Dates

March Sibshop will be at our regular place on the calendar, March 8th from 10-12:30.

Our April Sibshop has been moved back a week to accommodate Alpine School District Spring Break. We will meet on the 3rd Saturday, April 19th!  Mark your calendar. No sibshops on the 12th, move it to April 19th!  Thanks friends!

January 2014

"Winter Wonderland"

It was great to be back with our Sibshop friends in 2014!

 Our trickle in activity was to make some crispy tortilla snowflakes. They turned out beautifully delicious! We also worked on creating some fun thank you cards for some of our Friends of Sibshops! We are grateful for everyone who makes Sibshops of Utah County possible. We have the best student volunteers and are grateful for any help we can get.

 "Our Winter Wonderland" theme begged some snow themed play. The yucky inversion and lack of fresh snow kept us inside where we had some awesome indoor snowball fights!

 The kids completed a fun time capsule activity where they got to share a little about 2013, their hopes for 2014 and some fun info about themselves and their sib with special needs. Next year we will pull these out again to share with all the Sibshoppers. We even pulled one out for a Sibshopper that he wrote over three years ago. It was really fun to read and we are grateful he was willing to share it with us.

A large portion of our Sibshop was turned over to Karen Fairchild, a social worker from Kids On The Move and former Sibshops of Utah County volunteer. She shared her expertise and helped the kids share some experiences related to grief and loss.

 She even got them to practice some deep breathing and relaxation exercises to help calm in times of stress and trouble.  We are so grateful for her work with our Sibshoppers. Thanks, Karen!

We have THE Best Sibshoppers! 

2014 is going to be a banner year!

Happy Holidays!

Just a reminder, that Sibshops of Utah County does NOT hold an event in December! 

Enjoy this special holiday time with your loved ones and know that all of us at Sibshops are thinking of you.

Happy Holidays!

November 2013 Deaf/Blind Simulation

 We started November's Sibshop off by creating some fun handprint turkeys. We don't get paint out too often at Sibshops, but when we do, we go big! The kids seemed to enjoy getting their hands covered in all colors of our tempera paints and they created some really fun and colorful Thanksgiving turkeys.

 For the majority of this months Sibshop, we were pleased to welcome the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind. We are so grateful for Debbie S. and her willingness to come out and visit our group each year. This year was unique in that this group of Sibshoppers largely had NOT participated in a simulation before. It was a little exciting and maybe anxiety inducing to have most of our Sibshoppers doing the simulation for the first time.

 Getting prepped for the simulation takes a little bit of time! In order to make it as realistic as possible, you put in foam ear plugs, wear a head band over your eyes and ears, follow that with a mask and finish things off with a pair of heavy duty headphones. On top of that, no one is allowed to talk during the simulation. All of those things combine to make it an awfully dark and quiet environment.

 Every Sibshopper had the opportunity to participate in the simulation in two different ways. Everyone gets the opportunity to be a guide and to lead a fellow Sibshopper through a series of activities, including walking through the building, getting a drink of water from a fountain, opening doors and going up and down stairs. It doesn't take long for us to realize how dependent on our sight and hearing we are in performing such everyday tasks!

 Each Sibshopper also had the opportunity to take part in the simulation by being a deaf/blind participant. Other activities included feeling a pumpkin, putting a puzzle together, being fed and given a drink. These tasks can be really disconcerting without sight and sound. The kids quickly experienced a sense of confusion and irritability when they just didn't understand what it was they were supposed to accomplish with their "play" tasks. 

 Our Sibshoppers really seemed to enjoy this experience! Thank you USDB!

 We wrapped up our last Sibshop of the year 2013 with a fun game of Push Pin Soccer. This got the kids going and they were really disappointed when we quickly ran out of balloons!

See you in 2014! Happy Holidays!

October 2013 Parent/Child Sibshop

We just celebrated one of our favorite "annual-ish" traditions of the Sibshop year! Sibshoppers were asked to bring at least one parent/adult to play with them at this months Sibshop. We love the opportunity to show these parents what Sibshops is all about!

