Dad is in stages 5-6 of Alzheimer’s, in the evening he wants to rearrange everything from furniture to the things I keep at my table next to me, phone, remote, nook and anything else I may have put there during the day. I really need something that will keep his hands busy where he thinks he is working.
I also agree that he might enjoy a ‘fidget board’ or ‘activity board’ as others have suggested. I’ve seen them on Etsy also.
Earlier on, I had a penny counting machine, which was a plastic jar with a hole in the lid and my loved ones was able to put pennies in the top to help them stay occupied, or sorting different colors of buttons. The penny counting machine was very helpful. But now at 5-6, and really always, you have to be careful, they may forget what a penny is and try to put it in their mouth.
Once he no longer could really use his hands, we'd sit and talk and I'd hold his hand or rub his back. He appreciated the physical touch and just the attention his brain still craved. Sometimes I'd ask what he wanted and he'd just ask me to sing to him. So that's what I did. ASKING your LO what THEY WANT is better than simply handing them some task--esp if their minds are still working. Daddy didn't "lose it" until the very, very end. Parkinson's is a horrible disease.
Some of the members of the staff thought they might use this idea with others on the floor.
youtube.com/watch?v=D_sbiUC5wE8
One thing to be cautious about is if they are putting items in their mouth, then working with smaller objects could be dangerous.
Maybe he'd like to organize his underwear drawer!
How about your junk drawer? Give him a little box to put things he thinks should be thrown away, so you can check it first. Heck, your neighbors might even want him to sort their junk drawers, too. How important would that make him feel?
I often gave my mother a big bag of coins to sort. She'd sigh and act like it was an imposition, but you could tell she really got a kick out of it. We'd put the coins in separate baggies, which I'd empty together in a few days so she could sort them all over again. I told her I needed them sorted for vending machines.
My mother had no clue why anyone would need paper shredded, but because I said I needed it, she felt important doing it. My husband still understood the concept of "identity theft" and accepted the job seriously.
Check some out on Amazon or Pinterest or just Google activity lap pad for dementia.
You could also give him old (unwanted) magazines and papers to "sort".
Have him "help" you fold laundry.