sign: BROKE... I made too much baby food!

So many weeks ago I talked about how Lil's grandparents were in town (see GRANDMOM) and I was still recovering my previous week's knife incident (see HURT), I had the family helping make her baby food. Let me just say - she was well stocked again and it lasted for quite some time! Anyway, so I had Lil's grandpa peeling apples, my husband peeling nectarines and pureeing the foods I chose, and Lil's grandma cutting apples and putting all the newly pureed foods in containers and freezer bags. I was as you could say the orchestra conductor of the group :)

This blade I borrowed from my father
but the bottom is where mine is
cracked!

As my husband was cleaning the blade to the food processor for the second series of food, he noticed cracks in the blade! Oh man - the machine's only a year old and we absolutely love the machine! 


Then not much longer later my husband turned and looked at me and said 'oops' .. I look in his hand and our very nice Pampered Chef scraper was BROKE! He said ... it had a little situation with the food processor. So the sign of the day was obviously - BROKE!


But we had a very successful food-making morning: apple-nectarines, apple-pineapple-oranges, and carrot-squash! I'm was very happy parent!

So now weeks later, I'm having a pampered chef party because I have to order a new scraper! I think you can tell which one needs to be replaced! It's a shame warranties don't cover operator error!


With the Mother's Day holiday right around the corner, I thought why not share the love! Enjoy this link to pampered chef (click here! Just tell Barbara it's my party. she'll help ya!)- we love their stuff and already have our order ready! What's your favorite Pampered Chef item? Or better yet - what did you BREAK while making baby food?










Sign: BREAK (or BROKE - not as in the $ broke)

Brown Bear part 2 in Sign!

Sorry for the delay but here's more Brown Bear! I'm going to try a google document this time so you can download part 2 that way! Please let me know if it works! (see below). Part 3 ends the book next week.

Part two: complete! Slide 1. Slide 2. Slide 3. Slide 4. Slide 5. Slide 6. Slide 7.

sign: ZERO because there were ZERO signs today :)

So a funny Facebook fan said I should have my Sign of the Day be ZERO because I didn't post today! (I thought it was funny so here's a quick video).

The sign was a little too much for a couple pictures to portray so I thought a video would be more appropriate.  The sign ZERO in this case meant 'none' versus the different meaning as in counting 0,1,2,3, and so forth so the sign looks a little different. So here's to ZERO! 


ZERO signs today and I promise I will have Brown Bear Brown Bear part 2 (with part 1) this weekend. I've been working on it and excited to share :) I think I will add a video with that too and other Brown Bear resources :) Stay tuned for that.

For those who didn't read my Facebook post this morning - I spent all day at a workshop featuring Temple Grandin. 
 She was a fabulous speaker and I feel fortunate to have heard her speak. I hope to go again sometime in the future to hear more. I thought it was a great way to end the great month of Autism Awareness!  

On my other site I featured a couple individuals speaking about autism and what they are doing in their communities to give back to help those with are diagnosed with ASD. Check it out here.




Sorry for the ZERO signs today ;)

SIGN: Spoon - High Chair saga's

Lil has had a lot of new developmental changes! One of her newest desires is to feed herself with the SPOON. At first, I thought no way! (remember - we learned the sign NO) Then I opened the What to Expect First Year book. The books says it's completely normal and to give her the SPOON. Well as I'm sure you may have realized nothing comes easy in my house. So ... we introduced SPOON. In my head, she's going to ask for a spoon. In reality, that's asking a lot. But practically, she'll learn what SPOON is early enough! :)


It's been a few weeks now that she's been using the SPOON intermediately .. she doesn't put it in her bowls to scoop up food but she does put it right in her mouth without any problems.

Now she's interested in mommy's fork! Oh boy!

sign: NEXT for WTSW

For What's the Sign Wednesday we are taking a request from last Wednesday from Jennifer H. (on Facebook)

Sign: NEXT

This is a tricky one (you guys ask for the tricky ones!). The reason I say that though is because it really depends on the situation. I have it signed for two different situations but there's definitely more. It depends. For those who were interested in NEXT - what's your context? Put it in a sentence for us. Below you will see NEXT as in 'your turn' and NEXT as in NEXT TO the --[fill in the blank].

If the images are not clear for you let me know and I will find another picture or take them myself.

sign: WHEN for WHEN do we use sign

An update: WHEN do we sign?

compliments of Lifeprint.com

WHEN: non-dominant pointer finger stays still while the other dominant hand finger 

makes a circle around and down to it.

Ms. Little Fingers is 13 months old now. She's saying some words, climbing up and down any stairs, walking all over, eating whatever we give her (most of the time) and trying to say whatever we say. So .. we up the ante with our signs quite a bit!


Here's some times and ways we're signing...


1. wake up with our good morning song so I sign GOOD MORNING to Ms. Little Fingers


2. then we move on to DIAPER (no DIAPER DANCE song - she's too tired to hear that up-edy beep-bop song!). I vary it also signing POTTY and POOP. (She's already pooped on the potty twice so I try to introduce it when possible).

3. We continue using EAT, MORE, DRINK and MILK after she's dressed in her high chair. 


4. We've added CEREAL in the high chair scene.


5. We dance and sing in the car to the babysitter's - don't ask but true - yes, we dance in the car. Let me tell you she has rhyme! When she's excited she signs and says BABY - she's just funny like that :) (And no I don't sign in the car typically to her - there's enough other things going on!)

