SeniorStore.com sells three great activity books that offer the opportunity to remember and reminisce about earlier decades.
1920s

1930s

1940s

How about a classic board game for the person with Alzheimer’s Disease?
It’s a known fact that engaging in mentally stimulating activities on a regular basis helps to maintain brain function. Board games can provide that stimulation.
And not only do the games provide mental stimulation, they also provide a bonding activity for the whole family. Buy a game and then plan on regular game days or evenings for the family.

Memory Magic is a program that engages people with a range of cognitive abilities.
It was created to let a single activity person engage with a group of up to 20 persons suffering from various degrees of dementia.

If you want to find out more, check out this informative slideshow.
Further reading:
Mind Game(2004)
A Low-Tech Intervention and Therapy for Large Groups of Persons

Check out this creative writing project designed by writer-in-residence Anthea McKinlay for the Glasgow City Council. It was created to allow people with demenita, living in Glasgow City Council residential care homes, to have their stories and words be seen and heard.
So far 22 books featuring 167 authors have been created through this project. Each of the different residential homes created their own book written by their residents. When the book was finished, a copy was given to each of the authors.
You can read some of the poems and prose here.

                                           Sunday, September 9 commemmorates National Grandparents’ Day.  How are you celebrating this occasion? 
Sometimes we feel it doesn’t matter if we celebrate holidays and special occasions with family members who have Alzheimer’s. 
“They don’t know what day it is.  So what does it matter?” we often hear commented or may even say ourselves.
However, just the fact you made them feel special, took time to visit (if they don’t live with you) or arranged a celebration often brings a smile, a story, a comment that lets you know they do care, even when they can’t express it too well.  Also, it may …read more

It’s not a new idea. Remember the old saying ‘use it or lose it.’
A recent study, the Rush Memory and Aging Project, focused on the connection between engaging in mentally stimulating activities and how that is related to the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
More than 700 participants with the average age of 80 were involved in this longitudinal study over a period of five years.
The results:
“The study found a cognitively active person in old age was 2.6 times less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease than a cognitively inactive person in old age. This association remained after controlling for …read more

           As I researched buttons for a post on my Quilting and Patchwork blog, I recalled how buttons and other mementos entertained my mom and often brought back memories after she developed Alzheimer’s. 
“Do you know, we had buttons on our shoes,” Mother informed me as she played with the buttons I was sewing on a blouse.  “And we used a button hook to fasten them.” 
Then she began to tell me other stories about her childhood.  This occurred while she could still talk coherently and relate her memories. 
Later, something like buttons, a piece of jewelry, as flower, a color would draw short …read more

Art Therapy is a way of letting people express themselves. Using paint, pen, charcoal, and other mediums, they are able to unleash hidden memories. No one knows for sure how art therapy works, but somehow the simple act of painting or drawing brings out memories in people suffering from brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease. It also seems to slow down the heart rate and breathing and decrease blood pressure. So it’s not surprising that the Alzheimer’s Association promotes ‘ Memories in the Making Arts Program’. This program originated in Orange County, California in 1988 and has been adopted by …read more