February 2014

Happy Valentine's Day! 

 

Spending the morning with our Sibshop friends was a great way to start off a Valentine's Day Celebration!

The kids began the  festivities by creating some sweet "Love Bugs" to take home and share with their families.

We watched a video called 'Special Siblings" and had an excellent discussion about what it is like to be the sibling of a brother or sister with special needs.  Just click on this link to watch the video yourself!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJIr29_m3pE Our Sibshoppers sure do love their siblings, despite the challenges they bring. They have beautiful hopes and dreams for them as well!

 

 We weren't able to get photographs of a couple of other activities--we were just too busy having fun. The kids enjoyed miming some of the activities they love in 'Instant Replay".  We're talking snowball fights, reading, gaming, cheerleading, playing football, making videos and all sorts of other fun hobbies!

We all got a little winded playing a crazy, active game of "Do You Love Your Neighbor?" Our Sibshoppers seem to enjoy this classic game even though it tires out all us volunteers!

 We wrapped up the festivities with some Valentines Bingo. This is an annual favorite of our Sibshoppers.  I'm convinced they really just like the big heart candy!

 

Happy Valentines Day and we'll see you on March 14th!

January 2015 "Happy New Year!"

2015! A new year full of possbilities, challenges and opportunties!

For our first trickle in activity of 2015, the kids created a self portrait (of sorts) listing some of their hopes, committments and dreams for the year 2015.  We've got some really ambitious Sibshoppers. (Don't worry, they have plenty of fun activites on their lists as well! They understand the motto "Work hard, play hard!" 

 A game of "Knots" truly had us tied up, twisted up, and in all sorts of trouble! The kids demonstrated teamwork and patience and a great sense of humor as we struggled to complete the task.  We never quite got there, but they sure put in a lot of effort and we laughed a bunch!

A silly game of "Freckles" was next on the agenda.  This is truly a nonsense games where partners work together to place as many freckles (damp, tiny paper circles) on one another's faces in the time allotted. They make quick friends this way! Super silly and easy game for them to teach your family and play at home.

 Tina led us in a blibliotherapy activity which involved reading a couple of books related to our Sibshoppers experiences as siblings.

 Lunch was followed by a marshmallow tower building activity, that never really seemed to get off the ground. Our architects ended up "smooshing" their (teeny tiny) towers into existence.

 Ingrid introduced us to a great new game that the Sibshoppers initially thought sounded way too easy! Oh boy, were they wrong!  It wasn't as simple as they thought to work in pairs and complete various "tasks" while their team balloon was floating in the air. Try as they might, only two teams were able to accomplish their tasks before their balloons hit the ground.

Happy New Year to all our Sibshop families!

October 2014: Our Annual Parent Child Sibshop!

Sibshops of Utah County is lucky to have served so many awesome Sibshoppers over the years. We were especially lucky this month to have a few of these Sibshoppers bring a parent with them to our monthly Sibshop. We love getting to know parents and showing off our program!

As everyone trickled in, the families created a Spotlight Poster to "share" their family with everyone else. It was great fun to hear about family members and all their likes, dislikes, hobbies, travels and strengths!

 The success of "Dear Aunt Blabby" is dependent upon our Sibshoppers expertise at having a sibling with special needs. Our Sibshoppers might have been a little intimidated by having their parents attend, but we were slowly able to get some great "advice" from these kids on how to relate with their siblings with special needs.

 We all enjoyed a silly game of "Undercover Leader" to lighten the mood.  Can you figure out who the ringleader of our group is? The Undercover Leader needs to be sneaky and covert while they lead the group through any number of silly and fun gestures!

 'Candy Corn Catch" gave some of our Sibshoppers the giggles! Tossing candy corn into a jack-o-lantern bucket belted to another teammates waist is pretty silly!

 "Scavenging for Spiders" sent us on a quick and hurried hunt for hidden spiders. The Sibshop family challenged the BYU Students and came out on top! We collected just a handful more spiders than they did. We did find a lot of creepy spider legs without their bodies attached as well.

 "Bobbing for Bubble Gum" had blindfolded contestants foraging with their mouths through a mound of whipped topping to find a hidden piece of bubble gum. The first contestant to locate the gum and blow a bubble was the big winner. It's not as easy as it sounds considering bubble gum gets a little soggy after it has been hidden under cool whip for a few minutes! Our Sibshoppers were good sports!

 Our final activity gave everyone an opportunity to reflect and share with the group what is good, bad or so-so about having a sibling or child with special needs. We have brave families who shared their experiences boldly with our group.

Thanks to all the parents who took the time to enjoy this Sibshop with all of us!

August 2014: Our Annual 'Summer Celebration!"

Can you believe that summer is wrapping up already? We sent it off with a great summer celebration at Sibshops!  We started and ended with tie-dying Sibshop t-shirts.  For many of our Sibshoppers this is one of their favorite activities all year. We give em all a t-shirt, as many rubber bands as they could possibly want, and then send them out with dye filled squirt bottles. Their shirts turn out as varied and unique as each one of our Sibshoppers!

 Before

 After

 We made some super "Cool Off Necklaces". Soak em, throw em in the freezer, put em round your neck! Piece of Cake!

"Marble Madness" is all about using your toes to collect as many marbles as possible in the time allotted. We have some very coordinated Sibshoppers!

 We played a bunch of water relays! We went over the back, we used cups and saucers and spoons and even huge car washing sponges!

 We finished things off by pulling out the slip-n-slide! 

What a great summer celebration! See you in September.