Activities and events for retirement homes part 2

Chinese New Year and activities for retirement homes

Looking for a simple yet exciting way to engage your residents in activities?

Have you thought about the upcoming Chinese New Year?

The 10^th of February marks the start of The Chinese New Year and is one of the most important holidays in the Chinese calendar. But it is also a great way to introduce residents to the unique traditions and customs of this culture in a fun filled way.

In this article, we'll take a look at some easy and cost efficient Chinese New Year activities for retirement home managers to organize for their residents.

Decorative Chinese Lanterns

Chinese lanterns are a typical decoration associated with Chinese New Year. They are usually made of paper or even silk for a fancier effect. Red is usually the chosen colour, as it a symbol of happiness and good fortune. Homemade Chinese lanterns normally use a series of paper cuts to create a decorative effect. Another fun version is to use a printed template to create lanterns with illustrated designs.

 

Basic Chinese Lantern Template:

https://files.nyu.edu/wyc221/public/mysite/finalproject/makelantern.html

Dragon Lantern Template:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/events/worksheets/pdf/chinesenewyear_cutout.pdf

Dragon Lantern Instructions:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/events/worksheets/chinesenewyear_lantern.pdf

Play Mah-jong

Mah-jong is akin to the Western tradition of playing cards. It is often enjoyed among groups of people after a festive meal. The game uses a set of tiles imprinted with various Chinese symbols and characters. There are many stores (including several online) that sell sets of Mah-jong tiles and even playing card versions. Mah-jong typically involves four players per game. As with card games, it comes with it own set of rules and instructions for winning and scoring.

Not sure how Majong is played. Hale & Fun has a number of highly skilled Majong trainers who can help you and your residents understand this great game. Please contact Hale & Fun on info@haleandfun.com.au or 02 8034 6945/0425282317 to organise some training sessions.

Mahjong Rules:

http://otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.F96/vj07/project3c.html

Make Spring Couplets

As with many other cultures, New Year in China is considered a celebration of renewal. It is a tradition to create decorative spring couplets, or chun lian. These are hanging banners that feature a poem in beautiful calligraphy. The words inscribed in the couplet usually contain sentiments of renewal and happiness for the upcoming year. To create spring couplets, start out with sheets of red paper. There are many websites that offer printable templates of Chinese characters for spring couplets. Print a few copies to allow residents to cut and paste them or use them as a painting reference guide. The characters should be painted on in gold or black paint. Finally, tie the dried paper to a stick and hang it up.

Spring Couplets Craft Instructions:

http://blogs.brown.edu/hiaa-1040h-s01/2012/01/21/spring-couplets/

 The Chinese New Year is the Chinese community's biggest and most colourful celebration, spanning 15 days altogether.  It is celebrated by both the mainland Chinese and the diasporic Chinese communities and is becoming a bigger and bigger attraction each year in Sydney. The Chinese New Year can also be an great time to get all of your residents active and engaged in all sorts of activities. One option that you should consider is Hale & Fun very own Chinese New Year Games Session conducted by Sandra Fong (B.A. UNSW in English literature and Chinese studies). Sandra Fong was born in Sydney and raised in Singapore, a South-east Asian country with a largely Chinese population.  She is proud to be a member of the Chinese diaspora. Sandra studied English literature and advanced Chinese studies at the University of New South Wales, and is currently pursuing an honours year at the University of Sydney. Sandra is bilingual in English and Mandarin Chinese, and enjoys celebrating Chinese New Year annually with family and friends of all cultural backgrounds. In her spare time, she writes songs influenced by the Asian popular and western classical traditions.

Sandra highly interactive course allows your residents to learn all about the Chinese New Year through an hour or two hours sessions of games and fun including:

Chinese New Year Trivia Challenge

Engage in some friendly competition and test your knowledge of the Chinese New Year celebration.

Cryptic Spring Couplets

Spring couplets are a special decoration put near doors at Chinese New Year.  Work in teams to create your own rhyming couplets (in English!) with some translation and help from the facilitator.

Chinese New Year Song Performance

Hear some traditional Chinese New Year songs and learn about the Chinese musical style. If you're game enough, you could even have a go at writing a Chinese New Year song on the spot (translated into Chinese and sung/accompanied on keyboard by the facilitator). 

Fusion Food Treasures

Learn about the significance of the different foods people eat at Chinese New Year celebrations. Then, have fun imagining what an Australian '8 treasures' Chinese New Year dish would look like. Points awarded to the most inventive dish, and prizes for everyone who tried things out.

If you would like to have Sandra conduct her unique Chinese new year fun and games session at your home, please contact Hale & Fun on info@haleandfun.com.au or 02 8034 6945/0425282317.

Activities and events for retirement homes part 1

Australia Day and retirement home residents

Australia Day, celebrated on 26 January since 1994, is a day dedicated to what makes our continent great.

It is designed to bring all the people from all over the Nation together to celebrate how far the country has come since its early days. There are a number of different ways residents in nursing homes in Australia can commemorate this annual event.

Decorations

A few days before the official day, residents can help decorate the dining hall to celebrate Australia Day. By making, or colouring, Australian flags that can then be hung up around the room, it will soon take on a festive air. Other ideas designed to include residents in the decorating include colouring and decorating pictures of koalas, beach scenes and famous landmarks of the country.  Coloured bunting can also be hung up in the dining area.

