Make It Fun To Learn!

Baby Signs, Family, Kids Activities, Toddler Signs, , , , , , ,

Give that baby your undivided attention and set a playful tone.  Your baby will see that you are focusing on him/her and will try to play with you.  Their eyes light up and they get excited.  Mama or Dada is playing with me!  Use signs that he/she is motivated to learn.  If you are playing with a ball, use the sign ball and give/take the ball between each other.  Do the same with other toys or even a stuffed doll.  Use every day objects or foods that are around you.  It makes a difference when you take the time and make it fun.  Sets the foundation for future learning and engages your child in social interactions.

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Top 2 Reasons to Communicate With Your Baby Through Sign Language

Baby Signs, Education, Toddler Signs, , , , , ,

Why should I learn sign language to communicate with my baby?  This question is asked of me all the time.  There are many reasons but I feel these two reasons are very important in the development of baby’s language and relationship with family.

  1. The ability to express their needs and thoughts.                                                                              -Replace the crying with communication!  It reduces unexplainable emotional outbursts and those everyday moments where you don’t know if they are hungry, tired or thirsty.  Less fustration among each other when the child is able to communicate his/her needs.  It promotes self confidence in feeling satisfaction and and accomplishment.  It fosters a loving relationship with child and parent in knowing that needs are being met.  Instead of spending all that time trying to figure out what’s wrong, that time you can use and focus on bonding with your baby reading books, playing, and spending time with siblings!
  2. Boosts brain development.                                                                                                                        A lot of parents come to me and express concern that teaching their baby to sign will interfere with normal speech development.  I tell them, “It’s going to make them smarter, more creative and confident in communicating.”  It will not interfere.  It will actually enchance it!  It promotes creative use of language and increases vocabulary at a young age.

There are many, many, many reasons more why you should communicate with sign language….  Highly beneficial at all levels for babies’ intellectual, psychological and emotional levels.    Who wouldn’t try it!?!

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When can I start teaching my baby sign language?

Baby Signs, Family, , , , , ,

Start as early as you can!  I started with all three of my kids when they started moving their eyes towards me and responding to my voice.  With my latest baby, I started signing at three months old.  The first sign I did was milk since I was breast feeding her.  I would sign milk and then nurse her.  I signed it before every feeding.   But start teaching your baby signs when you think he or she is ready, even if they are not ready to sign back yet.  Simple signs such as milk, eat, nap.

Babies usually learn to sign before they learn to talk.  Get started as early as you can.  Once your baby can sign his or her needs to you, communicating becomes easier.  Talking to your baby while signing also encourages him or her to talk with their voice as well as their hands.

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This Week is Christmas!

Family, Holidays, , ,

Exciting week for us here in our household!  Christmas is fast approaching us.  We are spending the week preparing and getting ready for family time.  We enjoy our time on Christmas Eve making gingerbread houses, playing games and going to church.  Christmas morning is time for the annual tradition of cinnamon rolls, putting the prime rib on the Weber and opening presents.  The afternoon is at grandma and grandpa‘s house, spending time with family.  I hope you are in good spirits this year and I wish you a blessed holiday season!

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The girls out in the snow this December

Had Fun In The Snow!

Family, Holidays, Kids Activities,

We had unexpected snow fall in our valley over the weekend.  It was a great opportunity to take the girls out to build a snowman, have snowball fights and also sledding down the hill.  Their favorite thing about it all was the sledding and the hot chocolate we had afterwards.

It was also a special memory for my little one.  It was her first time in the snow!  She wasn’t sure at first and felt uneasy about walking on it.  Seeing her sisters having fun and running around, she soon was following them.  Great moments with the family!

Hope you are enjoying your winter and doing the things you love with your family.

 

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4 Tips On How To Engage Your Child

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Here are several tips to help keep your child or children engaged in learning sign language.

