Senior Care in Mt. Laurel NJ: Scrapbooking for a Journey to Remember
A fun and informational activity that a caregiver can do with his or her senior loved one is to create a scrapbook together. Making a book is something that can exist beyond people and be shared for generations!
Consider all of the stories that can be revealed! Each photo holds an account — or two — which the senior would love to talk about. Bringing the grandkids to the house or senior care facility to help with creating the book is a wonderful way to have them learn a bit about their grandparent.
It could be a story in and of itself to see the reactions of the grandkids to the images; holding different hairstyles, car models, clothing styles and so forth. And they could hear all about how their grandparent walked ten miles to school and back … all uphill.
It’s fun, too, to get the big scrapbook with all of the empty pages, and fill them creatively and enthusiastically, with the memories. A bit of doodling here and there … maybe some dots, bling, puffy stickers, and squiggly designs around the images, add that artistic flair. And scribing main points about an image can help everyone remember about it the next time the book is shared.
But a scrapbook doesn’t just have to be photos. It can be other things such as:
- A family tree
- Cutouts from magazines that hold a link to some memories
- Stories written on the whole page telling about something valuable to the senior
- Recipes of dishes they’d made in their youth
- Pieces of cloth or other mementos from days gone by
- Award ribbons
- Holiday cards or other tokens of a celebration
There doesn’t need to be anything done any certain way. A scrapbook is meant to be fun and unique, just like the senior and his or her life! Brighten the book with a collage of colors like writing in glitter pen.
Too, the project can be ongoing – a “living” book — providing creative stimulus and invoking memories. Though once completed, the senior can grab it off the shelf or from the bedside table in the senior care facility, and always have it to look on for themselves. Then, when the grandkids come to visit, the book can come out and the trip down memory lane, and the benefit of bringing up the past for sake of letting the future know their history, can resume.
For senior care Southern NJ and the surrounding areas, call and talk to us at Home to Stay Healthcare Solutions (856) 321-1500.
