Are you a care partner? It can be stressful and challenging to entertain yourself and your loved one under normal circumstances, let alone when illness prevents you from interacting with your support system in person. These suggestions are adapted from activities we might normally do at Neighborhood Memory Cafe. Visit hoopla:
One of our favorite activities at Memory Cafe is using music bingo to relive favorite hits from past decades. All you need to do this at home is your library card and you'll be able to set up an account through hoopla. You can watch shows or movies too, but I highly recommend looking up a music album you haven't heard for quite a while. You can borrow up to 20 items each month, and hoopla has a great collection of music from different genres and times. Dance around your house and enjoy!
See Some Art:
Try "Explore by Color", opens a new window on Google Arts and Culture and dig into the famous art that's collected in this wonderful resource. What's your favorite color? How does it make you feel? Pick a painting with several people doing something. Just like we do at Memory Cafe sometimes, you can make a story for these characters. What are they doing? What should we say their names are? What happened before this, and what will they do next? What do they see, or hear, or smell? There are no right answers, just get creative.
Would You Rather?
You too can ask the age old question: would you rather?
- Would you rather constantly sing while talking or dance while walking?
- Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?
- Would you rather emit a bad body odor all the time or smell something bad all the time?
Here are some other fun would you rather questions, opens a new window you can discuss together. You might find you have a lot of opinions about the questions. Be open to the fact that these questions might lead to other conversations or bring up memories you might want to share. Or they might not, and that's okay too.
Share a Story:
Read a 50-word story., opens a new window I like to pick a humorous one that we can laugh about together, but you can also find serious or touching stories on this website. These stories are great because they only take a minute to read, and they can give you a nice distraction.
Make Your Own Art:
If you have a printer at home, you can go to various websites and print out pages to color. Here are some adult coloring pages, opens a new window and a mandala, opens a new window to color for relaxation. Or you can color your mandala online, opens a new window.
Looking for other ideas to entertain yourselves at home? You can travel the world from home or find other activities to do with your care partner. Or you can submit an Ask a Librarian form to receive more help and ideas.
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