According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 6 million Americans currently have Alzheimer’s Disease, with that number projected to rise to nearly 13 million by 2050. For people with Alzheimer’s or other types of cognitive impairment, and for those who care for them, the challenge is to stay active and keep their brains engaged at whatever level is possible and to find areas of interest and enjoyment to sustain relationships.

Gerontologist Kristina Lubofsky, herself a caregiver for many relatives with Alzheimer’s, was motivated to find a way to keep minds busy and engaged and to find activities that could be shared between caregivers and those they care for. The result of her efforts? The Busy Minds Box, a collection of brain-engaging activities that can be delivered to your door each month. Agebuzz Managing Editor Connie Zuckerman had the opportunity to speak with Kristina Lubofsky and find out all the details involved in creating the Busy Minds Box and what it offers to those with Alzheimer’s and other cognitive challenges. What follows is an edited version of their conversation.

CZ: Kristina, Thank you for introducing your concept to agebuzz readers! What is the Busy Minds Box? Who is the intended recipient of this product? What is the purpose of it? 

KL: Busy Minds is a monthly subscription that provides activities for older adults with cognitive challenges. The activities aim to stimulate the minds of older adults, exercising different areas of the brain while helping to improve mental health and quality of life. 

Studies have demonstrated that keeping the mind active can improve memory, reasoning, and processing speed, which can translate to ease of completing everyday tasks. One study has even found that exercising the mind delayed declines in thinking skills. 

Busy Minds activities provide a tangible way to engage the mind, aiming to exercise these skills and improve overall quality of life for those with cognitive impairment, dementia, and age-related cognitive challenges.

CZ: How did you come up with the idea for this product/service? Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your history, and what led to the creation of this new business?

KL: Three of my grandparents were diagnosed with dementia during a six-year span. After my father’s mother was diagnosed with mixed dementia (vascular and Alzheimer’s), I quit my corporate job, returned to school to become a gerontologist, and helped my family navigate our way through it. 

After my mother’s father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, I decided to further focus my studies on dementia and advocating for better brain health.

It was when my mother’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s that I was inspired to create Busy Minds Box. I’d bring her activities to keep her engaged and entertained, and it occurred to me at one point that if our family was going through this, other families must be facing it as well. 

My mission quickly became a passion for helping older adults with cognitive challenges through the use of activities, designed to engage the brain, provide an outlet for mental health, and improve overall quality of life. 

CZ: What is specifically in a Busy Minds Box? How did you develop and test the box? How do you come up with the components of each box every month?

KL: Inside each Busy Minds Box, we explore a new theme through arts and crafts, puzzles, games, and custom activities designed to benefit the brain. 

I spend a lot of time researching different types of activities, analyzing each one, and then sourcing all the components to ensure everything a person needs to complete the activity is inside the box. 

When critiquing the individual activities, I ask questions like “Are these colors distinguishable?”; “Can a person with limited dexterity complete this?”; “Is this too complicated to explain through written instructions?”; “Would this be considered too childish?” etc. Then I look at the big picture, asking questions like “Is there enough variety in terms of skill level inside this box? Which functions of the brain am I targeting with each activity? Are there enough different types of activities so the recipient has options?” 

In addition, I often ask customers for feedback so I’m better able to refine the activities for future boxes. I want to make sure that I’m listening to what they’re saying so that I can offer them something both useful and helpful.

CZ: Are your choices based on scientific evidence or expert advice?

KL: You bet! The activities, though they may seem simple on the surface, are rooted in science and research. 

During my studies to become a gerontologist certified in brain health, I paid special attention to the fact that different regions of our brains control the many functions it carries out, and diseases like the ones leading to dementia can attack all of them. 

By including activities that encourage the use of manual dexterity or decision-making, we’re tapping into the frontal lobe of our brain. When we include calming activities like coloring, we’re engaging our amygdala, responsible for stress and emotions. By learning to navigate our way through new arts and crafts projects, our hippocampus steps up to bat. This is a very simplified explanation of how the boxes are designed, but suffice it to say I try to ensure that a variety of activities are included to stimulate different regions of the brain.

By exercising these skills, we teach the brain to be flexible, which we call cognitive reserve. Research tells us that the more cognitive reserve someone has, the fewer symptoms someone with degenerative brain diseases may experience, and they may experience them for a shorter amount of time.

But this is all the nerdy background stuff; to the recipient, the box is full of fun and engaging things to keep busy, and the hope is that it doesn’t feel like work to them. That’s just a happy result of completing the activities. 

CZ: Do you have different levels of boxes depending on the level of cognitive impairment of the recipient?

KL: Right now, we offer the same box to everyone, and the activities inside have varying levels of ease. Where possible, we offer different ways to complete the activity to accommodate different skill levels.

We include directions and a link to a YouTube video tutorial to help guide them through the activity, which is helpful for those with mild cognitive impairment or no cognitive impairment at all. For those who may be a bit further along in their journey, we find caregivers tend to use the activities as a way to reconnect with their loved ones.

We have also recently introduced a single-activity subscription for those who want to test the waters with just one activity per month.

CZ: Are the products in each box created by Busy Minds or do you curate products from other companies?

KL: Both! We design custom arts and crafts, trivia, and games inside the boxes, and we’ve created some additional unique products like our Chatty Cathy conversation starter game and a sleep journal. The goal is to include all the materials needed to complete the activity inside each kit.

