More ways to keep someone with Alzheimer's or other dementias busy and active

Outdoor activities

Limit activities to a confined area, or provide a watchful eye if the person is prone to wandering.

• Tending a garden: weeding, hoeing, watering, monitoring. (Indoor variations, such as an herb garden, orchids, or a terrarium, also provide sensory stimulation.)
• Raking leaves or sweeping a porch.
• Picking up sticks.
• Watering the lawn.
• Planting bulbs.
• Taking a walk (with a companion).
• Feeding birds, ducks, fish (or watching a bird feeder placed outside a window).

Arts and spiritual activities to try with someone suffering from Alzheimer's or other dementias

Handiwork

• Stacking kindling.
• Organizing a toolbox or workbench.
• Sanding wood.
• Washing or polishing a car.
• Tightening screws.
• Painting (such as a fence).
• Digging holes.
• Working a lockbox (a wooden box featuring a variety of locks).

Arts activities

• Experimenting with different materials, such as watercolors, clay, pastels, washable markers.
• Drawing or coloring. Search amazon.com with the phrase coloring books -- there are many with patterns or adult-friendly themes.
• Creating a family history scrapbook.
• Using an electronic keyboard or child's zither.
• Singing along to holiday carols or songs from a favorite era.
• Listening to audio books.
• Listening to a music box at one's bedside.
• Stringing popcorn or cranberries (for holiday decorations) or cereal and popcorn (for birds).
• Creating collages. Use leaves, magazine images, tissue paper, buttons, but beware of small choking hazards for people with advanced dementia.
• Stamping to make gift tags, cards, or just for fun. Find supplies at any craft store.

Spiritual Activities

• Singing hymns.
• Being read to from religious texts.
• Walking a labyrinth.
• Making crafts together for a charity, which can be more rewarding than making a craft for yourself. Someone who crochets might use a simple, repetitive pattern to make scarves or lap blankets.