Kids 1st Gosforth sings for the elderly

'The art of happiness is to serve all. To be truly happy, we must think not only of how we can help ourselves, but how we can help others.'

This week, the children at Kids 1st Gosforth have been traveling around Care Homes, singing for the elderly. The very first Care Home that the children visited was Anchor's Cranlea Care Home, at Kingston Park.

Anchor's Cranlea in Kingston Park provides residential and dementia care for up to 39 customers in homely and comfortable single en-suite rooms. There are a number of activities and events in the home and Cranlea enjoys good links in the local community. The home works with customers and their loved ones to create detailed care plans to ensure each individual’s health and care needs are continually met. The Care Home provides dementia care and on-going training to care staff to ensure their approach always reflects best practice. 

Once the children and staff arrived, and after all the initial introductions, they moved into the room where their performance would take place and we were greeted with a very happy crowd of elderly. It was now time to sing! Through Wind the bobbin up and Wheels on the Bus, the children's voices were loud, as they sang their hearts out. At one point, the whole room joined in on the song's gestures. It was heartwarming to witness two generations singing together as one. In the room, you couldn't tell children and elderly apart - the whole atmosphere was just incredible!

After the songs, the children were kindly offered some biscuits, sandwiches and orange juice! - something that obviously left them over the moon for. With their tummies full, they sang one last song, before the goodbyes. 

With Monday being a success, on Tuesday the children visited Briardene's Care Home, the second Care Home of the week. The home specialises in residential care, nursing care, dementia care and respite care. The rooms were modern with all facilities and amenities to ensure homely comforts, and staff encourage residents to personalise their own space, so they can feel at home.
The home is operated by the Mariposa group, and the staff have a simple but strong belief that care is at the heart of everything they do. Everyone has a personalised care and support plan built for them with their wishes, best interests and those of their families at the core. 

As soon as we arrived, we were taken into a large room where everyone was happy to see the children. The care home staff asked the children some simple questions about the different things they learn at nursery, and they were happy to chat away about the different activities they do on a daily basis. Once the introductions were over, it was show time!

At the end of the performance everyone applauded and thanked the children for such a great moment.

Finally, on Thursday, 26th April, the children visited their last care home of the week, as they walked from nursery all the way to Park House's Care Home. Very excited about all the songs they'd get to sing, the children took a 5 minute walk to the Care Home as they chatted away about what their favourite animals were.

Park House Care Home is situated in a pleasant suburb of Newcastle. It backs onto a small park and is well served by public transport. With an attractive and welcoming reception area, the staff's aim and priority is to make sure that the visitors are looked after and get all the assistance, advice and support they need. Through providing stimulating activities to keep the elderly physically and mentally active, to the best of their ability, this care home holds daily activities such as bingo, board games, indoor bat and ball, sing-alongs, and all kinds of activities - there always seems to be something going on.

The children and staff were greeted by everyone once they entered the building. After the initial introductions, it was time to sing once more!

After the performance, the children were each kindly gifted some colouring books as a thank you for their performance.

Going to care homes throughout the week was a great way for the children to provide moments of happiness for the elderly, creating a fun interactive break in both their routines. With invites for a come back already in place for December this year ...(as Christmas is usually a somewhat lonely season for the elderly), all the children left the care home, after all the goodbyes, with incredibly happy faces and the promise of a come back for Christmas!