Clare

Thankyou so much for these ideas! I do admire those of you who are working to put together activities every day. I only lead a Dementia group for about 26 Carers and their relatives once a fortnight for 2 hours, but I am always panicking at the last minute trying to get things together. Sometimes my ideas are way too ambitious! I find that I want to enjoy them as well and then the enthusiasm seems to be infectious and we do have slot of fun together, which is my aim. It is going well I think and everyone says they enjoy it. I do separate the Carers at times and arrange a talk or just a coffee break for the Carers, but many of them say they enjoy staying in the group. I find role play, singing and exercises go down particularly well and suits such a broad range of understanding.

I want to do a reminiscence session on jobs, that group members did and about how jobs have changed The group is large and consists of carers and their relatives with Dementia and varied in understanding, so activities have to be varied!. I will bring items such as a tool box, and various hats and hopefully we will end up with appropriate songs. The laughing policeman goes down well. I am looking for other resources and game ideas to fill a 2 hour session. Any ideas?

There is a very helpful book called 'Brain and Soul Boosting For Seniors' by the Pilgrim Friends Society, it is a spiritual programme for people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment and consts of 15 sessions with Bible stories, and associated activities and hymns. www.pilgrimsfriend.org.uk not free but worth a look

We are having the nursery children joining us for a 30 minutes of our session after our Easter Service .The room will be quite crowded! Has anyone got any ideas for songs or activities on Easter or Springtime that we can do?

Wow! Thankyou so much, I know how long these take to compile. I don't know all the songs but I there are plenty we do know.

We had a similar session, which went down well. We had items that we talked about and passed round, asked questions, what were they used for, the modern equivalent, did anyone use them in their jobs etc.Then we linked the item to songs, ie, an old iron to 'dashing away with the smoothing iron, or any old iron, accompanied with cockney accents and actions. Old bar of Lifebuoy,could they remember the advert, wooden pegs, "hanging out the washing on the Seigfried line". Old typewriter, I played the typewriter music and we all copied and played at secretaries. There seemed to be a song for each item. We had an old soldiers uniform and sang" oh soldier, soldier, won't you marry me" I had some pictures of old cars, cornflakes packets and they guessed what the items cost then and we discussed what they cost now. hope these help and it goes well.

A new activity has been posted by a Golden Carers member: Oh Soldier soldier

I use Sit to get fit www.moveitorloseit.co.uk as well I put the speaker in the centre of the circle so that everyone can hear the very clear instructions. The music is great and very stimulating and you can just chose the exercises you want to do for that day. I am not experienced but it is so easy to follow, anyone can do it.

Thankyou for your suggestions! I've also got some playground songs, Oranges and Lemons, London Bridge is falling down, In and out the dusty Bluebells,123 Mother caught a flea, Row row row your boat, and some poems that were learned by heart, Tyger tyger burning bright by william Blake and If By Rudyard Kipling! Hopefully we should have some fun with these.

I am looking for an Activity plan for a session on school days, can anyone help with any songs that were sung in Assembley in the 1950's? or any fun activities that all the group at various stages could enjoy . would reciting poems or the Times table be too infantile? I have seen the Schooldays questions on the Activities site and will try this but need some more ideas!