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Experiencing Life through Children's Stories: a project for seniors 2011

Seniors kit

The Lu Rees Archives of Australian Children’s Literature completed a unique year long project in 2011 working with seniors at the Kangara Waters and Calvary Retirement Communities in Canberra. Our project, Story: Mental stimulation, self-reflection and reminiscence, social interaction and personal wellbeing for seniors through Australian children’s literature, included ‘read and reminisce’ discussions about seniors’ favourite children’s books and the time and environment in which they were set, and various interactive sessions with contemporary children’s books. Our participants commented that the project ‘opened up nice memories’ and produced ‘lots of joy and lots of learning’. A resource kit is available for borrowing so that the project may be used and adapted for other groups. For further information, read the full report on this project.