What a thoughtful project! You’ve had a lot of good suggestions already. But a definite second to everything offered digitally from his local library. My mother and I are both chronically ill, and it’s been revolutionary to be able to check out ebooks and audiobooks or read the latest magazines and newspapers, all from home.

Games can be a matter of personal preference. I love the mindless “match the colors” games and my mother loves Words With Friends, and neither of us enjoys the other’s activity. For the match-type games, I’ve gravitated toward one called “Home Design” because I’ve been able to play thousands of levels without spending money or watching ads.

Don’t know whether there’s an app equivalent, but Animal Crossing was my mother’s sanity saver when she was locked down in her retirement home during the pandemic. The chance to run around a virtual space, talk to the game characters, and carry out discrete tasks gave some semblance of the real-world life that she was missing.

I love crosswords and sudoku, but personally I prefer those on paper and would be annoyed trying to do them electronically. But again, personal preference. Some of my older relatives enjoy word search puzzles, and there are a few app versions of either word or picture search.

This isn’t related to the iPad, but given his history with woodworking, you might also ask him if he’d have any interest in handicrafts that he can do from bed. My grandfather got into lace-making and hand-sewing in his later years, originally so his hands wouldn’t stiffen from arthritis and then because he enjoyed them. For my grandmothers, it was knitting and crochet and cross-stitch. The main hurdle for a lot of men is that those activities are so associated with women, but anecdotally I’ve heard lots of stories of men who pick up handicraft hobbies and end up loving them.

Anonymous wrote:My mom really likes chess dot com.

My dad and I try to both do chess puzzles and then we will try to understand the strategy behind the moves. Sometimes the puzzle is "find mate in 2" and those are easy, but other times its "what is the best move for white / black" and for some of those I'll send him a pic of the puzzle and ask him to solve it, see if we get the same results and ask him why he thinks that's the answer. I will have my idea of why its the answer but I like hearing him verify it.

Audiobooks

If you have Kanopy from the library, they offer the Great Courses for free.

Anonymous wrote:I have found Happy Color ridiculously addictive and relaxing.

DP. Thx for this suggestion, pp. Downloaded it last night and it made me happy, too!

My mom really likes chess dot com.

Word Feud is similar to Words With Friends only better. Also, there are online chess games, I use Chess Time, I play with my adult son but you can also play with random strangers.

I have found Happy Color ridiculously addictive and relaxing.

Sudoku for numbers and my favorite word game is squordle.

Cubis.

Could he do audio books or magazines from library with Libby app?

Podcasts, just you help him weed through for ones he might like.

DCUM, haha

Monument Valley

Words with friends, puzzles, o Pandora or Amazon music. When my dad and grandma were dying they really enjoyed listening to music that they knew growing up and from when they were younger.

NYT spelling bee

Words with friends.
My FIL does it with his grandkids and friends from around the country

My dad’s health is failing and he’s no longer able to do the things he loves (woodworking, puttering around the house, golf). We’re getting him an iPad in hopes he can find some enjoyable ways to pass the time and distract himself from pain. I’m looking for suggestions for good apps.

He’s previously enjoyed angry birds and currently spends hours playing solitaire on a PC. Mentally he’s pretty sharp but I don’t think will have much patience for annoying pop ups, ads, etc. and also doesn’t have the attention span for long complicated books or shows.

Any ideas for things to we could preload for him?