101 Ways to Spend Time with Your Valentine!

101 Ways to Spend Time With a Person With Alzheimer’s Disease 

The Alzheimer’s Association, the world leader in Alzheimer research and support, suggest these activities that a person can share with a friend or family member who has Alzheimer’s disease.

• Listen to music
• Toss a ball
• Color pictures
• Make homemade lemonade
• Count trading cards
• Clip coupons
• Sort poker chips
• Read aloud from “Harry PotterTM” books or other favorite stories
• Rake leaves
• String beads
• Bake cookies
• Take photos of yourselves together and create a collage
• Brush or comb one another’s hair
• Participate in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory WalkTM
• Plant seeds indoors or outdoors
• Look at family photographs
• Wipe off the kitchen table
• Weed the flowerbed or tend to the garden
• Fold laundry
• Have a friend visit with a well-behaved pet
• Cut pictures out of greeting cards or magazines
• Play dominoes
• Ask about his or her favorite childhood books or cartoon characters
• Bake homemade bread
• Sort objects by shape or color
• Sing old songs
• Ask the person to tell you more when he or she talks about a memory
• Put silverware away
• Make a Valentine card
• Play favorite songs and sing
• Ask the person about his or her brothers or sisters
• Make a cherry pie
• Play with tops or jacks
• Make a scrapbook
• Take a walk around the yard
• Write a poem together
• Reminisce about the first day of school
• String Cheerios® to hang outside for birds
• Make a fresh fruit salad
• Sweep the patio
• Color paper shamrocks green
• Fold towels
• Have an afternoon tea party
• Talk about great inventions
• Look through the pages of a clothing catalog
• Look at a map of the United States and identify states and capitals
• Make a family tree poster
• Color a picture of our flag
• Eat a picnic lunch outside
• Water house plants
• Play horseshoes
• Watch “Sesame StreetTM” together
• Make homemade ice cream
• Make holiday cards
• Reminisce about favorite sports activities that he or she enjoyed while growing up
• Write a letter to a friend or family member
• Dress in your favorite football or soccer team’s colors
• Pop popcorn
• Name the presidents
• Give a manicure
• Make paper butterflies
• Plant a tree
• Finish famous sayings
• Feed the ducks
• Model with play dough
• Look at pictures in a comic book
• Put a puzzle together
• Sand wood
• Rub in hand lotion
• Arrange fresh flowers
• Remember famous people
• Recite nursery rhymes
• Make peanut butter sandwiches
• Cut up used paper for scratch paper
• Blow bubbles
• Take care of a fish tank
• Bake cupcakes and decorate them
• Use a video camera or cassette recorder and interview the person about his of her life
• Play the game HangmanTM
• Finger paint
• Cut out pictures from magazines
• Put coins in a jar
• Put bird seed out for the birds
• Decorate a pumpkin
• Reminisce about a favorite summer
• Roll yarn into a ball
• Trace and cut out autumn leaves
• Cook a favorite family recipe together
• Gather a yellow sponge, crayons, paper, and tape and make “SpongeBob SquarePantsTM”
• Wash silverware
• Share a hug
• Ask him or her to show you how knit of sew (or another favorite hobby)
• Make a picture frame out of Popsicle sticks and glitter
• Play a musical instrument
• Keep a journal together
• Ask him or her to talk about favorite sports hero
• Sort playing cards
• Ask about his or her favorite pet
• Wash windows together
• Ask about his or her first car
• Dance!