In our previous article, we shared 5 ways to care for the elderly. In this article, we have consolidated specific activities and places you can bring your loved ones to spend Grandparents Day on 28th November! We encourage you to bring along more family members to spend quality time together but remember to maintain social distance to protect yourself and your loved ones from contracting the Covid-19 virus.
Before proceeding with these activities, remember to make reservations in advance for restaurants to prevent disappointment since 28th November is a weekend. Additionally, here’s a gentle reminder to wear your masks and bring along hand sanitisers.
For those who choose to stay home, we have compiled personal recommendations from the team in our list of fun activities. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did with our loved ones!
1 Picnic
A picnic is easy to set up and does not cost much! Besides, our elders would surely love taking walks and enjoying the nature and lovely scenery around them. This would even be better enjoyed with you!
It is also a great opportunity to cook and spend some quality time with your grandparents while preparing snacks and treats for your picnic. You might be surprised at the tasty snacks your grandparents have learnt to make and they will definitely be excited to share their recipes with you.
Across Singapore, there are many convenient locations for picnics. A top recommendation is Botanic Gardens as it is located in central Singapore so it is convenient to access other areas if you are hoping to pack more locations in your itinerary after your picnic. We suggest bringing insect repellent along with you and extra weights to hold down the edges of your mat.
2 Painting
Painting is a soothing and enjoyable activity for all ages. If you are hoping to cater to your elderly grandparents, we suggest asking if they enjoy calligraphy art or any specific mediums of paint. Otherwise, it is also a great idea to introduce them to modern ways of painting, such as glass painting, or even picking up the traditional art block paintings. We are sure this painting activity would bring your grandparents and you back to your fond childhood days!
There are many fun ways to make painting more interesting:
- Switching your canvases every 5 minutes and see the final result after 30 minutes
- Prepare a list of drawing prompts and only reveal the painting to each other when all the prompts have been completed
- Draw a fond memory – you would be shocked at the different perspectives drawn
- Draw a family portrait with specific spins such as “Draw Grandpa holding a bunch of flowers”
- Only paint using 3 colours selected by the other party
You may want to prepare other art mediums such as colour pencils or crayons to spice the painting up, and pencils for a sketch before committing to painting!
3 Enjoy Good Cuisine
Take this as an opportunity to treat your grandparents to a good meal! Choose a cuisine that both you and your grandparents enjoy. Hint: many elders would prefer eating foods that remind them of their childhood. Eating out on a weekend during the pandemic would likely require you to make a reservation so do not forget that before you show up to avoid disappointment!Â
If you do not think there are good food places that offer meals of that cuisine to your standard, we would suggest cooking a meal with your grandparents. There are many recipes easily accessible on the internet but we would suggest asking your grandparents to teach you how to cook if you are not skilled in the kitchen. You never know if it’s your lucky day – you might end up learning a secret family recipe! Additionally, meals at home can include other family members so it can be a family-wide bonding experience as well.
4 Their Hobby
Most elderly are more than happy to spend time with their loved ones and would definitely enjoy teaching you their hobby. We would suggest learning the basics before learning their hobby directly.
Learning the fundamentals of their hobbies would allow them to teach you more as well. For example, if your grandparent loves chess, learning the basics before playing with them would help yourself in learning strategies from their years of experience!
It could also be a great time for you to introduce your hobbies to them! Your grandparents would definitely love to learn about your hobbies, especially those that have not tried before. A good beginning can be introducing them to games such as Candy Crush that are easy to learn, but still fun and keeps their brain active too!
Conclusion: Let’s share the love!
We hope our listed activities are helpful and would love to hear if you have any suggestions! If you do not have time to spend with your grandparents, you could always get them a small gift. We hope you have a great Grandparents Day.Â
There are some elderly who are not as fortunate to have a younger generation to look after them and we hope to remind them they are not forgotten either. If you would like to contribute blood pressure monitors or walking sticks to these elderly who need them, please go to gifting.sg where you contribute to an empowering cause!Â