September 2019

Welcome to September's Sibshop! 

 We created some fun balloon tennis racquets for our "trickle in' activity.  

 The kids had a little bit of fun trying out their new racquets.  We sure hope they are sharing them with their families and everyone is having a great time playing some balloon tennis!

 A few hula hoops and a large handful of bean bags made for a fun game of "Bean Bag Basketball." The weather was perfect as three teams competed to be the first to get 5 bean bags in their hoop.

 "Dear Aunt Blabby" gave our Sibshoppers the opportunity to act as a special needs advice columnist.  While many of our kids weren't even sure they knew what a newspaper was, we were able to help them understand enough to participate in this activity where they were the experts.  They truly are the experts of what it is like to have a sibling with special needs.

 We read different questions submitted to "Aunt Blabby" and our Sibshoppers discussed among themselves how they would respond. They gave wonderful, thoughtful and insightful responses.

 After lunch, we watched this great video to start talking about positive self talk and the power of affirmations.  Check out this video! It's great. We then created some positive self talk fortune tellers. Each Sibshopper chose their own affirmations to include in their fortune teller. It was awesome to hear what affirmations resonated with them.

They are indeed awesome, smart kids capable of doing amazing things!

 See you in October! We've got our annual and totally awesome deaf blind simulation coming up.

August 2019

Welcome to our August Sibshop.

We started the event by decorating t-shirts.  Our Sibshoppers used a bleach pen to create a design of their own choosing for their shirt.

 And this is how some of them turned out.

 We sure hope to see our Sibshoppers wearing their shirts at our next event.

As kids finished their t-shirts, they played a little game of Pictionary together.

 After our welcome and introductions, as well as a game of Hula Hoop Showdown, we gathered to learn some finger spelling. The kids learned the entire alphabet.

 Then we played a game of  finger spell "Bingo". It was hard for me as an adult to keep the alphabet straight, but the kids did a great job identifying all the finger spelling.

After a yummy lunch we headed outside to play a couple of water games.  Water balloon games are a hit and the kids seemed to enjoy getting a bit wet on a hot, summer day.

July 2019

Welcome to our July 2019 session of Sibshops!

We gathered together and started creating some "Crazy Cartoons". Our Sibshoppers used our handful of silly templates to create their own crazy cartoon character. Take a look below at their creative creations.

After our welcome and introductions, we played a fun bean bag game to get to know one another better and then moved on to following "Captains Orders!" This fun game has commands that are paired with specific actions. You must remember and perform the specific action quickly when the Captain orders it!

 Here our Sibshoppers are swabbing the deck!

 "X marks the spot!"

 Following these silly games we spent some time to gather and do some bibliotherapy. Books about families with children with special needs is a great way to get kids to share their own experiences as they connect to characters in books. Our shared reading experience was followed by a delicious pizza lunch.

 After lunch we were back at it with another active Sibshop game.  This one is called "Triangle Tag". You just need a group of four to play this game.  One person who has the bandana tried on their arm and two support partners plus the person who is "It!" They are trying to tag the person with the bandana, but must not reach under the circle of arms created by the other three players.  Good Luck!

The kids earned a sweet treat following their active efforts during tag.  We gathered together to eat a cool popsicle and shared some sweet things about our siblings as well as sweet things we have done for them or could plan on doing for them.  Our Sibshoppers love their sweet siblings!

We are looking forward to August's Summer Fun Celebration.  See you then!