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

1930s

1940s

 I remember when….
Mother began to tell more stories about her past and sometimes even thought she was there.  I started writing these down before they became lost to our family.
Mother had an accident with her car and I wouldn’t get it repaired, even though she pleaded.
Mother began to wear strange clothing combinations but we called it “setting a new style.”
Mother looked at me when hubby and I were laughing at something she’d done and remarked, “We don’t laugh enough, do we?” then joined in.
Mother couldn’t understand why I moved her to our home 275 miles away but decided she and her cat would stay …read more

Exercise is another important component of staying healthy and depending on what stage of Alzheimer’s Disease the person is at, an exercise or fitness video might be an appropriate gift, especially if they aren’t able to get out and about due to weather…
Of course, it would be important to discuss this with the person’s doctor first to ensure that it would help and not impair the person’s health. Various other medical conditions could be contra indictive to exercive videos.
Resources:
Active Videos
Senior Store

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.

A personalized wooden jigsaw puzzle is a great idea for a gift. It would provide not only a familiar memory for the person with Alzheimer’s Disease but would also provide an cognitive skills actiivity.
This video shows how it is made…

With the Christmas season quickly arriving, it’s time to start hunting for gifts for family and friends. It’s a task that is often fraught with stress, especially when you are trying to buy for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s difficult to think of what to buy them. You spend your time asking yourself “Is this what they would like?”, “Is this something they would need?”, and “Will they recognize and use this gift?”
I recently across this great article ‘Enhancing Life for the Older Adult with Alzheimer’s Disease or Other Dementias: Some Gift Ideas’ by Stephanie Zeman Rn MSN that …read more

Adopting the persona of ‘Grandma Joyce’ social worker Joyce Simard uses props such as a pair of oversized star-shaped, blue-lensed eyeglasses and walking frame.
It’s all part of an educational program that Joyce runs to teach children about aging and Alzheimer’s Disease, and to show children how to visit and have fun with grandparents with memory loss. This 45 minute program is aimed at chidren in the third to fifth grades and uses story-telling, singing, and role playing.
The program has been presented to schools and libraries throughout the country over the past six years. During this time, Joyce Simard …read more

   Most of the “spooky” gatherings may be nearing an end.  However, I’d like to share something thoughtful the chorus from a local school presented for nursing home residents in our area.
The fourth and fifth grade chorus members dressed in Halloween costumes and went on a field trip with their music teachers.  They visited four nursing homes within a 50 mile radius and sang for the residents and staff.
I’m sure those at the homes enjoyed the youngsters’ visits and their songs.  I recall how much such activities meant to the residents where my mom lived while she had Alzheimer’s. 
Mother, because she’d enjoyed her …read more

Sometimes the best way to understand something is to get up close and personal. That’s what a school in New Brunswick did when they decided to educate a group of 6th Grade students about Alzheimer’s Disease. Instead of simply learning by the book, the students were all assigned a ‘pen pal’ – a person with Alzheimer’s disease living in a local long-term care facilitiy. The students wrote letter and sent photos to their pen pals, exchanged holiday cards, and visited them at the residential care facility.
As you can tell from the writing and art works that the students created, it …read more

Steve Sawitski was a fascinating man with a colorful history. A stormtropper in WWII and a bookie for the mob in NYC, he had stories to tell but was increasingly unable to tell them due to suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.
Not wanting to lose his grandfather to the disease, his grandson Joel Reibert created a photographic tribute to his grandfather.
The photographs were displayed at the Bryan Alzheimer’s Research Conference in Durham, North Carolina March 1-2 2007. Here’s the video of the opening of the display.

You can also see Joel’s photographs of his grandfather here.