Fun, games, colouring, crafts and puzzles galore!
We are so lucky to have wonderful Lifestyle teams within all of our homes who plan activities meticulously and ensure that our residents have the option to take part in fun and creative games, puzzles, arts and crafts.
In this blog, we’ll be sharing some of the activities we get up to as well as some of the reasons we include these activities in our lifestyle schedules! Because more often than not, the activities we plan are not only fun, but good for our residents too!
Arts and Crafts
Making and creating is not only tons of fun but the process also helps the mind to focus, stimulating cognitive function and providing a little boost to self esteem once a project is finished. Crafts require residents to use their hands, which can improve blood flow and dexterity in fingers – we’ve found this particularly helps those who suffer from conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthiritis. Finally, crafting brings a sense of independence as our residents are able to create and design something which is completely their own. This is so important, especially for those who may have recently joined us – we work so hard to ensure that everyone has dignity, choice and respect!
Puzzles
Puzzles such as jigsaws and word searches are fun for our residents to get stuck into! We often find that an afternoon spent with a good jigsaw or puzzle book can be incredibly relaxing for our residents. In addition, puzzles such as jigsaws exercise the left and right sides of our brains, so doing a jigsaw engages both sides of your brain keeping it active – almost like mind exercise! Also, jigsaws have been found to improve short term memory through reinforcing the connection between brain cells and improving mental speed. Visual spatial reasoning can also improve, as residents have to look at the size of the piece of the puzzle versus the gap it needs to occupy. Finally, focusing on one image for a long period of time becomes meditative. Residents often find jigsaws particularly relaxing because of this!
Games
Socialisation is also really important to our residents and team games or games that everyone can take part in, such as bingo, are a great way for everyone to get together and have fun! Bingo in particular is not only great fun, but tackles any feelings of isolation and allows for reflection and memory recall. It’s another activity which improves cognitive function and hand eye coordination – but mostly for our residents, they absolutely love the game!
To find out more about our brilliant lifestyle teams and all of the work they do to ensure our residents have the best time – get in touch or follow us on social media!