We also include some puzzles, games, coloring books, word searches, craft kits, and more from other companies too, for a well-rounded variety of activities that stick to that month’s theme. Including a mix of activities ensures there’s always something for the recipient to do, depending on their mood and preference!

CZ: Are the products in the box intended as activities that recipients can do alone or are they intended as shared activities with caregivers?

KL: We leave that entirely up to the individual and/or the caregivers. Some activities, like puzzles, coloring books, or word searches, are self-explanatory and easily tackled solo. But those living with dementia aren’t always able to self-start activities, so they may need some encouragement.

Some activities have more steps, like the arts and crafts activities, and it’s up to the caregiver to determine whether it could be something accomplished by the individual alone or if it’s better as a shared activity.

CZ: Would your boxes be valuable for people who have not received a formal diagnosis of dementia but worry about some mild memory loss or other signs of mild cognitive impairment?

KL: Absolutely! We control up to 40% of the risk for developing cognitive decline through our lifestyle choices, like the food we consume, how much we exercise, and how much we keep our brains active. 

In addition, per the CDC, up to 40% of dementia diagnoses may be either prevented or delayed. As we age, it’s possible to maintain and improve things like memory, skills, and knowledge, so it follows that the more we keep our minds active, the better chance we may have of preventing or delaying cognitive challenges. 

There is no known way to prevent or cure many degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, but if there’s even a slight chance that we can do something to reduce our risk, don’t we owe it to ourselves to do it?

CZ: How does the subscription work? Is there a trial period? How frequently is the recipient sent a box? How do you select the themes for the boxes?

KL: There are two different subscription options: a monthly box subscription ($42.95/month), which offers 4-6 monthly activities, and a single activity subscription ($12.99/month), which offers one activity per month. Both follow the same monthly theme, and they ship out between the 1st and 3rd of each month. The subscription automatically renews on the 15th of each month. 

There is no commitment, so subscribers can cancel at any time before their automatic renewal. We currently ship to US-based customers, and shipping is free on all subscriptions.  

Some of our themes are seasonal, like our recent “Have a Heart” box in February 2023 which celebrated both Valentine’s Day and American Heart Month. Other themes are based on other interests, which give the recipients the opportunity to learn about a new subject through the activities, like our upcoming “Bird Watch” box in March 2023. 

CZ: Can you just purchase a one-time box?

KL: Absolutely! There are two ways to do this. 

To reserve one of the next monthly themed boxes, there’s an option for a “one-time purchase” on the monthly subscription page. This guarantees that the recipient will receive the next box we’re shipping out, and it follows the same shipping cadence as the subscriptions.

After the boxes ship out at the beginning of the month, we list any remaining boxes on the website. This gives the flexibility for people to find something that interests them, especially if they’re trying it out for the first time or giving it as a gift. 

Some of these are seasonal, and some of them are interest-based, so there’s sure to be something for everyone. Because each month is a different theme, we’re constantly adding new boxes and activities to our online collection. 

We also offer three themed “mystery” boxes: a fidget mystery bundle aimed at helping to reduce stress and anxiety through sensory items; an arts and crafts bundle, aiming to inspire while improving mood and motor skills, and a puzzles and games bundle, aiming to boost reasoning, decision making, and problem-solving skills. Some of these mystery items have appeared in previous boxes, and some are brand new.

CZ: What’s been the response to your boxes thus far? What kind of feedback are you getting?

KL: We love hearing stories about how caregivers use the activities as connection tools! They enable caregivers to take a break from everyday tasks and do something fun with their loved ones. Because we include everything needed to complete the activities inside the box, caregivers don’t need to take precious time out of their day to think of, find, or create activities.

In November, I took the profit from the first year in business and put it right back into the community I’m so passionate about helping. By celebrating the first year with a massive 100-box “Gratitude Giveaway”, people across the country got to experience the fun inside these boxes. We received valuable feedback about the incredible experiences these activities create.

We’re starting to see more people post their finished activities on social media, and it’s so fun to see how creative our subscribers are getting!

CZ: What are your plans for Busy Minds going forward? Do you plan to expand into other products, services, or markets?

KL: We’ve started to slowly expand our activities and products. For example, we created a “Chatty Cathy” conversation starter game as a form of reminiscence therapy. We just launched a new line of candles that aims to use scent to trigger memories. 

Our main focus is the subscription, but when possible, we try to introduce fun new items that also touch on different aspects of brain health.

CZ: What’s the best way for an agebuzz reader to try out a Busy Minds Box? Can you start with a one-time purchase and if you like it, go on to a subscription? Is there a discount if you sign up for a subscription?

KF: There are lots of ways for agebuzz readers to give Busy Minds a try! Readers can subscribe to our monthly subscription to try it out – either the whole box or a single activity subscription – and if they don’t like it, they can simply cancel. There are no fees, no commitment, nothing like that. They can also hop on our website to purchase any of our past boxes or activities.

Readers can use code AGEBUZZ30 for 30% off the first month of their subscription, or THIRTYOFF for 30% off our past boxes and activities.

CZ: Any last thoughts you want to share with agebuzz readers?

KL: We’ve been asked how people can contribute, so we’ve created a donation program. People can purchase a donation of one, three, six, or 12 boxes, and we will find recipients who can benefit from the boxes.

CZ: Kristina, thank you so much for introducing Busy Minds Boxes to agebuzz readers!