November 2021

Which side of a turkey has the most feathers?

The outside of course!

Welcome to our November Sibshop. As we gathered our Sibshoppers created some fun, colorful turkeys of their own. They took the opportunity to reflect on those things they are grateful for as well.  Did you know that gratitude can actually change your brain chemistry for the better? Thinking about what we are grateful can help us feel better from the inside out!

Following our Welcome & Introductions, we moved on to having one colorful snowball fight. 

An indoor snowball fight requires a fair share of exertion! We were ready to take a breather and do some reading together. 

Reading and discussing stories about families like our own helps our Sibshoppers connect their experiences to those in the book and to those of their fellow Sibshoppers.  Today was no exception. 

Yummy lunch and some chilling out followed.

A little dessert was necessary as well. "Don't Eat Tom!' was a crowd pleaser and a fun way to get a sweet treat as well.

Huckle Buckle is a ridiculous partner game that keeps everyone both up and moving but requires some good listening ears.  Each partnership tries to be the first to follow the Huckle Buckle directions! Here is a Huckle Buckle Foot!

A snapshot as they are on their way to a Huckle Buckle Elbow!

And the greatest of them all! A Huckle Buckle Buckle!

Our final Sibshop of the year 2021 ended with a game of Backwards Charades. In this version of the class game of Charades, the group does the acting out while one contestant tries to guess correctly what in the world is going on.

Chicken Dance? Disco? The Floss?

Adventure? Search & Rescue? Exploring?

I give up!

Your guess is as good as mine!

All of us at Sibshops of Utah County are so grateful for each of you!

Thank you for making our program so wonderful.  

Enjoy the holidays and we will see you in Jan 2022.

October 2021

Welcome to our October Sibshop!

Our trickle in activity as we gathered this month is called "Exquisite Corpse." With a name like that it seemed to fit right in to our Halloween Themed Sibshop. A more child friendly name would be "Make A Monster" and that is exactly what we did. One Sibshopper is in charge of creating a head, another Sibshopper creates the torso and then yet another Sibshopper creates the legs/feet. When done as designed, the three artists don't know what the other artists have created. Hopefully the monster turns out exquisite.  Take a look at what our Sibshoppers created!

After introductions and a review of our rules & expectations, we played a few rounds of Four Corners. All you gotta do is pick the right corner to stay alive. Pick the wrong corner and you are done for. Don't worry, you may not ne the ultimate victor but everyone does come out alive.

BOO!

Did I scare you? Maybe not so much. For our next activity we watched a short and fun video on fear and then spent some time thinking of the things that scare each of us. It's natural to have fears and it seems spiders are at the top of the list for many of our Sibshoppers. How we handle and cope with our fears is pretty important as well. Seems like our Sibshoppers were feeling largely capable of facing their fears with support and safety from loved ones. We have a courageous group of kids! 

You can take a look at the video here.

Grab a partner, strap on a belt with a pumpkin bucket attached, find yourself a cup full of candy corn and you are ready for a fun game of Candy Corn Toss. It's good to keep your eyes open so you maneuver your bucket to catch the corn (no hands allowed) but it can be risky if your partner doesn't have good aim. Fortunately we didn't end up with much candy corn in the eye. Unfortunately, most of the candy corn ended up on the floor and not in the pumpkin buckets where it longed to be. 

We enjoyed a slightly spooky lunch with meatball eyeballs, jack o lantern clementines, cheesy ghosts and some black & orange chips. Some of our clever Sibshoppers created their own Halloween food sculptures.  They did great work!

There are so many ways to play "keep the balloon in the air" and our Sibshoppers seem to enjoy all them. Today they created Jack-O-Lantern paddles and played with a partner. We all need a little after lunch exercise!

Halloween Celebrations aren't complete without some sweet treats right? We played some Halloween Bingo to wrap up our October Sibshop. Seems like all our kids have quite the sweet tooth!

See you in November!

September 2021

I don't know about you but it was wonderful to be back in person! So many of us were feeling grateful to gather outside with friends we haven't seen in ages. Plus we got to make some new friends. What a win-win!

After we greeted for the first time in 18 months, we gathered to create unique Sibshops nametags. These self portrait name tags are called Facetags. Our Sibshoppers are awesome at drawing creative likenesses of themselves.

Following a quick discussion of our Sibshops rules & expectations, introductions were most definitely in order! We spent some great time getting to know one another better.

After sitting for some time we needed to get up and moving and "Hula Hoop Showdown" helped us do just that. This fun team racing game incorporates "Rock, Paper, Scissors" as you try and get one member of your team all the way across the hoop pathway to the opposite teams end for a victory. This may have been the longest round played in all of history! As one team neared the finish line they would be defeated in the showdown and have to start back at the beginning. We enjoyed both a little exercise and some laughter as our Sibshoppers tried to hop their way to victory.

"Wheel of Feelings" provides an opportunity for our Sibshoppers to reflect on and share some times in their lives when they have experienced strong emotions in their relationship with their sibling with special needs. They toss a beanbag onto the wheel and then can share a time they have felt that way. The great thing about Sibshops is that there are always kids who "get it." 

We were way to busy feeding our hunger to take photos but I assure you we downed a tasty lunch! Then we played the classic Sibshops game called "Islands." It's a fun version of the more laid back game "Musical Chairs." In this version you are required to bust a move on the dance floor while the music is playing and when it stops find a paper plate Island on which to stand before it is occupied by another dancer. These Sibshoppers showed off some seriously awesome dance moves. 

We love providing opportunities for the Sibshoppers to get to know one another one on one or in small groups. Completing the "Strengths and Weaknesses" handouts let us do just that. Each Sibshopper paired off with another and they spent about 10 minutes interviewing one another. They got to ask one another questions about their own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of their sibling with special needs.

Septembers Sibshop concluded with a popsicle and a story about  how being different is okay and often is totally awesome.

What was totally and 100% awesome was hanging out together at Sibshops.  

We can't wait to do it again.

See you in October!