Games to play with elderly mother

[maddnorth]

I’m looking for ideas of games to play with my mum to keep her entertained and ‘keep her brain working’ as she puts it. Her hands are very arthritic so she can’t hold playing cards (or small playing pieces), otherwise I’d be looking at games like whist and rummy, or possibly slightly less complicated than that, but more challenging than snap. Need to be playable by two people, although occasionally there might be more, and not take too long to complete. Someone suggested Rummikub which looks promising, but they did say it takes a long time with just two people.
thanks for suggestions!

If she'd like to play cards, then there is a neat card holder especially for hand weakness

Don't give up card games as you can buy playing card holders online for under a tenner. They're aimed at children but no reason why the elderly can't use it too.

I will investigate those holders, mum’s first reaction was “but I’ve still got to pick the cards up and arrange them in the holder and get them out again”, but it’s definitely worth a go, thanks!

Optical illusions
Adult spot the difference
Crosswords
Sudoku
Semental
Who wants to be a millionaire/family fortune- online/pc etc
Depending on sense of humour cards against humanity (probably not but some of the oldies are up for it)
Any of the trivia games
Have a look at mine truck games for hongs you can do for her which are fun and entertaining

*mind trick

I used to do crosswords with my mum. Her sight was failing so I'd read out the clues to her, how many letters, etc and that would keep her occupied.

My dad had a carer who often played Trivial Persuit with him, we had a very old game which worked well for him. They played an abridged version where the first person who filled their circle with little triangles won. It was usually him. ☺️
I used to sit with my mum and do the Guardian crossword on my iPad together too. Xx

She will do the Take a Break arrowword crosswords with me reading out the clues, (sorry I should have said her reading sight isn’t very good, although distance ok). Suduko and Guardian etc rather beyond her now.
A “large print/board” version of Battleships might be good.

If you look at the Active Hands page for the holder, there is a video showing how to use it, so you can slide her pile of cards to the edge of the table, push the whole block in, then turn the wheel to fan them out. She could then tap the card she wants to play and you pull it out

Thanks, that activehands site looks like a useful one all round

Quirkle - it has pieces, but they are 3cm x 3cm wooden chunks?

(It's a good game btw)

The DC got me Hive for Christmas. The pieces are large and very tactile, it's fun and (for me at least) you do have to think a little.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2655/hive

Quirkle and Hive have very chunky pieces. Kingdomino is a good game and might work as you have to move cardboard tiles and a couple of playing pieces but there’s nothing secret so one person could do the moving for the other or the tiles could be pushed across the table rather than picked up.

www.argos.co.uk/product/9456404

Genius square is a favourite of my DFs and DD10 loves it too. Pieces are relatively chunky.

I used to do film quizzes with my elderly mum. She's quite a film buff, especially where all the old classic films are concerned. I think I found quizzes online and adapted them first to take out the questions she wouldn't have a chance of knowing (Marvel superheroes etc!). Is that something your mum might be interested in?

I second that; we play it a lot (between ages 11 to 76) The nature of the game is that she can tell you where to place her pieces, and you can write the scores, so arthritis won't hinder.

Lots of love for quirkle, looks promising. I think good old fashioned dominoes might work well too.

Rummikub can be quite quick even with2 people. DH & I can often finish a round in about 15 minutes. There’s also Rummikub Word which is similar.

Have a look at Trionimos, basically three sided dominoes, it’s great fun and a bit different.

No suggestions but just wanted to say what a lovely daughter you are!

Does she use a smartphone or tablet? Someone has developed apps for this. I'll try and find details.

Quickly - I play it with a friend who has little muscle strength and can't move things quickly, it's very older person friendly and the icons are quite visible.

Quirkle!

Rumikub is very playable and doesn't take long. What about scrabble? Or Yahtzee? Or backgammon?
You can get automatic dice throwers.

Carcassonne, its a tile game but she could point to where she wants you to place the tile.