What a fabulous week we have had at Hill house. All the residents have embraced the winter season and took part in winter inspired sports, made scrumptious winter soups, we took down Christmas and had fun doing so. This week also saw us celebrate Elvis’s birthday with a themed Interactive music cart.
Monday morning our garden view lounges spent time relaxing listening to M4D radio’s 1950’ & 60’s channel and engaging in therapeutic colouring of winter woodland animals or reminiscing images that spark conversations.
Others engaged in brain training word searches or a fun game of dominoes.
That afternoon Anna, Helen, Bryony and Lynn from Hill House received Sunflower awards for going above and beyond their job roles! Well Done, Ladies!! Thise award presentation was extra special as one of our fabulous residents, Anne won an award for encouraging a fellow resident to come for lunch with her. Anne had noticed the other resident had stopped joining us in the dining room and wanted to ensure she enjoyed a hot meal with friends around her.
With the high spirits of the awards, we spent time that afternoon enjoying a variety of boundless activities. Playing quiz games using the Omi interactive.
We played board games and added memories to our scrapbooks over a cup of tea in our garden view lounge.
We took on a word wheel in the lounge Using the central letter for everything, we tried to make as many words as we could from the surrounding letters.
The afternoon saw us also play a competitive game of balloon volleyball. The lounge was filled with joy as we laughed while staying active and having fun at the same time.
Tuesday morning saw us embrace winter week as we took down the Christmas decorations. Everyone got stuck in taking off baubles from the trees, packing up the nativity. We spent time reminiscing on all the tremendous fun we have had throughout Christmas.
Tuesday afternoon we played Mexican train dominoes in the lounge.
Our winter hot chocolate cart visited across the home, offering the chocolatey goodness with lashings of cream and marshmallows. Our themed carts, as well as being fun, are also a creative way our activities team, actively promote nutrition and hydration.
Wednesday morning, we continue to explore winter sports as we played our take on basketball, using buckets and aiming our balls to build up scores.
Sensory hand massages and manicures, listening calming tranquil sounds of waves playing on the Tv and cucumber water being served it was a relaxing morning for us in garden view lounge.
That afternoon we made winter bird feeders in our arts and crafts group. First we painted designs and patterns before decorating old bean cans and attaching rods for the bird to sit on.
We gathered together to take on this week’s brain training game in our garden view lounge with a winter word finder game.
Thursday morning our cooking club on garden view gathered to make a beautiful winter soup, peeling, chopping and cutting up vegetables.
Taking time to add in cream, stock and herbs, we soon had it bubbling away on the hob. The room was smelt sensational. As cooking involves weighing and measuring, mixing and stimulating smells and taste, it is an excellent way to keep both the body and the brain active well into old age.
We really look forward to our weekly flower delivery.
That afternoon, we played whiteboard games, using the daily newspapers word ladder as our inspiration.
Word games exercise the mind and encourage residents to retain their language skills. Games that require us to think about language and vocabulary can increase memory retention and stimulate mental activity.
We started our afternoon playing exercise games before helping arrange this week’s flowers.
Others enjoyed a game of draughts.
Friday morning, our garden view lounges started their day with a relaxing manicure as well as playing card games.
We love to help around the home and laying the tables ready for lunch is one of the ways we help. It brings us such satisfaction knowing there is lots of us to do around our home.
A group of players joined for a morning of floor bowls, divided into 4 teams we build up our scores as we played.
We arranged our special flower delivery together and read the information leaflet about the flower and its history.
After lunch we made bird feeders in our garden view lounge ready to hang out side and feed the winter birds. Others completed independent brain training games.
With the success of soup making earlier in the week, more of us wanted to help with our evening soup, a group of us gathered to help peel, chop and slice up the vegetables for our supper.
Chef was so impressed with the flavour of our soup he was worried he might be out of job soon. But we all agreed that he is too good to loose, so we would let him keep his job. We laughed all afternoon as it flew by.
Saturday morning, we added to our scrapbook picking out fun memories from the weeks before and adding them in with little notes of how we feel about each activity or what we enjoyed about that day.
Our aqua art boards always encourage conversation, as we paint and the picture is revealed. It sparks memories and we love to share them with one and other.
That afternoon as we celebrated Elvis’s birthday with this week’s movie being – Heart Break Hotel in the lounge while sipping on milkshakes. We were treated to an interactive Music milkshake cart by our fantastic activities team who dressed up for the occasion.
We spent the afternoon sipping milkshakes, singing and dancing in our garden view lounge and other small lounges across the home.
Sunday morning, we watched our weekly church service and took part in sensory activities, games and spent time with our families.
