ABSTRACT
Interaction between sisters and brothers affords opportunities for learning new skills as well as practice in perspective taking, turn taking, and negotiation. In Chapter 13, we examine a range of activities in which siblings function not only as skilled caregivers but also as teachers of self-care activities, such as toothbrushing, as well as household chores. Older siblings engage their younger sibs in literacy activities, entertaining karate moves, and act as cultivators of collaborative creativity in language explorations and language play. They exhibit caretaking through their offers of comfort as well as divergent activities to their siblings in distress. Activities apart from parents allow sibs to develop their own local repertoire of practices, building relationships of care as well as control. By considering sibling interaction, we can view how children take up and make use of local family practices and examine divergent family cultures and ethos.
