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The best technique for me to get our residents to come to activities is to be very enthusiastic about the activity myself. I try to get them involved before the activity even begins. I try to spend alot of time getting to know each of them as well and this seems to help. Joelle

Wii bowling is the hit here. We have a resident bowling team that competes with our other sister facilities. Those who cannot play are our cheerleaders. We host one month, next month they do. All staff get involved, we have t-shirts made up, etc. Local paper picked up on it, had a story. It's all good! Kevin

We have a Wii. The residents get so frustrated when they can't play a game right. They love to box. They cheer eachother on and really go at it.lol. I found a racing game and bought the steering wheel adapter, it wasn't bad. Also I rented a Carnival game once and it had several different games on it that the residents seemed to enjoy. Many of them just enjoy watching, because they aren't sure what to do. Either way, I guess all that matters is that they have fun.

We had a Wii Tournament with kids from the local elementary school today. It was really lively and noisy but worth it! The kids were split into teams, playing the Big Brain Academy Mind Sprint, and one kid would hold the remote while the others called out answers. The residents really weren't quick enough to answer along with them, but they really enjoyed seeing the kids having so much fun!

it's harder with men. I don't really have the budget or help to do anything big like a cookout....I'm still thinking. ideas: racing car, horse racing, sports event movie, Western movie in background or as part of the activities; serve beer/no-alcohol beer as 'shandy' ( beer and lemonade ) maybe borrow some chunky half pint glass mugs; father's day 'toast' speeches or speech competition; 'shoeshine' box or table, where the guys get their shoes polished; serve hot dogs, devilled eggs, 'pigs in blankets', potato chips, crackers with pimiento cheese etc- 'lazy party food'!; put a sheet cake in a shirt box & decorate as a shirt with tie, collar etc; craft table so the visitors ( or staff ) can make cards, rosette badges, small craft etc for the dads or with the dads; cut some ( donated ) neck ties in half for a match 'em up game; kite-making; some kind of toss/throw game...men always seem to love that! ~Tracy Things you'll never hear a father say: 10. I'm lost- let's stop and ask for directions. 9. Of course you can go out on dates on your own now you're thirteen sweetie! 8. I noticed that all your friends have a certain "go to hell" attitude ... I like that. 7. Here's a credit card and the keys to my new car - help yourself. 6. What do you mean you wanna play football? Figure skating not good enough for you, son? 5. Your Mother and I are going away for the weekend ... you might want to throw a party. 4. I don't know what's wrong with your car. Just have it towed to a mechanic and pay whatever he asks. 3. No son of mine is going to live under this roof without an earring! 2. Why go and get a job? I make plenty of money for you to spend. 1. Father's Day? Don't make a fuss- it's no big deal.

I just wanted to share a great idea that my coworker came up with. I'm struggling to get the 3-11 CNA's to do evening activities with the residents - we're a small facility, and there's only me and my assistant who covers my two days off every week. I work every weekend, and I do stay late some evenings (usually every Monday) but I need a little help covering the evenings. My admin always insisted that I put evening activities on the calendar, like "Movie and Popcorn." I bought boxes of microwave popcorn, and we have an extensive DVD library, but the movies are not getting played, and the CNA's are not filling out the attendance sheets. The problem is that it's different staff all the time, and it gets forgotten. I'm kind of overwhelmed trying to manage everything that I already do, and I'm not really a "boss type" person in that I'm not comfortable with telling these people what to do. Well, anyway, my coworker suggested I get a big, beautiful box (I'm using a large shiny red Christmas gift box that's like a very sturdy oversized shoebox.) I wrote "Evening Activity" all over it, and it's going to be kept in a very conspicuous location at the nurse's station. Each day before I leave, I will place the supplies for the evening activity; for example, a specific DVD, a pack of popcorn, as well as the attendance log AND a pen (so there are no excuses.) We'll be implementing this next month. I'll let you guys know how it goes! I am really stoked, because I really think this is going to work.