FAMILY LEARNING SOLUTIONS. LLC

Counseling & Education Services




Dear Parents,

Sibshop is preparing to start up again for the 2009-2010 school year. This year there will be some changes to make it even better than last year!

There will be 2 groups this year, as we had hoped to offer last year. They will meet at the same time, but in different rooms. Mrs. Susan Knauf, an experienced certified teacher who helped me last year, will work with the children ages 6-11, while I will facilitate the middle school and teens, ages 11-18. As you can see, we are extending the ages to include younger children this year, beginning with age 6. We saw last year that there was a need for the older children to have more time to talk and fewer games and we intend to focus more on that this year.

The groups will be held the first Saturday of the month from 10:00 AM to 12:00. They will be held in my office at Family Learning Solutions, Winter Haven. This helps me keep expenses down and prevents me from  raising the rate for the group. The first group will be October 3rd.
The groups will be $25 per session, per child, as they were last year. There is a 10% family discount for 2 or more family members attending. Package deals include preregistering and prepaying for 3 groups for $65 or 5 groups for $99. I am hoping to get support from Central Florida Autism Institute and Noah’s Ark.support as we had last year and/or from other organization. If I am able to obtain any outside support, I will reduce the rate further for the groups and pass that savings on to you. I am happy to announce that CARD and Early Steps are once again offering scholarships for any families that are in either system. Please call me if you need further information on those.

Each session will have a topic this year. Ideas include Understanding Autism, All About Me, My Family, Hot Topics, Friends, and so on. Our goal this year is to make the group more about the participants and less about their siblings. It is to celebrate who they are and to share experiences as a sibling, but also as a unique individual.

There was a nice article in The Ledger in May about Sibshops. If you missed the article, here is the link.

Please call to register your child today for our new exciting season of Sibshops. Enclosed are the forms needed; please mail these in to the address below or fax them to us at 294-7472. You may also go online to fill out the forms at www.familylearningsolutions.com.

We hope to see you back this year. Last year, our inaugural season was quite a success and we hope to continue building this program throughout Polk County!

Thank you,

Donna Hale Grosser, LMHC
Certified Sibshop® Provider
Family Learning Solutions, LLC