october office updates, part 1

This month has been fun! not everything has gone as planned when i made my wonderful themed calendar, but thats ok.  with people who have dementia, its good to have a schedule, but at the same time be willing to change it if necessary.  Every day is different, moods can change quickly or slowly, or be set and not change. fatigue can come on quickly, or last all day.  With age comes aches, and with Wisconsin weather we have plenty of aches most of the year, especially if we are human barometers due to age or sickness.  luckily we had some nice days such as for pumpkin painting, but lately has been too cold to go outdoors so some activities had to be adapted into completely different activities!  as long as my residents are happy or willing to do what i recommend, the change works out :).  every resident gets a activity schedule, and one is sent to their power of attornys.  they dont always remember they have a calendar, but thats why we help them remember .  Some of my ladies are on top of me with what daily activities are, and others would rather sit in front of the news all day ( were working on finding a happy medium).  i have some residents wh odont care to join in activities, or arts and crafts, or bingo,  so im trying to work with them to find a happy medium for us all to enjoy lol.  Many of my residents have stated that they have never done arts and crafts, except embroidery or possibly knitting in the past.  with each activity that we do i started out very simple. and as weeks progress i find activities that are more challenging to build up their stamina!  these photos are not in order,

Card workshop! as you can see, the tables were filled with supplies as my residents were building their cards

This resident chose to do several “happy halloween ” cards with spider stamps “crafty paws custom designs”
Pumpkin Yahtzee! i will be adapting this game to make it easier for my residents, right here i used either a felt orange pumpkin, or a photocopy of a finished pumpkin , and felt pieces.  i will be adapting it by creating thicker pieces, and possibly magnetizing it like the pinterest one or using velcro.

 here we were painting wood objects, or paper to go towards bookmarks.  the end results will go towards our “bazaar” a facility fundraiser.

Pumpkins~  painted and foam applicated! the foam application pieces came from http://www.orientaltrading.com

as people finished making masquerade masks for our halloween party (oriental trading.com), i introduced water color paints!