This week we have loved our Wild West themed activities, finishing off the week with a Wild West BBQ. Residents have spent the week making stunning flower centre pieces in our new club, playing games with friends and taking on a brain training activities.
Monday morning, we played quiz Jenga in the day lounge, some of the Jenga blocks have questions on, we needed to answer before taking another turn. This game is a great conversation starter, and we love getting to know fun facts about each other and the staff.
Wild West themed word games were played in our garden view lounges from word scrabble to themed crosswords.
Music therapy with Laura took place in the afternoon, singing our favourite songs and following the beat on the bongos. The afternoon flew by.
Tuesday morning, we reminisced and re watched the videos of “Little Farnham Ballet” on the home iPads, seeing the young children invoked so many happy memories and feelings of joy, we are super excited to be welcoming them back to Hill House on Friday.
Our garden view lounges spent time engaging in hobbies and games we love, from knitting to a game of Quirkle with friends.
Our themed word game took place in our day lounge. We worked together to find 100 plus words from ‘cowboy wild west’ bringing the whole lounge together. Word games keep the mind active. While word searches may not seem like the most stimulating activities, they can do some good for aging brains.
That afternoon, we were delighted to welcome Tinkerbell our PAT dog. Animal-assisted interventions can improve self-esteem and confidence in people with dementia as well as other age-related ailments. It can also promote quality of life and encourage independence.
Others helped with activities of daily life. One helpful lady got to work organising and sorting through activities team paperwork as the honouree activity member of the day she was so helpful, and we had a real giggle while doing it.
Wednesday morning started with a game of rodeo themed bingo.
Winning a full house and shouting Yee-ha brought lots of laughter to those around us.
Our “knitter natter” coffee morning was in full swing across the lounge with ladies and gents coming together to enjoy the social aspect of the activity, some giving knitting a go for the very first time.
From our garden view lounge we spent time out in the summer sun, gardening, taking part in word games and water colour cowboy paintings, all while singing along to country and western music.
In the afternoon we created stunning water colour paintings in our paint and sip club. Cowboy boots and Western scenes are ready for our BBQ on Saturday.
Thursday morning, Wild West word searches were a great way to start our day.
Others opted for a quiet morning, knitting or watching the women’s world cup with a cup of coffee.
We love our water colour paintings of sheriff badges ready to be worn.
Thursday morning our brand-new flower arranging club host Louise was welcomed with big smiles as everyone worked hard together creating stunning displays.
Flower arranging engages the senses, provides cognitive and sensory stimulation, improves motor skills, and instils a sense of independence and accomplishment.
Garden view explored our local reminiscing books from Farnham and the local area in the 1950’s.
We are still exploring our rummage areas in garden view, these areas promote sensory stimulation our residents with dementia explore their environment in a safe, enjoyable, meaningful, purposeful, engaging, and age-appropriate way.
Sensory stimulation is an occupational therapy treatment, by using everyday objects to trigger memories and emotions in individuals who may have lost their ability to communicate with the world.
In the afternoon we finished off our flower centre pieces by cutting out and making decorations for the flowers.
Friday with our Wild West BBQ right around the corner we got to work drawing self-portraits and portraits of others around the table on wanted posters.
This caused great amusement as we looked in the mirror ready to draw ourselves, we realised it wasn’t going to be as easy as we thought but we were so pleased with our finished drawing and can’t wait to see them on the walls at the event.
Family members enjoyed posing as models.
We kick started our cooking with Carolyn this week, with scrumptious corn muffins inspired by the Wild West theme. We were very busy weighing out ingredients and mixing before enjoying the baked delights served the cowboy way with a knob of butter.
What a remarkable afternoon for our spectacular Wild West BBQ (moved indoors due to uncertain weather) it was amazing to see so many families join us for the great food and lively entertainment.
Thank you so much for supporting the home and our charity Families Supporting Care. All money raised from the raffle and the stunningly handmade craft stall goes to support those living in care stay in their homes. You all helped us raise £196.25.
