This week at Hill house residents have relished in the theme of chores and activities of daily living. Revisiting cleaning objects that bring back memories from their childhood, doing chores that used to be a chore but have brought back joy and laughter during the task and the home was filled with fresh baking smells as residents baked cakes and cupcakes.
Monday morning was spent reminiscing about the traditions of house work gender rolls and keeping a clean and organised house. We had a hands-on session looking through tool boxes, wash boards and a wide range of other household objects.
This week’s cooking club joined together to bake delicious cupcakes, clubs like cooking club are designed to activate our senses, trigger happy memories, and encourage social bonding.
Tuesday morning exercise session of ball games and stretches, help us with countless benefits, including a healthier heart, stronger bones and improved flexibility.
This week’s theme was inspired by conversation we had as we reminisced about house hold chores and jobs we had around the home; we class tis as an activity of daily living. Tuesday afternoon we collected some of the antiques we have on display around the home and spent time bringing life back into them, with a polish and buff, this is something we would have done annually at home buffing our best silver ready for the neighbours to come over for tea. And it is great to say we were not afraid to get stuck in and mucky.
Wednesday morning residents in garden view lounge rolled up their sleeves and challenged their inner Great British Bake Off, preparing and baking scrumptious lemon cupcakes. Food is extremely emotive and for many of us triggers positive memories of celebration or familiarity of family. Whether it’s memories of cooking with a grandchildren, the smell of fresh cakes or a traditional family favourite is a powerful trigger.
We also took part in a range of therapeutic activities, therapeutic colouring is a relaxing and mindful activity it is not about the finished art work but the process and movement we use throughout, others opted for a quieter morning listening to classical music in our rooms.
Our fabulous hairdresser has a unique relationship with our residents and acted as ‘keeper of stories’ and reminder of forgotten details and she plays a far more active role not only in supporting person-centred care but in enhancing the identities, self-expression and social involvement.
The afternoon we joined in the main lounge for the week’s giant crossword, benefits of solving puzzles are uncountable, including enhancing memory, improving cognitive skills, enhanced concentration.
We celebrated a special birthday with loved ones and a yummy birthday cake, in the autumn sunshine.
A piano lesson was held on Thursday morning, the session inspired creativity – Piano playing helps to improve creativity as we needed to use divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is when your brain is using both sides. Piano helps you to use both sides of the brain, which directly correlates to creative thinking. It was a very social activity as we all have varied ability and helping one and other out and supporting each other was very rewarding. Alterity we spent time one to one engaging in a wide range of personal activities from reading magazines and the daily paper, listening to music and knitting.
Thursday afternoon we played snakes and ladders and other board games that never fail to bring out our competitive side. Our flower arranging group met in the lounge top create stunning floral displays to be exhibited around the home.
Friday morning as part of our at ‘home week’, we helped out laundry and matched up socks and folding them neatly, Helping the laundry brought us great joy and the benefit of helping involves us in daily living. This is a job in the past we may have not looked forwards to as it was more of a chore but today, we have laughed with friends and relished in the bliss of it.
The afternoon we played a game of skittles and played games on the interactive activity centre.
Over the weekend we had a jam-packed activity programme, we spent time in the garden between showers, he changes in the leaves and autumn flowers are stunning, nothing beats the crunch of leaves below your feet. We received some lovely letters from family and friends. We connected with family through technology using skype calls to have meaningful conversations and sharing stories about our weeks. Others enjoyed visits with families in our warm conservatory.
