August 23, 2026 Indigo at Elmhurst

Today when I went to read for the seniors, one of them asked me a question after I finished the book. Her question was what connection the book provided between the past and the present. Last time, none of the seniors asked me any questions and just listened to me read. The book we had just read was about a deliveryman and his family. The book describes the deliveryman’s day as he rides around on his bicycle, delivering noodles to people before coming home in the evening and eating with his family. The way I answered the question was that between now and then we still wait for our hardworking parents to come home from work and share a meal with them. This happens in the story, now, and when the seniors were kids too. This was a really interesting experience to connect more with the seniors because they don’t really talk most of the time. When we read the stories this time, a lot more of them seemed comfortable talking to us about the stories. At the end, we asked the seniors what books they preferred and they said that they like what we currently have. I will get some different books next time to see which ones they like more. Through the two times I have read for the seniors, it feels like I am really helping them. The first time they didn’t talk at all but this time they seemed to be much more talkative. I feel like continuing reading with them will be able to help them more and more as time goes on.

Ian

August 16, 2026 Indigo at Elmhurst

When I went to the senior facility that had more seniors with dementia, it was much more difficult to keep the seniors engaged and involved in the activities. Most of the seniors would be watching but it seemed like they had trouble understanding. This made it difficult to do things that we normally would have done. This time, we only had performances so it was much harder to go and interact with the seniors. When we were at the other senior facility, we were able to talk with the seniors while they did some of the activities we had planned. This was much harder to do at this senior facility because the mental states of the seniors there made it difficult to get them involved and thus more difficult for me to have interactions with them. 

When I read for the seniors, they picked out books that had short little pieces of information. They seemed to especially like it when I pointed out the pictures. They also seemed to like just learning about things. The books were all fairly short and mostly informational. Based on this, I can check out more books that have a story and pictures for the next time I go and read to the seniors.

Ian

July 23, 2026 Sunrise assisted living

When I was performing the magic trick this time, it was really apparent how much they enjoyed being shown these things. It really feels good to see all of them so interested in the magic trick. It brings into perspective how boring it can get in nursing homes. You see all of these old people walk in and then just have so much fun. If you think about it, having these kinds of experiences as a senior feels really nice.

Most seniors are in nursing homes because they need some sort of assistance. Being able to just relax and enjoy their time there is a sort of luxury that I can help provide. It kind of gives you that rush of satisfaction when you realize that you’ve created a break in their otherwise potentially boring day. When some of the people from our first session came back, you could see how excited they were to be able to participate again. Being able to provide this sort of break and give them something else to do is something that I want to continue doing forward because it is nice to see them so happy whenever we come over.

Ian

When you play for seniors, the main focus should be on the communication and connection between you and the seniors. For our first time, I’d say we did a decent job of talking with the seniors and keeping them entertained. This interaction component is especially important once you start doing activities that involve the active participation of the seniors. I think one thing I struggled with during the activities was initiating the conversation between me and the senior or continuing it. Since they don’t usually have the same hobbies or interests as us, it’s harder to not only start a conversation but also make sure that they can participate in it. I feel like when they start the conversion, it’s just really important that you play along so that you keep the conversation flowing.

In both competition and performance, the goal is always to play everything perfectly. However, the driving force behind why you want to make everything perfect is different. In a competition, your driving force is impressing the judges. When you perform, you still want everything to be perfect but now you want it to be perfect so that you can invoke emotion from your music into the seniors. 

During the Guess the Tone game, I could really see how most of the seniors were very familiar with these songs. One of the seniors I talked to told me about how she had listened to all of the songs that we played during her teenage and college years. It was really nice to see how we could remind them of music they had listened to when they were younger. I could see that they all really enjoyed the activity even if they didn’t always get it right, they were always happy to be at least reminded of the music from their era. I think for next time, it would be nice to see if they could recognize any music from maybe an era closer to our time or maybe music that their children or grandchildren listened to. I think it would be nice because they might be reminded of those memories listening to the music as they raised their kids.

Ian