; you just have to get creative. If your parents or grandparents have a senior home care specialist, get them in on the fun. Here are some easy ideas that your senior might love to do with the whole family.

Ghost Tours

Many towns offer tours where you can sit with your senior on a carriage or bus and learn about the haunted places in the town. This is a fun way for you guys to spend a fall evening and it doesn’t involve too much walking! It can be a fun and spooky way to enjoy this fall. Best of all, it gets your senior out of the house.

Pumpkin Patch

Nothing screams outside fall activities like a pumpkin patch. In most towns there will be one or two pumpkin patches to choose from. This is a great option to take seniors to because there are usually short walks that are easy and bathrooms nearby. Some pumpkin patches even have short rides to and from the patches! This makes it an easy activity for the whole family to enjoy.

S’mores!

If you plan on doing a fire in your backyard, invite your parents or grandparent over too. They will love spending time with the family around a warm fire pit or bonfire. You can invite their senior home care specialist to drive them and help them with hotdogs and s’mores. This is a fun fall activity that will bring you and your senior together.

Fall Family Photos

It can be so much fun to take a family photoshoot with the seniors and kids. This allows you to get your kids, parents, or grandparents involved. Not to mention, all of the colors of fall can be captured in a stunning photo. It may also make excellent Christmas cards.

If you are worried about picking up your senior, have the senior home care assistant help out. Part of their job is to ensure your seniors get places they need to go. While you are watching them at the event, the caregiver can go do other household chores for the senior.

If you or an aging loved one is considering senior home care in Maple Grove, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.