Our trickle in activity was to make some "Spooky Spiders". Kids and parents alike dove headfirst into this activity and created some awesome looking arachnids for their home!

While the Sibshoppers and their parents worked on creating their masterpieces, we shared our Sibshop Rules and Consequences with everyone. Rule #1.) Have FUN!  #2.) Be Nice  #3.) Be Respectful 

#4.) Keep It Confidential! Everyone agreed to keep the rules so we wouldn't need to use any the consequences!

Everyone got in on the action during a fun game of "Four Corners!" You race as quietly and swiftly as you can to find a "safe" corner to land in. If your corner is picked by the person who is "It" you are out for that round. Some Sibshoppers can be pretty sneaky, but the parents kept winning this one!

You can run and you can try to hide, but you are almost guaranteed to get "Out" at least once in a few rounds.

One of our traditional discussion activities is called "Strengths and Weaknesses." This activity involves interviewing another person about their own strengths and weakness and the strengths and weaknesses of their sib with special needs. It provides an opportunity to understand that we all have things we are good at as well as things that are harder for us. This time around the kids got to interview their parent and all family members got to share about themselves and hear from one another what they perceive about the child with special needs.

We took a risk and tried out a new active game for the very first time. And get this? It was a hit! Hooray! The game is called "Clothespins". You start with a handful of clothespins attached to your sleeves and then in the next two minutes you try and steal as many clothespins off of other players as you can and attach them to your own sleeves. Whoever has the most clothespins when time is called is the big winner. It was really, really fun! A total keeper!

After our rousing game of clothespins, it was time to settle in for another fun discussion activity. You get to eat candy when you participate, so it is definitely motivating. In "The M&M Game" you get to eat all of one color of M&Ms in you cup when you answer the same color coded question. We ask quick and easy questions like "What is your favorite movie of all time?" and other more introspective questions like "Do your parents treat you differently than your sib with special needs?" and "Is there a time you have been proud of your sib?" Kids and parents were willing to share and got to eat a load of yummy chocolate candy!

 Then again, we were up and at em'! An all time Sibshopper favorite is "Shrinking Islands." Very similar to musical chairs, you have to find an island to land on when the music stops. You can share the island with others as long as you are accommodating, but watch out, as the game progresses, the islands start to disappear!

 After watching a video of 2012 Sibshops, the kids remembered one of their favorite games was "Snowball Fight!" We played a few rounds at the end of our Sibshop and peltered one another with paper snowballs. 

 "Ready, Aim....FIRE!"

We wrapped up Sibshops by asking each parent to share something sweet about each of their Sibshoppers in attendance. Sure sounds like these parents love and appreciate their awesome kids. We love them too! We had a great time at the Parent/Child Sibshop!

September 2013's Pajama Party!

We celebrated September's Sibshops with a twist on the classic "Pajama Party!"

The kids crafted their very own dream catchers as we gathered as a group. They will definitely keep the nightmares away and help the kids sleep peacefully. We then played a crazy loud game (our Sibshoppers couldn't keep giggling!) of Pajama Pants Relay. Getting in and out of a pair of extra large pajamas turns out to not be as easy as it looks! 

Our first discussion activity found us sharing advice with 'Dear Aunt Blabby." Our Sibshoppers are the experts for sure on having a sibling with special needs. They answered questions from other sibs who were looking for help dealing with lots of different situations. How to handle bullying, how to talk to Mom and Dad about what you need, how to deal with being really embarrassed by your sib and other challenging topics were tackled by our expert Sibshoppers.

Undercover Leader is a favorite game amongst our group and they really are getting good at trying to outsmart one another!

 Twister had these kids all tied up in knots!

 Pancakes, watermelon, orange juice and bacon filled our tummies when we had Breakfast for Lunch!

 "Truth or Dare" is a typical Pajama Party game that we put our own little Sibshop twist on. The kids were asked to do silly dares like stand on one foot or hop like a bunny. For their truths they shared things like times they were proud of their sibling or what they can do when they get angry with their sib. 

We finished the day off with a little bedtime story all about a sister and her twin brother with autism. Many of our kids could relate to the sibling relationship in this book.