November 2017

Welcome to Sibshops November 2017.

"Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!" Our trickle in activity-where we meet and greet and keep our hands busy as we all gather--was to create some Turkey Cones. They are pretty awesome and I hope they are adorning your Thanksgiving Table Centerpieces this holiday.

So we were way to busy having fun with our extra large group of Sibshoppers this month to take a whole lot of pictures.  You're going to have to take my word for it that we did stay really busy with lots of fun activities.

"Hands Off Balloon Relay" just had kids up and moving in pairs and teams as they were instructed to get their balloons moving in all sorts of challenging ways.  Maybe they carried their balloon head to head or knee to knee.  Could be their balloon could only be propelled by the use of only one finger. If you wanna get your kids up and moving and off of screen time, blow up a couple balloons!  

Our first education/discussion activity of the day was to complete the "My Very Special Dream" worksheet.  This worksheet gives the Sibshoppers a chance to think about what their biggest wishes for themselves and their sibling with special needs would be. Disneyland tends to get thrown around frequently in this discussion! :) Our Sibshoppers also exhibit tender hearts as they share their hopes for their sibs in regards to communication, friendships, self care and developmental skills.

We hardly ever think to take pictures of lunch time, but I guess you get a special treat this time around! Homemade "Lunchables" were on the menu with a little applesauce on the side.

 Your kids are really lucky to have some awesome volunteers who come out to share their time and friendship with our Sibshoppers. It would be impossible without them!

 Lookin' good and delicious my friend!

 We played a fun game of "Four Corners" after lunch.  I'm not sure if it aids in digestion, but it sure is fun.  Our second educational activity of the day is called "Feelings on a Rope."  Our Sibshoppers are presented with different statements and scenarios and then asked to show their preference by lining up alongside a rope.  The statement may be "Cheese Pizza vs. Pepperoni Pizza." One end of the rope respresents Cheese and the other Pepperoni. Sibhoppers line up alongside the rope to indicate their preference.  Pizza is pretty innocuous, as is Disneyland vs Disneyworld or Summer Break versus Christmas Break.  The more challenging scenarios include statements like: Sharing a room with my sibling, going to school with my sibling, having friends over to play at your house, going to church with your sibling, being asked to babysit your sibling.  What tends to always come across is that although there are some so-so and bad experiences in regards to be a sibling, there is always love.

Our Sibshoppers love treats.  Who doesn't love a little ball of sugar?!  We let them indulge a little bit while playing "Don't Eat Tom!"  This is a version of the more familiar "Don't Eat Pete!" game, but with a thanksgiving holiday themed twist. If you play the game right, all 9 Skittles may be yours for the taking!

 No Sibshops in December.  We will see you after the turn of the year in 2018!

October 2017

Welcome to our Halloween 2017 Edition of Sibshops!

Our Sibshoppers got busy creating spooky monster book marks and pom pom spiders for our trickle in activity.

Some silly (and unfortunately "spitty") spider races were next on the agenda.  They worked in relay teams to move their spiders from the starting line across the finish line by blowing them through a straw.  (This is where the spitty stuff came from.) It takes speed and finesse to keep the spiders on course.

One of today's discussion/educational activities was called 'Trick or Treat."  You can't see it, but the Sibshopper below is holding a special coin in her hand and preparing to give it a good flip.  If it lands on its treat side, she will share something awesome (good, great, fun, fantastic) about having a sibling with special needs.  If the coin lands on it's trick side, she will have the opportunity share something not so good (yucky, annoying, embarrassing, hard) about being a sibling. Our Sibshoppers are great at looking at their lives and their experience and sharing the good, the bad and the so-so with our group.

In between rounds of "Trick or Treat", we asked each Sibshopper a "Halloween Would you Rather" question.  It helped to lighten the mood and get the kids laughing.

As you can see, the kids really seemed to enjoy the Halloween Themed Photo Booth. We took LOTS of pictures.

Many thanks to Ingrid for planning a super fun Halloween lunch for us! The Mummy Dogs, Vampire Blood, Pumpkin Poop, Clementine Jack o Lanterns, and the festive Fly water were a big hit.  Although the kids kept asking if the fly in their water was real. :) 

The "Exploding Pumpkins" were a hit with the Sibshoppers.  A few inexpensive ingredients and a little science on our side is all it took for some more Halloween fun.

We threw some delicious dirt cups together with a little Oreo, ice cream, and gummy worms and sent the Sibshoppers on their way. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

September 2017

Marble Maze!

Our Sibshoppers combined paper plates, tape, construction paper and pipe cleaners with a marble to create their very own marble maze. The mazes contained ramps, pockets, tents, tunnels and all sorts of fun obstacles.

 We tried out a new game today called "Captains Orders." Our Sibshoppers seemed to enjoy it and as Captain, I enjoyed keeping them active and busy. I tried really hard to get em nice and tired for our next sit down discussion activity. 

In this silly game, the Captain yells orders out to his mateys and it is their job to respond correctly as quickly as they can.  Below you will find photos of the order given and the mateys responding!

"Captain's Coming!"

"Up Periscope!"

 "The ship is sinking!"

 "X marks the spot!"

"To the island!"

 "Clear the deck!"

 "Mermaid!"

 "Views from our Shoes" is a great Sibshops resource, and you may enjoy it for your family as well.  The book is a collection of "essays" written by children who have a sibling with special needs.  We read a few of the essays in small groups and then turned the floor over to our Sibshoppers.  They shared experiences that were similar to their own, or indicated what they related to as a sibling, and celebrated the good things about their unique families as well.  It was a wonderful way to get the kids discussing their experience as a sibling.

"Relay Mania" proved to be a winner! In this silly relay game, each team is required to collect all the items from their pile.  The first team to do so is the big winner.  The catch is that you can only send one team member to your pile at a time.  Their job is to collect one item and take it to the next partner in line.  That team member then keeps that one item in hand and goes to grab one more to take to their next team member in line.  That team members holds on to those two items and goes to collect a third.  The relay continues until ALL the items have been collected and held on to.  The holding on to all items is the tricky part!  Those darn balloons just don't wanna stay put!  

 "Islands" is a Sibshop favorite.  This version of musical chairs has game players in constant motion searching out for uninhabited islands when the music stops.  You don't find one quickly enough and you are out. The tricky part is that the islands disappear as the game moves on.

 September's Sibshop was successful--here's looking forward to more!