Visiting the Nursing Home on Mother's Day

How about making small gifts for the residents of your local nursing home, and doing it with your grands? Such a worthwhile endeavor!

The seed of this idea actually came from my sweet sister and role model. My sister volunteers on Wednesday at a local nursing home. She and her husband go with their Sunday school class to a nearby nursing home to attend a Bible study there. They greet the residents and visit with them, and my sister sometimes teaches the lesson. I've wanted to visit a nursing home with my grandkids, and going with my sister and brother-in-law seemed like the way to begin. My granddaughters and I wanted to take small gifts, so we decided on small packets of tissues with a Bible verse attached. Since we joined the Bible study group, it was easy for us to mill about the crowd before the lesson started, greeting them and offering our small gift. 

I figured it would be difficult for my granddaughters to just go up to a resident and begin a conversation, and truth be known, it's hard for me too! But approaching them with a small token makes it ever so much easier. So that's just what we did. And I don't have to tell you how the elders in attendance love seeing the youngsters. My sister quite frequently takes her great-grandchildren (even when they were toddlers and an infant.) The ladies (and probably gentlemen too) love holding and cooing with a bouncing baby!

My beautiful sister with her great-grand nieces (and my granddaughters of course!) at the nursing home. We had a good visit and the girls loved participating in their song service.

And visiting on Mother's Day is the perfect time!

As I mentioned above, taking a small gift to the residents when you go is a special treat--for the giftee and the giver! Individual roses or another flower would really be sweet on this day!  But here are some other ideas.

Suggestions for gifts:

• notepads
• small journals
• small packs of tissues
• plastic bracelets (pictured above) with sweet sentiment attached
• silk flowers
• individual fresh flowers
• sun catchers for windows
• decals for windows
• magazines
• travel size hand lotion (Always clear this idea with the staff.)
• decor for room made from pipe cleaners (another craft idea for grands)

Making the gift tags:

I invited my granddaughters over to create the gift tags, and then to attach them with stickers (they love stickers!) We were going to write favorite Bible verses, but they ended up with favorite lyrics from church songs.......among them, "Jesus loves me." I actually printed them up on the computer as they dictated--we thought it would make it easier for the residents to read. 

I used the business card tool on my Print Shop application for these small gift tags.

Then the girls helped me pick out clip art and dictated messages for each one.

Finally we cut out and attached the notes to each small gift.

I found these heart bracelets at a party supply store. It just seemed like a charming love token with a sentiment attached--sweet gift that says....I'm thinking of you.

And more:

One year we were able to visit the nursing home at Easter and took plastic Easter eggs which we had decorated with form stickers and glitzy decals. We placed a Bible verse inside each egg. That was a big hit too--both in the making and in the delivering.

Decorated plastic egg with a message inside. . .

Where to get those small gifts?

I actually used a local party supply this last visit. In the children's birthday party section, they have packets of ten or more party favors. Some of those work great--like small, individual note pads, heart bracelets and other trinkets that would be appropriate for nursing homes. Target has those $1 bins at the front of the store. And there are mail-order places like Oriental Trading. Even getting together with your grands and creating gift cards or book markers from scratch would be wonderful!

Happy Mother's Day to all my readers! Since this is a blog with grandparent ideas, I know you're out there! Seriously, have a wonderful day. It's not Mother's Day yet, so you've got time for some of my writing or craft suggestions. Otherwise, just take it easy (you deserve it) and savor the day!

Until next week!

Great book about this subject for the little guys:

"Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge" by Mem Fox

And finally--this just in!

Pictures of my sister's granddaughters and great-grandkids on a recent visit to a nursing home. My sister was unable to go this trip, but her daughter took the pictures. Thanks, Tracy, for sharing your photos.

The gang was all here. So sweet for those girls to share their time and their children with the residents.

See! I told you the residents love to hold the babies!