From a doodled stick person to wall murals and clay pots made from dough, there is an almost endless list of creative activities you can do at home with very few materials. What we have highlighted below are those focused on taking people through relatively simple tasks. Some of these are designed specifically for an older audience, while others have been produced for use in the classroom and so are structured in a way to be easy to follow. For those of you in the Stirling area, why not check out the Dial-an-artist programme being run by Artlink Central and OCN.

Due to the visual nature of art, a lot of the resources rely on videos to take people through the learning process, but you will find printable activities as well that could be supplied to those who do not have access to the internet.

Access Art is a UK charity and membership organisation which runs visual arts workshops and events, using the income generated from its memberships to:

Share the ideas and outcomes generated through these workshops via an evolving collection of high quality, inspirational teaching and learning resources available from this site.

Although to access the full set of resources you need to become a member – this costs £3.50 per month with one month free – they do have activities that are free to use, including a section put together for the COVID-19 outbreak. The resources are geared towards children of all ages, but there should be something to satisfy most adults as well.

Dementia Together is a collaboration between occupational therapists and designers from Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University and Alzheimer Scotland. Areas such as music, photos and routine are covered in the project’s resources.

Engaging Dementia is a registered charity based in Ireland providing training and resources for those caring for people with dementia in residential care, day centres, hospitals or the home. The resources available at the Engaging Dementia website were created by occupational therapist Catherine Daly and are described as follows:

A dementia friendly activity is an activity that is carried out with the aim of supporting communication, stimulating the senses and anchoring the person with dementia back to familiar roles or memories that will create joy.

Luminate is Scotland’s creative ageing organisation that runs a programme of creative activities for older people. Among the projects Luminate has worked on are Art Adventures in Nature and the Dementia Inclusive Singing Network.

Its response to our current crisis is the Luminate@Home programme of online creative activities that are designed for older people who are isolated at home or in a care home. New videos will be posted at 2pm on Tuesdays and Fridays on the Luminate Facebook page and can also be found on Vimeo to watch at your leisure.

We will add further recommendations of structured activities as we become aware of them, but some people might just be looking for a colouring activity to support their sense of wellbeing or just alleviate boredom.

One of the most interesting we have found in recent days is from illustrator Matthew Wood who has produced more than 70 colouring-in sheets of football grounds. There are many Scottish and English grounds to choose ranging from Anfield and Celtic Park to Tannadice and Wembley.