Games to Play with Your Senior

I was the primary care-taker for my elderly mother for many years. During this era of wandering around in the senior society, I was often the self-appointed activities director. As people age, there is a struggle between mind, body-limitations, and desire associated with finding meaningful activities to fill in the day.

Many seniors only see family or long-time friends for an hour or two on weekends, or not until the holidays. Older friends can't drive across town for a friendly cup of tea. Family members are busy with personal obligations, and can't spend leisurely quality time with their senior, even when they want to be there.

Seniors who get bored can suffer from depression. They miss old friends and being able to get out by themselves. Failing health cancels physical activities that once brought enjoyment, forgetful minds worry about unnecessary problems, while visits to the doctor become their only source of entertainment to look forward to, and talk about.

Doctor visits become entertainment when it involves getting to dress-up coupled with a car ride. You can see fun things on a car ride. Perhaps there will be time for a quick lunch at McDonalds, or the thrill of watching a young child play video games in the waiting room. The doctor's staff or other patients will ask questions that can lead to small talk. Doctor visits are great fun if you have nothing else to look forward to.

If your next visit to your favorite senior produces nothing but talk about the doctors, it is time for you to step in with some fun and games options.

Every senior has a different set of limitations on what they can and can not do. The one thing that everybody has in common is that they want some sort of entertainment to look forward to doing.

A nice gift to a senior who lives alone is a box of craft supplies suited to their physical abilities. Try a children's paint-by-number set, Play-Doh, water colors and a sketch pad, charcoal and beginning drawing instructions book, a model car kit with large parts that are easily seen and held, or perhaps a few boxes of dominoes to set up and knock down. Crafts are very entertaining.

Some seniors enjoy playing children's board games with you or other seniors. Chutes and Ladders was a popular game for many seniors when they were children. Games like Monopoly are too complicated for seniors having memory problems; select your board games from the easier end of the game isle.

All seniors have memories; even those who forget what those memories are. Trivia Card games are wonderful choices to leave laying around for you senior to play with in their spare time. Just like the man who retires and starts building an igloo in his back yard because the snow is there, your senior will nose through the cards when they get bored. They may call to share them with a friend. Trivia can be played on the phone.

Phone games are a way for busy families to continue to play games. At a designated hour each day, call your senior and make a checkers or chess move on a game board. How this is done, is that you number the squares on two boards. A game is set up at each end of the phone. Seniors enjoy waiting for the phone to ring so that they can capture your queen.

Another phone game, isn't actually a game, but just as fun as one. Call your senior when your children first wake-up on a special school day, Easter, or Christmas. Once your senior is on the line, lay the phone down where they can listen to your children having fun. This is a big hit with all seniors I've known who have tried it. Eavesdropping is fun.

If you are sitting with a senior who has fair eyesight, while you talk, put two large coffee cups by your feet. Give each person 10 clothespins from the laundry room, and see who can drop the most into the cup. Prior to 1950, there was a very popular parlor game played like this where clothespins were dropped into an empty milk bottle.

For senior group games, you must consider the disabilities of every person in the group and plan a game accordingly. The game should not require: great eyes, super hearing, fast movements, or competition between disabilities. Each person playing the game should be allowed to feel like a winner after the game is over.

Sitting with chairs in a circle with a large balloon to pat, kick, wiggle, or hand back and forth is fun game that is good exercise. Nobody with mental powers still intact can get hurt by a balloon. This game requires one energetic person to keep the balloon inside of the circle and moving after it lands on the floor.

Another fun group game is, 'Like Magic'. Take one person out of the room to be the guesser. White he is out of the room tell him that the right object will be the one right after a green one. Have the group decide on one object in the room that the person coming back into the room must guess. Bring the person back, and ask him questions: "Is it the white chair?" - "Is it the green plant?" - The next "Is it" question is the right object. This will amaze everybody in the room.

Some seniors, including mentally challenged ones, enjoy Hasbro brand Furby's. Furby's are small electronic fuzzy and soft creatures that will chirp, talk, sing, or giggle at you when they are moved. These are not on the market right now, but can still be found in abundance on eBay. You can get a new Furby for fewer than 20.00 plus shipping. This game that just needs to be touched delights some people. Click here to see this deal.

In my experience, aging seniors who have not played on a computer before find them complicated to learn. It is best to start with a hand-held computer game to see if they like learning about how to make the buttons work before getting them a laptop to play games on. Computer games are only fun for seniors if they enjoy working the controls. While shopping for a hand-held computer game for your senior, watch for one with large print and easy to work buttons.