As your loved one’s abilities change, it may become difficult to think of engaging and fulfilling activities to do together. While many senior living communities offer stimulating activities and events for your parent, bonding time with your family is equally important.
We believe every person is beautiful and unique—so why should ideas for activities with your parents be bland and repetitive? Prioritize talking to your parent about their interests in collaborating on a shared activity such as the following:
- See a live performance
- Play instruments / listen to music
- Attend a spiritual service
- Experience a virtual tour
- Eat a meal together
- Create a photo album
- Put on a game night
- Host a book club
- Try seated yoga
- Garden together
- See a Live Performance
Whether it’s live music, theater, opera, comedy, or readings, there’s something invigorating about experiencing a piece of art performed by its creator or performers in the same physical space, giving you a memorable shared experience.
A quick online search can provide results for live performances close to you that both you and your loved one have an interest in attending. Candlelight concerts and theatrical performances are popular starting points.
- Play Instruments / Listen to Music
Music can also be brought into the home. A child learning an instrument could show off their new skills or you could learn how to play a few scales from an instrument that your parent plays.
If instruments aren’t your thing, listening to beloved music with your parent can be. With vinyl soaring back to popularity, you could fix up an old record player or buy a new one to set up for your loved one so you can listen to records together.
- Attend a Spiritual Service
Many families share religious or spiritual beliefs that bring them together. Consider attending a spiritual service with your loved one.
This reflection can have deep, personal roots and bring forth meaningful experiences from the past—even childhood—to the present. You may find this reflection sparks profound conversations with your parent, enabling you to get to know each other better.
- Experience a Virtual Tour
More individuals over 65 than ever are becoming tech users. But even if your parents aren’t quite as tech-savvy, you can still create an experience together. Consider using a virtual reality device or a platform like Google Arts & Culture to take your loved one on a virtual tour of famous landmarks, museums, or historical sites.
This can be a great option for anyone with limited mobility or for experiencing places that are too far away for convenient or easy travel.
- Eat a Meal Together
While a more common suggestion, communal eating is anything but. Beyond making mealtime more sociable, research shows that eating with others increases social bonding, feelings of wellness, and one’s sense of community.
Whether it’s going out to a nice restaurant, cooking a meal with your loved one, or dining together at their assisted living community, food can be an easy means of engaging with your parents.
- Create a Photo Album
While it’s more common nowadays to view pictures on a phone or computer in our digital age, creating a physical photo album with your parent can be an alternative way to reminisce about shared family memories.
You can even decide on which pictures to print out together! Photographic paper is still commercially sold at retailers like Staples, Best Buy, and Walmart and can be used with most printers. Together you can relive scrapbooking days while taking a trip down memory lane.
- Put on a Game Night
Games are an easy way to bring the whole family into a shared activity with your parents. Plus, the cognitive activity can be great stimulation for your loved one to help keep their mind sharp. Most people have different types of games they prefer, but popular ones include:
- Board games like Codenames or Blockus
- Card games like bridge or Canasta
- Classic games like cribbage, chess, or checkers
- Puzzle games like Boggle, Scrabble, or Sodoku (or even regular jigsaw puzzles)
- Trivia games
- Host a Book Club / Read Together
Reading the same book as your parent can be an easy way to stay connected on your own while meeting up once a month (or at a timeline that works best for you) to discuss the book, its plot and characters, and any themes it brings up for you. Add some snack food and it can become a whole event!
- Try Seated Yoga
Regular exercise is beneficial for older adults to stay active and can prevent injuries and some health problems. For many who find regular yoga can be too difficult or too off-balancing, seated yoga is a gentle alternative that allows you to use a chair for balance while still engaging in strength and flexibility practices. It can also help boost your mood and reduce stress and joint strain.
- Garden Together
Gardening can be a relaxing activity for both you and your parent. A morning or afternoon spent planting or re-potting their favorite flowers, vegetables, fruits, and foliage provides fresh air, sunlight, and a lovely dose of nature. You can even make a day of it by visiting a garden center together to pick out seeds or seedlings.
Over time, you’ll witness the beauty of growth in the garden—and the precious memories that come with it.
Enjoy Time Spent Together
Regardless of what activity you decide to do with your parent, focus on something that will help the both of you make the most out of your time together. That principle drives Peregrine Senior Living at Salisbury to support our residents by empowering them to redefine aging. Learn more about how a senior living community can enrich your parent’s life when you can’t be with them by contacting us today.
