I have a challenge! My 98 year old mom is very sharp mentally, but her vision, hearing, and mobility are low. She is very bored when she is not active, but there is not much she can do. I have given her lots of shredding to do, which she enjoys...but now I have dozens of bags filled with shredded paper I'm not sure what to do with, and I'm running out of things for her to shred (she is VERY fast with everything she does -- she's a good worker). I have had her sort different sizes of nails and screws -- spent a fortune to buy them just so she could separate them out, and she finished it off in an hour; I thought the project might last her a day or two. She is not interested in arts and crafts, doesn't enjoy games, can't see well enough to handle the computer. She used to be a writer, but she's lost all interest in that. What she really wants to do is do meaningful work (although she'll only do it for me). I also had her stuffing hundreds of envelopes from an imaginary friend. That didn't last long, either.
Any suggests greatly appreciated. I really thought that it might be a good idea to try and keep her active on the computer, but that is not an option given her vision and her arthritic fingers.
HELP!
P.S. She won't listen to books on tapes. Mild dementia makes movies out of the question since she gets upset because "that's not the original that I remember!" and she can't hear well.
So for now, it's shredding, Fox News, or feeling bored.
If she's not into gardening or manual labor, would she like to put a stack of photos into empty photo albums? I had some fun last night with blowing bubbles for my cat (my life is actually not this boring, so I'm enjoying the calm and quiet). A medium-to low-difficulty puzzle might be fun.
Does she like dogs? Do you have one, or does your neighbor have one to borrow, so that she could throw a tennis ball for it and play fetch for a while? If she has the dexterity for it, you could get a girl's necklace-making kit; it has beads and provides elastic and string to make necklaces, anklets, and bracelets. Just a few extra random ideas that don't seem potentially dangerous or difficult for you to have to "undo".
Adult Coloring books? An indoor garden?
Then, there's my coffin-sized tub of Legos that has been accumulating from my 3 sons and now my grandson. Could people donate Legos and she could sort them by shape and size by feeling them? I've put my grandson to work doing this task. These could also be sold or donated by the bag.
My mom used to volunteer at the local senior center which sold greeting cards that were repurposed by glue-taping a clean sheet of paper inside. Maybe keep this in mind at Christmas and request used cards be donated. You (or another volunteer) could cut paper sheets to size for her to affix inside. Then maybe request donations of unused envelopes and she could match cards to an envelope. Paper companies or card stores (like Hallmark) may be willing to donate orphaned envelopes.
Polishing silver for a fee? Untangling and sorting paper clips by size/shape?
Also, folding items like towels, and coupling socks for you? I hope someone posts some ideas that would be appropriate for her!
There is a computer program that enables people with low vision talk to the computer and it will write down what she says as well as other programs. Dragon is one that I have seen advertised. Do a quick search for Computers for the Blind and a lot of info pops up.
About the only other thing you can do is..as you are putting the nails and screws away...drop the bin you are carrying them in so she has to do it again.
Nuts and bolts another thing she might do thread nuts onto the bolts.
(joke here..have her tape all the shredded paper back together)
Would she talk into a recorder or would she mind being video recorded? If not have her tell her life story. Tell how to make family recipes, these can be a gold mine of info and real treasures.