Enjoying the Lunar Eclipse
Home Care in East Grand Rapids MI
You are never too old to learn something and making learning new things and having new experiences a regular part of your home care routine with your elderly parent is an ideal way to protect 
her mind from cognitive decline, ward off Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, preserve her memory skills, and even support improved mental and emotional health over the long term.
Enjoying the night sky is a unique and often exhilarating activity that encourages you and your parent to learn, but to also experience the emotional reactions that often come from truly stopping and concentrating on the sky. Experiencing a lunar eclipse can be a particularly moving experience, and depending on where you live you might have the opportunity to experience one toward the end of March. A lunar eclipse happens when the moon passes into the Earth’s shadow and is darkened. This can be an only slight shadowing of a part of the moon, or a complete shadowing over the whole, or full, moon.
Use these tips to help you plan an enlightening and memorable lunar eclipse:
- Study about the sky. In the weeks leading up to the eclipse, focus on learning about the night sky. This is something that your parent can do with you, independently, with an in home health care services provider, or all of these options. Learning details such as the names of the stars, the placement of them during the different seasons of the year, and how they got their names is a great way to stimulate her mind and get her excited to learn more.
- Find the perfect viewing area. Like anything else in the night sky, an eclipse is best seen with as little light pollution as possible. Look for a place to go where you can be as far away from lights such as houses, streetlights, buildings, and cars as possible. The darkness will make the moon seem closer and brighter, emphasizing the shadowing. Bring along lawn chairs, blankets, and some snacks and hot beverages to keep you warm and comfortable as you relax and stare up at the sky to experience this amazing event.
- Craft it. Making crafts is always a good way to encourage your parent to express herself and share, and to stimulate her mind, but this can be particularly useful if she suffers from challenges or limitations that make it difficult for her to communicate effectively. Encouraging her to create something that expresses the eclipse and how it made her feel can be a powerful way to not only reinforce the learning and stimulation of the event, but to give her the ability to express herself in a way that she can share with others.
Even if you do not live in an area that will be able to view the next eclipse, consider spending some time with your parent learning about them so that you can be prepared to experience those that will come next year. A visit to a planetarium or even watching NASA videos online can let you see the effect of an eclipse even if you cannot see one in person.
If you or someone you know needs help with home care in East Grand Rapids, MI, contact Gauthier Family Home Care. We provide quality and affordable home care services in our community. Call us at (616) 258-2300 for more information.
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