There are a number of ways a big sister can show off her new sister or brother. One is to give birth announcements to her friends at school and to anyone else with whom she comes in contact. Here are some ideas:
The quickest and easiest thing to do is to allow the big sister to send her own copies of the family birth announcement. Chances are you'll have some left over, and this way they won't go to waste! To personalize them and make them her own, she can place a special note inside and write about how it feels to be a new big sister.
You can sweeten this idea with some candy. Wrap pieces of candy such as Hershey's kisses with the card, and have the child hand-deliver the packages. She will be extremely proud to share this announcement. What's more, this little project will keep her busy for a while after the birth while the rest of the family is adjusting to the new family member.
A more creative idea is to have a t-shirt printed with a picture of the newborn. It can be particularly exciting to wear this big-sister birth announcement to the hospital to visit the new baby and show off to the doctors and nurses. She can also sport her special tee at school to herald the news to her teachers and classmates.
If you don't want to print a t-shirt, you can turn a photo into a poster, and the big sister can bring this to school or hang it outside the house. Again, this is a great place for her to add a handwritten message about being an older sibling.
If the photo poster seems bland, jazz it up with cut-out baby- or sibling-themed pictures from old magazines. This is a great arts-and-crafts project that can either be brought to school as a show-and-tell item or carried to the hospital to hang on the crib. And when the new baby is brought home, it can be framed and put on the bedroom wall as a permanent birth announcement.
And, of course, there are computer-generated projects. If she is email-savvy, she can write about her new sibling and what she's going to do in her new role as big sister. This can be sent to friends and family and will probably spark further communications.
No matter what you choose to do, the big sister should feel that she is playing an essential role in the family. A big-sister birth announcement is something very special indeed.