A fabulous week at Hill House as we celebrate sports week linking in with the commonwealth games. Residents have spent the week taking part in a variety of sports themed activities from netball, bingo and even hosted our very own resident and staff sports day. Alongside all the sports themed activities we also welcomed our friendly goats for a pet therapy session and celebrated national cheese and wine day with a lovely selection of tasty treats.
Monday morning, we started our sports themed week with a game of sport bingo. Researchers around the world have found that playing Bingo has multiple health benefits for older adults. You can build social connections, increase hand-eye coordination, and maintain your cognitive abilities and focus.
The garden view lounge enjoyed a fun morning of parachute games as part of our daily exercise routine followed by a sporting target game.
We built up our PBs and added scores to the leader board throughout the morning.
Monday marked world Cheese and Wine day and we don’t need an excuse to indulge a little, so we were delighted with the fabulous cheese and wines on offer on our cart. We choose the cheeses we fancied trying, learnt a little about each cheese and we discussed when we feel the perfect time to eat cheese is….. ALWAYS!
As the morning started on Tuesday, we enjoyed morning papers in the lounge and a game of giant basketball.
Following on we relished in a morning of pet therapy, as we welcomed two of our goats into the home. The entertaining nature of our goats is among the qualities that make them excellent therapy animals.
Goats playfulness brings people out of their shell, lifts their spirits, and even lowers blood pressure.
An afternoon of live music with singer Roger got all of us singing and dancing and joining in.
Dance is particularly beneficial for improving balance, mobility, strength, flexibility, physical activity, as well as improving cognitive function. Music and singing can also provide improved emotions.
Wednesday morning Rev Tara held a Church service in our day lounge, we enjoy her prays and hymns and were very excited to be able to help her during the service by playing the piano for her.
The afternoon we played balloon tennis in the lounge inspired by our sports themed week.
Others enjoyed an afternoon of garden time and scrapbook reminiscing.
Wednesday evening Residents and staff joined the wider community as we welcomed back our quarterly Charity Quiz Nights hosted by Hill House. It was a fantastic, fun night, with lots of laughter, our incredible catering team supplied a great buffet of cheese & wine followed by tea, coffee and many indulging cakes.
With over 50 guests plus residents from our 4 homes in attendance, varying from age 21 to 99 and it was wonderful to see one and all socialising and enjoying the fun quiz. With money raised from the quiz and our raffle on the night, we are delighted to say we raised £860 of Families Supporting care.
Thursday morning, equipped with roses and gerberas in various colours, as well as gypsophila and an array of foliage, we spent the morning creating beautiful bouquet. Flower arranging is hugely beneficial for older people for a number of reasons, not only do the bright spectacles bring about cheer and positivity, the activity also encourages coordination and the use of hands.
Our activities team arranged a fabulous obstacle course for the residents and staff sports day. We had to complete each challenge before moving on to the next. With staff helping us move between the obstacles we raced down the track.
The lounge was full of cheering and support as residents raced against each other throwing bean bags into buckets, putting on silly hats, racing with an egg on a spoon before being first to cross the finish line.
The only problem was the more we laughed the more we lost the egg off the spoon it was a fantastic afternoon.
Friday, we continued with our water colour paintings
We also opened ‘Our Art Gallery’ in the Garden View lounge. We have been busy creating stunning art works throughout the month and we can’t wait to show case them each month in our gallery.
Our Artist of the Month was chosen by fellow residents at an art social over tea, coffee and cakes.
We have also enjoyed 1 to 1 activities that include jigsaw puzzles, sensory muffs and doll therapy.
A great game of netball was enjoyed in the day lounge and ladies worked together passing the ball around before shooting to score.
Friday afternoon we took on a team sports digital quiz and a fun game of finish the catch phrase quiz.
Our gardenview lounge spent the afternoon enthralled in a game of giant floor dominoes.
Playing dominoes has a way of reducing the stress of the players, therefore, improving their mental health. Playing dominoes needs a lot of attention and focus plus players have to remember their lines well in order not to be cheated or make mistakes that can cost them their game.
Saturday morning, we took a trip to our library in the day lounge to pick out a selection of new books to take to our garden view lounge.
We played a sports themed game of hangman as part of our brain training activities.
We had a fun game of Bananagram was played in our garden view lounge, while others spent time in the garden or reading sports day reminiscing booklets and leaflets.
Our sports themed refreshment cart rolled around the home, offering a wide selection of yummy snacks and drinks prompting hydration. We watched all the TV delights from England winning a handful of medals including gold medals at the commonwealth games.
Sunday morning we enjoyed a morning of reflection as we watched our live streamed church service across the home, or relaxed with a coffee and our daily newspapers.
The afternoon was filled with a group jigsaw puzzle and sports themed brain training games, while others watched the common wealth games as well as watching England ladies win the Euros 2022.
