March 2016

Welcome March! We celebrated with all things Lucky and Green!

Our Sibshoppers giggled as they discovered their Leprechaun name and wrote it on their nametags! Mine is Sappy Sparkly Pants.  What's yours?

 For our trickle in activity, we celebrated the things that make each of us and our sibling with special needs LUCKY! We are all so blessed to enjoy so very much!

We are insanely lucky to have Ingrid as one of our facilitators! She put together the most fun and elaborate treasure hunt we've ever seen at Sibshops.  It included all sorts of unique and fun activities like 'Don't Eat Pete!" and "Roll a 7!" The Sibshoppers were genuinely excited to find their own special treasure at the end of the rainbow!

 The weather was warm enough for us to enjoy getting outside for a bit!  The kids continue to really enjoy playing "Color Guard!"  They are getting better and better at it each time.  It's a fun way to get some exercise and just laugh.  Have them teach it to you and your family!

We took a breather after the game to sit in the sunshine and read a book together. Our Sibshoppers shared some of their own hopes and dreams with one another. 

LUCKY GREEN LUNCH!

Green apples, green grapes, green juice box, green pancakes! What more could you want for a St. Patrick's Day Themed Lunch! Yum!

 Ingrid outdid herself by prepping another awesome and silly game for us! This Lucky Leprechaun Relay was a lot of awesome fun. It was full of sit ups, push ups, wiggly arms, bum spins, running in place, jumping jacks and other silly physical activities!

What a super fun Sibshop! See you in April!  Remember, we will meet on April 16th!

IMPORTANT INFO!

Our March Sibshop will be held at it's regularly scheduled time: the second Saturday of the month from 10-12:30, March 12th.

BUT, our April Sibshop will be held on the THIRD Saturday of the month, April 16th. This is to accommodate Alpine School District Spring Break.  And this will be a Sibshop you don't want to miss! We are so lucky to have Heidi Woolley, an Occupational Therapist, coming to present to our group on all sorts of sensory activities. It is going to be a great Sibshop full of fun and games and food like always, but with an extra special guest and unique opportunities for learning and fun.
Mark your calendar now!

February 2016

Welcome to Sibshops February 2016!

 

For our trickle in, our Sibshoppers created these adorable heart trees.  They were asked to think about their families and those they love!

 We played a fun game of Zap It!  The kids had to bounce tennis balls on the hearts in order to earn points.  They could go for the big win by hitting the tiny 1,000,000 heart on the top.  However, it is right above a "Zap It!" heart which causes you to lose ALL your accumulated points. We had two winners at the Million Point Mark!

 

 

 I guess you could call this game "Slap It!" This silly hand slapping game requires a lot of concentration and dexterity.  It's a lot trickier than our Sibshoppers anticipate!

 Our main discussion activity today was called "My Very Special Dream".  Hopefully, many of our families got to see these handouts that their Sibshoppers completed.  For this activity, you fill out a dream for yourself and then a dream for your sibling with special needs.  We then let every kid who wants to get up on their "soapbox" and share their dreams with us! I think Fire Breathing Dragons were included this time around.

 

 "Do You Love Your Neighbor" is a classic game our Sibshoppers love playing!

 An 'Eye Spy" challenge got the kids quiet and forced them to use their noggins to be successful.

 "Bingo!" If we didn't play our simple Bingo game in February, I think we would have a riot on our hands.  The kids just love eating the candy hearts!

See you in March!

January 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

For our January Sibshop we wanted to focus on the word HAPPY and all those things that bring us joy. We started off creating some "Crazy Faces" collages.  I really got the giggles looking at these creations. Our Sibshoppers are way more creative than I!

What our Sibshoppers didn't know was that they were going to be asked to describe that crazy face and what emotion they were expressing. They then were asked to share a time when they felt that same way in regards to their sibling with special needs.  We heard about times our Sibshoppers have felt happy, puzzled and confused.

A game of "Ninja" was enjoyed by our group. I imagine this game will often be played.  It's fun, it's quick and you can do it anytime and anywhere!

 

 We choose a couple games for our agenda today that we hoped would bring smiles to many faces.  It looks like we succeeded. In this Snack Toss the kids were tossing cheese puffs onto their teammates head which was covered by a shower cap and shaving cream! 

 Silly fun was had by all.

Next up was the Cotton Ball Catch.  Seems easy, to spoon cotton balls from one bowl to another, right? It isn't as easy as it looks once you are blindfolded and holding the other bowl on your head. We all giggled as we watched our friends spoon air upon air into the bowls on their heads! More cotton balls littered the ground than the target.

The cinnamon sugar covered Tortilla snowflakes were yummy!

We played a game of Charades, depicting things that make us happy! It was fun to hear the sorts of things our Sibshoppers enjoy.  Their list included roller coasters, pizza, our volunteer Sean and much more! 

 After lunch we watched a couple of videos that reminded us that gratitude helps to make a happy heart.  The kids then created thank you cards to send to someone who helped to make them happy! Mom ended up on that list a bunch of times! (You go girls!)  Betos, Subway, and Hershey's will also be receiving some cute thank you cards from our Sibshoppers.

 We really hope a HAPPY time was had by all!

See you next time!