October 2023

 Welcome to our October Sibshop.

As our friends trickled in to the workshop, we created some slightly spooky masterpieces. 

Today's Sibshop was a little out of the ordinary and we were so grateful for it. We love when Debbie from the USDB comes to present and do a deafblind simulation with our Sibshoppers. The kids get the fantastic opportunity to learn more about deafblindness and to experience it personally with a fun, but challenging, simulation.

Each Sibshopper gets the opportunity to be led and to be a guide. 

It's not an easy task for either role. Guides bear a big responsibility for safety and care.  The led must trust despite despite discomfort and uncertainty.

Thanks Debbie for helping us have a great time while building skills, empathy and compassion.

Spooky Snacks were on the menu for the remainder of the workshop. A little lunch followed by some Halloween krispie treat decorating.

These monster treats seem to be too cleverly decorated to eat. 

Looking forward to November and the final Sibshop of the year 2023. See you then!

September 2023

 Welcome to September's Sibshop.

We got our Bob Ross on today during our Trickle In Activity. We used a yarn resist activity to create some gorgeous Aspen Tree Art.

We ended up with some gorgeously colorful fields of Aspen.

After our traditional Welcome & Introductions, we tried out a silly game of "Knots". We struggled to get untangled! We put forth some serious effort and laughter, but never untangled our knot.

"Head, Shoulders, Knees and Cups!" Who can be first to grab the cup when cup is called? 

We enjoyed a pizza lunch and then cup stacking competitions ensued. 

We neglected to get photos during our last two activities. We enjoyed some quiet time reading some books together for our "Bibliotherapy Session". We love hearing our Sibshoppers share their own experiences as sibs after reading stories of others. 

We wrapped up with one of the most outrageously silly Sibshops games ever. Take a look here at the materials for the game.

In "Cheeto Toss" each team tries to land as many thrown cheese puffs onto the shaving creamed shower capped head of their teammate. I don't know who came up with this game but our Sibshoppers sure enjoy it.

Looking forward to celebrating these awesome siblings in October.

See you then!

August 2023

Welcome to our August 2023 Sibshop!

For our trickle in activity, we enjoyed making some home made Kool Aid Playdough. 

It's a messy process with lots of sticky fingerfuls of dough when you first start, but with a fair amount of elbow grease and lots of kneading, you end up with some spectacularly smooth playdough.

After our traditional Welcome & Introductions we got busy moving by playing a fun, active game called "Triangle Tag." Three players create a triangle with one target who is identified by a red bandana. Then a fourth player is it and has to tag the target. The triangle continues to hold hands and moves to protect the target. Triangle Tag gets the heart beating and laughter ensues!

We tried a new discussion activity today called "Emotion Uno." It's a traditional game of Uno but when colors are changed you share something with the group. If you change the color to Red you share a time when you felt upset or mad about your sibling with special needs. With Blue you share about a time of sadness, yellow is happiness,  green is jealousy and wild lets you choose.

After more than a year, we brought back a Sibshop classic with our Laser Maze activity. We don't have the budget for real lasers but crepe paper does the trick. Our Sibshoppers are flexible, athletic and well coordinated!

Lunch was up next and we chatted about all our favorite music. I am looking forward to updating our playlist with some fun, uplifting music our Sibshoppers recommended.

Our last activity for the day was "Popcorn and a Movie". We made a delicious popcorn mix with chocolate, pretzels and more and then settled in to watch a great video about siblings. The video spurred lots of conversation with our expert siblings.

You can check out the video by clicking the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvXUkZoHuCI

We are looking forward to seeing you all in September.