January 2022

 Welcome to Sibshops 2022! We are excited for a new year of friendship, fun and food at Sibshops of Utah County. If our January Sibshop is any indication of what lies ahead, then we are going to have a fantastic year!

This months trickle in activity was called “I Can’t Imagine”, as in I can’t imagine life without… The kids identified so many things/food/people/favorites that they just can’t live without! Family was a favorite answer followed closely by video games of some sort and pizza! Our Sibshoppers were also asked to identify what their sibling with special needs couldn’t imagine life without. Many of our Sibshoppers confidently proclaimed “Me!”

We were lucky to have some new Sibshoppers join us this month. We love making new friends and getting to know one another. We love teaching our new Sibshoppers that our number one rule is to have fun!

Speaking of fun, the first super fun game we played is called ‘Cups and Downs”. It is a frantic fast paced competition that requires your team to get all your cups facing in the right direction.  As Team Up is quickly turning all paper cups to the upright position, Team Down is rapidly turning them the opposite direction.  Team Up gathered the most wins in this months challenge!

Today we introduced our Sibshoppers to the concept of an advice columnist. Instead of reading Dear Abby columns from the paper, we read letters addressed to Dear Aunt Blabby. Dear Aunt Blabby receives letter from siblings all over the world who ask for advice regarding their siblings with special needs.  Our Sibshoppers are uniquely qualified to offer advice and that is what they did. We heard some great, thoughtful responses to the letters. Aunt Blabby is always grateful for the help!

“Snap!” That’s the sound of the Moustrap closing in our game of the same name. Mice try and scamper through the mousetrap unscathed but many don’t make it! If you get trapped you then become a member of mousetrap. As the trap gets larger and larger it becomes increasingly difficult to stay out of its clutches.

So how do you feel about pepperoni on your pizza? What about playing dodgeball in gym class? How do you feel about going to the same school as your sibling with special needs? Do you love it, hate it, or fall somewhere in between? Feelings On A Rope gives our Sibshoppers an opportunity to show up how they feel about all sorts of things as they place themselves on the love it or hate it ends of the rope—or somewhere in between. 

We worked up quite the appetite and ate our way through many a bag of chicken nuggets and apple slices for lunch.

 Following lunch we had calories to burn and did so playing a raucous game of “Push Pin Soccer”. The goal is to get the balloons to your goalie who then pops them with a push pin for a point fo your team. Players cannot enter the goal and the goalie cannot exit the goal, thus ensuring safety from the pointy pin. The balloons however meet their fate once in the goal.

To wrap things up we wanted to know the “Sweet Ideas” our Sibshoppers have for future workshops. As they brainstormed ideas for food, games, music, crafts and other activities they were able to treat themselves to a sweet treat at the table. We can’t wait to implement the creative and awesome ideas at our workshops this year.

See you in February as we celebrate Chinese New Year!