The adventurous residents at Atherton-based care home The Chanters have celebrated Australia Day in true antipodean style.
Wearing cork hats and surrounded by inflatable native creatures, the residents of the home on Tyldesley Old Road enjoyed a fun afternoon filled with Australian-themed games.
One of the residents’ favourite activities was the bushtucker trial where they ate creepy-crawly shaped sweets, rather than the real thing of course!
A key part of ensuring we provide stimulating and exciting activities for our residents is giving them an opportunity to explore and celebrate different countries and cultures. This may be through learning a new language, trying different cuisines or themed days like Australia Day.
It also gives us an opportunity to share anecdotes of places we have been in the past, and it’s always lovely for the residents to reminisce about their travels. Reminiscence is another important part of our activity plan at The Chanters as it helps to engage the residents in meaningful conversations.
Sybil Downham, age 93, a resident at The Chanters, said: “I really enjoyed the Australia Day afternoon, especially playing the games. We had a giant inflatable spider that we threw rings onto its legs to score points! When it was my turn to spin the bushtucker trial wheel I had to eat a pretend snail, it was horrible, but I washed it down with my shandy.”
Anne Hargreaves, home manager at The Chanters, said: “The residents had a lot of fun celebrating Australia Day, and the bushtucker trial game was a hit! You’re never too old to learn and it’s important that we all take time to understand more about other cultures and countries. It was very interesting to discover more about the animals and creatures that are native to Australia too.”
