Then I pointed out that there were 2 BONUS squares she could also pencil-crayon in with different colors and choose different color patterns, like red and green Christmas colors or black and yellow bumble bee colors. She got excited about coloring in the BONUS squares right away. (The instant micro dopamine hit.)
Then we started to look at the other squares, like '4 CORNERS DONE' square that she could color in, then '20 LAST PIECES' square that would make her have to watch for when she was getting nearly done her puzzle to color in that square in.
We looked at the 'WOOD CUT PUZZLE' square ‘Term’ and determined her puzzle was not wood so she could not color that square in because her puzzle was not wood.
We covered a few more ‘Term’ squares, like one ‘Term’ says to "DO HAPPY DANCE" square - she loved that one. She read out, "SMILE A LOT". She loved that one too because she said, “I’m already smiling a lot.” So I told her to color it in just because she can- I said, "You , don’t even have to be doing the puzzle, jsut color it in anyway and do a happy dance so you can color in "DO HAPPY DANCE" too.
She replied, “Oh, I really like this and need this.” We laughed a lot while we chatted about how the Senior-themed PUZZL Bingo terms were meant for light entertainment and she said, "This is so great!"
She especially liked the title of the book; Bright & Sharp and outright admitted that she needed an activity (she loved bingo all her life) that required her attention. She blatantly said, “I’m Bright and Sharp” beaming at the title that was not negative about her age or condition.
She told me her friend Ivory would not understand how the book works because she does not understand English so well but her friend Maggie definitely would.
She said she noticed instantly that the word PUZZL was spelled wrong and I explained that it was the 'attention getter' and the brand name is PUZZL Press. I showed her where the brand name website was on the back of the book at the bottom so she could show her friends that was the way the Company purposely spelled it.
She was extremely excited to share it with her friends and said she would show it with the resident men so they could get the benefits of 'paying attention'.
I told her to have the Resident Staff photocopy the cards and pass them along to other Residents so they have their own copies.—
She— 100% does not realize I created the book on purpose for her. Over her 10 years in the Resident Senior home, her conversations became monotonous with the same old routine. I wanted to give her life something that would spark emotions and conversations with the other Seniors. It needed to be simple to understand, give them a reason to communicate with each other, and of course have fun.
According to our conversation, my mission was accomplished.