Serve a Traditional Australian Tea

Lamingtons and Anzac biscuits are foods that many residents of retirement homes in Australia probably remember from their childhoods. By starting off the most patriotic day of the year with these traditional foods, many residents will be able to reflect fondly on their childhoods as well as what their country means to them.

Bring in a Musical Guest

Most people love music and traditional Australian music can bring back many memories. There is no better way to celebrate Australia Day by bringing in a musical guest who can entertain the residents with their version of the most loved songs in the country. Another idea is to play a CD of this music for the residents to enjoy. In either case, residents will likely find themselves dancing and swaying along to their favourite songs that celebrate their beloved country of Australia.

Dress Up For the Part

The staff of the retirement home can dress up in a way that celebrates the varied cultures that make up the country. They can encourage the residents to do the same and hold a parade, if desired. The musical guest can also be encouraged to dress for the part as well.

Australia Day provides a holiday dedicated to enjoying and celebrating all that is Australian. Encouraging residents of retirement homes to participate adds a great deal to their enjoyment of the day.

Facilitator Newsletter Jan, 2013

Dear Minions…err, I mean members of the Hale & Fun community,

Happy New Year.

I hope everyone had a great time over the holiday break and is back and ready for the exciting new year full of new projects, courses and programs.

I know I say this every news letter but Hale & Fun is really hitting the ground running this month. We already have lined up 8 new programs (plus talk of on-line programs and DVDs) included the exciting new one- off talks as part of our sampler/mixed bag program (can anyone think of a better name for that?, there is an exciting stubby holder with the Hale & Fun label on it if you can…). These one off talks are generating a lot of interest, our clients like them because they don’t require a huge amount of commitment from their residents and offer a lot more variety, the facilitators like them because they are not required to plan two-three months of their lives in advance and I like them because everyone else like them and I am just that kind of manager who wants everyone to be happy.

So what shall I rant about in this Newsletter. Well, actually surprisingly I do have a topic- one near and dear to all our hearts, the pay rate for facilitators. The other day being excited about the new year and full of beans (coffee beans that is…man those triple espressos pack a punch) I signed up for a business review by one of the business consulting firms in the city. Oh it was glorious, they called me Mr. White (although technically they should have called me Dr…but I will forgive them), they had not just coffee but also croissants….wow! but not to get distracted they did a review of my business and the key aspect that they felt was draining the costs was the facilitators fees. Now, at the moment HF works on a sliding scale for payment based on the combination of experience of the facilitator, distance and difficulty to get to the client location and popularity of the course- what this basically equates to is that most of us are being paid quite a bit per hour, particular after the first one or two where many facilitators are finding their feet. Seemed pretty reasonable, I draw a facilitator pay as well and I want to be well reimbursed for my effort and time so why wouldn’t anyone else.

However, they pointed out to me that most tutors get paid only 20-25 dollars an hour (which personally I feel sucks a little, they deal with high school kids!) and community colleges pay their lecturers only 45-50 and this is for seasoned professionals in their field (double suck on that one…mostly because I was thinking of teaching at some of these this year). I later did some research of my own and frighteningly that is quite accurate, which goes to show that Australia or at least Sydney really doesn’t respect their teaching community as they should. I also possibly should have done more market research on how little people are willing to work for. If I had done this I possibly wouldn’t have to supplement Hale & Fun with weekend work as a Children entertainer..oh who am I kidding, I love dressing up as Batman.

  

Your glorious leader..From Bruce Wayne to Batman..all in a days work for the modern manager

So am I going to cut everyone’s pay rate down to the norm like some evil but belated Scrooge?

Tempting I have always wanted to be an evil overlord but nahhh, it may be the norm for comparable programs but that doesn’t stop the rate being paid elsewhere from sucking.

Besides as I pointed out to well manicured suit wearing dude between stuffing the world’s greatest croissants into my mouth- you want quality you need to pay for it.

If you take a look at Hale & Fun code of ethics, our course notes and descriptions or even peruse some of the guest blogs by some of the facilitators that have taught with us, you don’t see comments about the pay or the ease of work. It is damn hard to put together a good presentation, make it interesting and entertaining. It takes guts to stand in front of a group of people. Hand outs don’t just happen, they are more than just a summary of the power points. This isn’t just a job for us it is a passion and that shows in the work we do. Our presentations far surpass those you see even at universities, we engage with our audience, talk to them, keep them animated and involved. This isn’t Hale & Fun demanded the best from us (If I had that sort of power, I would have you all wearing Hawaiian shirts to the presentations!), it is us demanding the best from ourselves. When we stand in front of a group and do our presentations, we know we are not only showing the material but also ourselves and that is something we are damn proud of.

The very least Hale & Fun can do is respect that effort and pay accordingly.

So yeah, we are probably paid more than we would get elsewhere but it is worth it. The late night revisions, last minute changes and racing from one site to another is just part and parcel to us because we love what we do and I personally wouldn’t have it any other way.

So keep up the good work and I will continue to ignore the business world’s advice no matter how many delicious croissants they try to bribe me with*.

Regards

Dangerous Dr. D.

(does this work as a nickname?...I like to think it does but then again, I was also all for the idea of Hawaiian shirts being our community uniform!)

* I do however, make no promises if they offer freshly baked donuts..I am only human after all!