  1. Set an theme for your week.  Think up a theme you would like to practice.  For example, for the last two weeks, I discussed that we were working on colors.  I would find books with color themes and have them identify pictures by using signs.  If you don’t have any of those type of books, you can check them out at your local library.  I use the library immensely when focusing on more specific themes such as ocean life, objects around the home, etc.
  2. Make it interesting.  Like I said above, use books in your teachings.  Also a popular resource is online videos.  You can find many videos on different signs that you can practice yourself and then sign to your kids.  Here is an example of one resource that I use:  ASLSearch.com.   I like using this website with the older kids.  It is easy to set up flash cards or quizzes to practice or test their skill level.  Giving them some screen time daily to practice will help improve their skills.
  3. Get down to their level.  Be creative and engaging by being with them while they are learning.  Sitting with them reading and signing words from a book.  Other examples using the color theme would be sit at the table, draw pictures together and identify the colors you are using through signing.  Get down on the floor and play with color related objects or toys.  Make a game out of it.  A common game I use is I SPY with my eye a “pink” something and have them search for that object.  Use specific signs related to the theme you are working on.
  4. Focus on one thing at a time.  Children can feel overwhelmed with many things going on at the same time.   I find that doing one thing on Monday, then another on Tuesday and so forth through the week keeps it interesting and creative.   

If you don’t have a lot of experience with signing, it can be quite intimidating to try to get the children engaged in an activity, and actually keep their attention for more than five seconds so you can teach them something. These are normal fears, but the best thing you can do is relax – if you are having fun, the kids are having fun!  Relax and be yourself.  Be in the moment with your children.

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How to start signing ASL

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If you are showing interest in learning sign language but not sure how to begin, I have included some basic tips for you to get started.

Start out with the ABC’s.  It is the same in American Sign Language as it is in the English Language that you start learning the structure of the language by beginning with the alphabet.  I recommend that you start by watching online videos of letters in the alphabet.  By watching and observing the placement of fingers and the hand shape in each letter, it will assist you visually in generating the sign on your hand.

Use your dominant hand as the one to make the hand shape.  Practice in front of a mirror.  Make each letter with your hand and observe what it looks like from your perspective and also from the viewer’s perspective (through the mirror).  Focus on the hand shape and how your fingers are placed.  As you move from letter to letter, don’t bounce your hand.  It can become tiring to a person trying to read your signs.  A good tip is to start practicing with your arm resting on the table or holding your elbow up on the dominant hand.  Once you feel like you transition smoothly from one letter to the next, go ahead and stop holding the elbow or resting it on the table.

It is important to have patience in learning each letter.  It is ok to replay each letter on video until you feel comfortable with your finger and hand placement.  When you become comfortable with your fingerspelling, practice and practice and practice!  Everything around us has a word associated with it.  For example, if you see a BALL, fingerspell B-A-L-L.  The more you practice, the easier it gets to spell those letters into words.  Always keep practicing finger spelling.  In ASL, it is the foundation of the language.   It will help you become more comfortable using your hands and fingers while you transition into learning signs and using facial and body expressions to carry on conversations.

 

 

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Signs of the Week of Dec 6th

Holidays, Signs of the Week, , , , , ,

Last week, I focused on using aslsearch.com feature of flash cards on a simple catergory for the kids to start on, colors.  They did well and can keep practicing on certain ones such as pink and purple.  The use of the letter “k” in those pink and purple signs is not easy for little ones’ fingers.  We will be continuing those colors this week to master the signs.

This week I am looking to add a few signs especially with Christmas coming up.  We have set up our Christmas tree today and also worked on the lights on the house.  It is starting to look festive here!

How to sign Christmas
How to sign Christmas

How to sign Christmas tree
How to sign Christmas tree

How to sign decorate
How to sign decorate

 

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How to use Flash cards

Education, Kids Activities, , , , , , , ,

A great way to help reinforce your teachings to your children, especially those that are already using computers and online applications in a school setting, is using flash cards.  I use the ASLsearch.com flash cards feature on their website with my two older children.

You are able to do a trial run before signing up.  I chose to sign up so I can look at what categories they offer and go through one.  As I go through it a couple times in one catergory, it has a variety of signs each time.  I make a running list that I can teach and show the kids.  This week I chose to focus on colors.  Using the signs with the kids during the week in our everyday activities and having them try the flash cards on the website once a day after school will help strengthen their retention of the colors catergory.

There is a wide variety of catergories which makes it easy for me to pick one such as colors for this week, animals next week, and so forth.  The catergories range from animals, baby signs, colors, numbers, home, food and drink, sports, school, weather, etc.  You can also customize a list of flash cards if you are studying for a class or want to learn specific signs.   You can even study the alphabet as well if you are now just learning how to fingerspell. I love how there are lots of options on what signs to use in that feature!

I encourage you to try it and see what other signs you can learn by using the flash cards.  Here is the link on how to use flash cards.

 

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