[For Seniors] Recommended for older adults: enjoyable recreational activities
In this article, we introduce enjoyable recreation activities recommended for seniors.
You may want to freely enjoy using both body and mind.
Even so, many people end up thinking it’s impossible and give up.
Even for recreational activities that you might picture doing outdoors, with a bit of tweaking you can do them indoors.
We’ve also gathered activities that stimulate the brain and ones everyone can enjoy together.
Have fun while supporting functional recovery—use this as a reference!
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- [For Seniors] Enjoy safely even during the COVID-19 pandemic: Seated activities
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- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
- [For Seniors] Enjoyable Indoor Activities! Recreations and Games That Engage the Mind and Body
- [For Seniors] Fun Small-Group Recreation
- Recreation Activities Effective for Long-Term Care Prevention for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Easy to try. Fun, crowd-pleasing recreation
- [For Seniors] Recreational Activities Enjoyable in Large Groups
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
[For Seniors] Recommended for older adults. Enjoyable recreations (11–20)
Trump
This video introduces a simple recreation activity that can be done even by people who have difficulty moving their hands or opening a plastic bottle cap.
The game involves placing playing cards face down and flipping them over to make pairs where the cards are the same color and their numbers add up to 10.
It’s said that even when memory declines, the ability to distinguish colors often remains, so this activity is recommended as an enjoyable recreation for older adults.
Games using marbles
This video introduces a recreation activity where you add dividers to a box and roll a marble through it.
By placing cardboard dividers in an empty box, it becomes like a maze, so try guiding the marble from the start to the goal.
As shown in the video, making holes just big enough for the marble to fall through increases the difficulty, so you can adjust the challenge level.
It’s also recommended to make the box together with older adults.
craft; handiwork; fabrication; maneuvering (scheming)
Crafts can be enjoyed at any age, so they’re of course recommended for older adults as well.
When you make seasonal decorations or small ornaments yourself, you grow attached to them.
As shown in this video, many people now share craft “recipes” online, so give them a try for inspiration.
Another great point is that making things together naturally sparks communication.
Newspaper Sumo
Many people probably played tug-of-war-style games using thin branches when they were kids.
This video introduces a way to do that with newspapers, and it looks like it gets pretty lively.
Since newspapers don’t require much strength, older adults might enjoy it too.
It could also be fun to discuss which newspapers are the strongest, and so on.
clothespin chain
This video introduces a game you can play using a plastic bottle and clothespins.
Attach clothespins one after another to the bottle’s mouth and keep the balance.
Compete to see how many clothespins you can attach within the time limit.
Since it’s a seated activity, everyone can enjoy it together while adjusting to their physical and mental condition.
Object Delivery Game
The “Object Passing Game” is a recreational game you can play with just a string and paper cups.
In this game, you prepare a long string, thread it through paper cups with a hole in the bottom, and pass them from one end to the other.
It gets pretty exciting as a team competition, so give it a try.
If people get too competitive, some participants might not touch the cup, so adding a rule that everyone has to touch the paper cup makes it even better.
[For Seniors] Recommended for older adults: Enjoyable recreational activities (21–30)
ring toss
A ring toss recreation everyone can enjoy.
You throw rings made from newspaper onto milk cartons.
It’s great that people using wheelchairs can join in too.
Since it starts with a craft activity, older adults can enjoy preparing together as well.
Using your hands makes it good for rehabilitation, and aiming at the milk cartons helps improve concentration.
If everyone cheers each other on with a “You can do it!”, it becomes a time full of smiles.
The joy when a ring lands is something special.
The appeal is being able to connect with others while moving your body.
It’s a wonderful recreation that energizes both the minds and bodies of older adults.