Best calendar for those with dementia?

Depending on her capability, this may not help you, but might help someone actually living with their LO.

I plan to get a calendar for 2023 that shows only one day at a time and tear off the page each day. He often asks what do we have to do today so I plan on posting the events for only that day. If he is aware of events too far ahead, he becomes anxious trying to be sure he is ready so he doesn't miss anything. My husband is having trouble keeping track and often asks what day it is and a monthly or weekly calendar is no longer helpful to him.

When this started happening, it became clear that my LO was not going to be able to keep a calendar anymore. This was after trying various bought calendars after the charity ones didn't seem to meet the need. Plus anxiety became a factor: the calendar became a source of frequent repeated questions about the appointments, when they were and so on. The squares, dates and times meant nothing. The names of the doctors meant nothing as LO didn't know who they were, and after the visit, LO didn't remember the appointment as soon as we left the office. We went back to a charity calendar for the LO and I kept the real calendar. LO could record things on the calendar (due to always having been a calendar person) but seemed more and more unheeding of what a calendar was or why it was there. Your MIL seems to be going down this road; very sorry. And once they start forgetting time, day and year, you might as well understand that nothing will help that. The brain is broken. You can't build it back. Get her a really pretty charity calendar so she can enjoy the pictures, but keep the real calendar yourself. Good luck with this, and at this point, you may wish to start making alternate plans because the other things she's going to forget will soon make it impossible for her to live alone.

NO calendar would have helped my Husband. (clock would not have helped either, when he was able to as soon as "his show" was over he would get ready for bed, if there was a delay with the show for any reason his bed time was delayed)
A day is the same as the one before it, the one after it and the one after that.
At some point I think you accept that days are days and meaningless.
YOU become her calendar, her appointment book. You are the one she relies on to get her to the doctor, hair dresser. As long as you are there then she is all set.
Remind her the day before an appointment. Arrive with enough time to make sure she is ready.
If she is living in AL the staff can assist with making sure she is ready. If she is living alone (might want to rethink that) make sure you get there early enough to help if need be. Read your profile, glad she is in AL, have the staff remind her about appointments and help her get ready the morning of.

Let her play around with the free calendars but, like my mom, she won't understand them or remember what's on them.

So, what I did was switched to just me keeping track of her stuff on my google calendar and no longer telling her plans or appointments until the last minute. Cut down on the incessant questions over and over about the plans. So instead of hearing if for days or weeks, I only have to hear it for one day.

The only thing my mom needs to know is about half an hour before the appointment, it's time to get ready cuz we're leaving. There is no need for her to know earlier since she won't remember and won't get ready without being told to, even if it is on a wall calendar.

Ho hum ho hum...

I should start arriving to pick her up in time for her to get ready before leaving, if I were you. By all means keep her calendar updated *as well*, but it sounds as if the problem is not what kind of calendar she has but that she has stopped referring to it at all, unprompted at least. And there isn't really a format which can fix that.

Keeping track of time and date is, when you think it through, an enormously sophisticated and complex process, and little bits of it can go wrong before it all does. A week ago a lady in her nineties told me what day it was (check) and was pretty good on estimating the time (check) and calculating how long ago she'd arrived home (check). I was yippeeing inside. Then I asked her her date of birth and she was floored. Hadn't a clue.

So many answers here - sound so much like what my mother is going through. She too has lost all sense of the passage of time, the date year, etc. I use a large desk calendar for her, but mostly it is for her entertainment -- she doesn't know what it means. She is AL. One device that has helped out some is the Madi clock. Not only does it tell her what day it is and time, but is also programmable for multiple alarms. I recorded three alarms to alert her to her meal times at the AL. So, my voice comes on and tells her that it is now time for her to go down for breakfast. Same with lunch and dinner. It heeps to prevent her from going down for a meal an hour too early and wondering where everyone is.

My Mom's calendar is just to look at cute puppies.
Dates, meetings, appointments....do not exist in her mind. I take care of all that and Mom exists in various times of the past.

We’re in the same boat. About a year ago, my mom stopped looking at and crossing off days on the calendar. She has the day/date clock you mention but the information doesn’t seem to register in her brain. Mom is totally oblivious to the day, season, year, etc. I have found nothing that works. She’s currently residing in memory care and now I just tell staff if we have an appointment the next day. Staff has been great at making sure she’s dressed and ready. I wish you the very best and I’ll be following to see if anyone else has suggestions.

I agree with Mac, she has lost that ability. No way to "keep her oriented".

I got a calender from Staples that covers the freezer door of my refrigerator. The blocks are about 2 1/2 in square. You write in the month and days. Its like a white board.

AZDaughterinLaw, have you considered getting her an Alexa for reminders of appointments? My mother is 73 (turning 74 next month) and checked days off the calendar (posted on the side of the refrigerator) just as you described. About 6 months ago she stopped checking off the days and started frequently losing track of dates and times. We started using Alexa to remind her of the appointment 24 hours before the appointment, morning of, and 30 minutes before we need to leave for the appointment. Alexa will connect with her phone calendar as well. We still keep the calendar on the fridge current and up-to-date as that is what she is used to.

Alexa has become invaluable to my wife and me as we caretake for my mother. We use Alexa to remind mom to take meds, do her PT, etc. We find Alexa to be a polite micro-manager. And, mom likes to say "Hey, Alexa, play me some music," too. :)

FYI, I have no monetary affiliations with Alexa, any type of the same system should work. It's just what we have so we use it.