Unexpected Signs

Sometimes kids choose their own favorite signs... And sometimes those signs are not what you expect... Or what you would choose to teach your child!
This week Miss Mega (15 months old) has added "motorcycle" to her vocabulary and moved it up to the top of her favorite list!

When your child shows interest in learning a sign that you don't know you can ask someone who is fluent in sign language, and when that isn't an option you can look online at a site like http://www.signingsavvy.com/ which includes an ASL video dictionary.

Think of it this way, you don't speak with your child using only the key words you want him to learn, you speak using your full vocabulary. It is the same with signing to communicate. You don't need to stick with just a couple of key signs you think your child should use. Instead, try to use all the signs you know and look for interest in ones that you don't know as that is a chance to expand both your child's vocabulary. You may be surprised to see what you child chooses to have as a favorite sign!

Signing Pop Songs

Did you catch this in the news?
http://news.yahoo.com/video/entertainment-15749636/sign-language-opens-music-world-to-deaf-citizens-23928119
You can see Ally's youtube page here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/allyballybabe

1st Hana House BST Graduates Play Group

Recently we had the first play group / reunion of Baby Signing Time graduates at Hana House. It was so great to see all the progress that everyone has been making!

To start out we reviewed an old, favorite song "Pets I Love" from Baby Signing Time DVD 1. Then, we learned a "new" song and the names of many colors. Here is a previous post about the song "Box of Crayons".

To tie together the pets theme with the colors we read the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" by Jr. Bill Martin and Eric Carle. We used the bilingual edition called "英語でもよめる くまさんくまさんなにみてるの?".

For some help in remembering (or learning) the color signs you can go to http://www.squidoo.com/american-sign-language-colors!

On iTunes

Did you know that Signing Time is on iTunes?

Just go to iTunes and do a search for "Signing Time" to see what is currently avalible! I don't have an iPhone but the applications from Signing Time look very useful! I would download them if I could...

ASL on Glee

Ok, so we are a few seasons behind in Japan for most US TV shows... but if you catch Glee on Fox Japan this week you'll be in for a treat. The episode features a signed version of the song "Imagine". You can see a clip here.

Just another reminder that people who use sign language may be closer than you realize!

ABCs on Sesame Street

We love the Sesame Street podcast and homepage. Recently my son has begun trying to sign the ABCs so in addition to Signing Time he's been enjoying the ASL used on Sesame Street!