Memory Tools

To help keep my Mom's memory as active as possible and help the slow down of Alzheimer's we do different activities.  When we are not out doing errands and going to festivals and public events we are at home playing Leap Frog: My Card Games such as Bilingual Memory Game which although her English is limited I still have her "learn" English by playing this game.  They are simple names such fruit, animals, and such.  

I also have the Ecuadorian channel on our Direct TV package that brings her memories of her younger years back in her home country.  

We play Ecuadorian music as well from YouTube which helps us get to know her more at times when she tells us stories we have not heard before, we also dance to the music when she is up to it.

I subscribed her to National Geographic in Spanish few years back and we kept the magazines and she reads them over.  The same goes for the word search magazines that she loves playing the games, the words are in English so it's another benefit when I see her run to get her dictionary to look up the definition in Spanish.

Another tool we use are President flash cards that I got from Target, the story behind those cards were that a Teacher in front of me was buying all of them and when I saw that she had over 30 in her basket I asked her where she found them so I can get one for my Mom and she said she had taken all of them and asked why for my Mom, I explained she had Alzheimer's and I find ways to keep her brain working, she smiled and went ahead and bought all of them then turned back and gave me one.  I wish I could thank her for generosity.  We play with these flashcards about once a week and she loves reading the back of them, she even finds some of them "handsome."  I go over what we call the "simple" Presidents to remember although she now gets our First President and 16th President mixed up, other times she is very lucid and even remembers her favorite President.  (President Kennedy)