6. When the work day is over, and the weather is nice, we take a ride in her beloved CAR. We sign CAR. 


7. But if it's really nice, we sign WALK, grab the dog and take a stroll. 


8. Dinner time brings back the MILK, EAT/FOOD, MORE and ALL DONE (which is signs and says now!).

9. Now she loves adventures in the kitchen. She loves getting into things she shouldn't be in but the great thing is when I say/sign THANK YOU and put my hand  out to her and she gives it to me. 


10. During play, DADDY and I sign DADDY and MOMMY


11. The night ends with tubby time. BATH and DUCK join our tub scene. We bring in the BUBBLES sometimes too.


12. But our night ends with DIAPER and BOOK. She points to the BOOKS she wants me to grab off her book shelf as I get her ready for bed and she stands on her changing pad. 


These are just some of the times. I know there's other times but we'll leave it at this for now. How about you? When do you use sign?

sign: RAIN. We're recovering from lots of RAIN

Yesterday, it RAINED cats and dogs! Ironically I wouldn't sign that verbatim in ASL ("it's raining cats and dogs") but in English - it's appropriate! We'll talk about idioms in ASL another day :). 


So I spent all day in my office... actually like I said I would on Friday for the sign EARTH. Saturday was very successful at the Burlington County Women's Expo. Thank you to all the great people I met there. It truly was a very blessed busy day and I enjoyed talking to everyone. I'm so excited for some new tutoring clients I met online and in-person and some potential new class members for our great classes coming up this summer!


So today's sign RAIN because that's the only thing on my mind (the large puddles in my backyard!) at this time.

(c) Sign2Me

Hope your weekend was good! What did you do this weekend?

HAPPY EARTH DAY

It's hard to keep up with all these special months, days, and holidays. :) This weekend is EARTH DAY. Personally I'll be busy in my office finishing dissertation work but I promise to recycle my paper when I'm done using it!


What will you be doing for EARTH DAY?

sign: WOMAN Come meet us at the Burlington County WOMEN'S expo

Today's sign is WOMAN because this Saturday I am hosting a table at the Burlington County WOMEN'S Expo at Burlington County College. We're pretty excited about it - having some great giveaways, discounted deals on some awesome products!


Check out this great event (click here!) 

Sign: WOMAN

This two part sign is easy! First part is just MOM and the second
part is the same handshape just down to the sternum! WOMAN

Hope you see you there!

sign: EAT HEALTHY for WTSW

Mark from Housel Fun and Fitness asked on Monday (he beat everyone to the chase!) for EAT HEALTHY. It goes along with our monthly post 60 and WATER. 


EAT HEALTHY - important part of life! I firmly believe in looking at the whole body - not just my moving fingers! I try to instill the same philosophies with Little Fingers making her EAT well-rounded meals. 


What's the Sign Wednesday ... EAT HEALTHY!

the fists are coming coming out from the shoulders like strong & confident
Because you are HEALTHY!

For all those other great submissions, you will see them during future WTSWs! They are always appreciated and I will try my best to do them throughout the week if they are appropriate (e.g. you'll see Earth Day soon because it's this weekend!) or on other WTSWs. 


Many Thanks!!

It's What's the Sign Wednesday! What are you looking for?

It's Wednesday!

What sign are you searching for today? 

Leave us a comment here or on our Facebook wall.

Couple weeks ago we had requests for anything Easter-y. (Read here.). Want to stay with the same theme, or are you looking for something else today?

Last week we had a request for BLOCKS

What are you looking for?

Get ready for What's the Sign Wednesday

What's the Sign Wednesday's (WTSW) is 

coming at ya tomorrow! 

What sign are you looking for?

Leave a comment here or on Facebook

sign: SIT. Lil says SIT!

I haven't talk about Little Fingers much - had quite a bit else going on with the holiday and other things. But just to report, she said another word! We don't really count so I don't know if it's 5 or 6 but it's still really neat! 

DADDY yells SIT to the DOG because the DOG loves watching television - only problem is - he covers the cable box watching tv and we can't change the channel! So DADDY learned if he said SIT then the DOG would SIT and relax. Nothing else worked; so Lil picked up on it quickly "si-, SIT, si-, si-, SIT SIT" all the time! So cute! (I was hoping to replacing the BABY with something - it looks like we found it!)

The sign SIT is important because it has a noun/verb situation meaning no bounce in the sign equals SIT... if you bounce the sign (up and down) then it becomes CHAIR. So SIT is one hit of the opposite pointer and middle fingers, while CHAIR is two hits with those same fingers. Such a slight difference means such a different sign!

Compliments of Super Duper, Inc.

WHY do I write my signs in capital letters!!?

Today's sign is WHY because I figured you might want to know by now WHY I write my 'Sign of the Day' in capital letters!

This is just one variation of the sign. I sign WHY differently.

American Sign Language is not a written language. Therefore when signs are in written format, it's referred to as 'gloss' because you are not translating the language - you're merely trying to write it down in written format. Gloss can even portray questions versus statements (as in what is being done with your body language and facial expressions).


It's important to note that ASL is not a word-order language, rather ASL is inflection (like some Asian languages). English on the other hand is word-order. The other important concept I'm always teaching in class is that ASL does not have a word-to-word correlation with Engish. Therefore, while many times you can ask 'what the sign for [fill in the blank word]?' - there are just as many times that there isn't a sign because signs are concepts (not necessarily words). 

For example, going through college years ago, I wanted to know the sign for 'corrupt' - at the time my friend said, "well explain it to me. WHY do you want the sign?" So I explained the story to her and she explained to me how to sign that concept. Ding Ding Ding - it was a light bulb moment - Right! There isn't a word-to-word correlation so of course there doesn't always have to be a 1:1 correlation.


So WHY do I write my signs in capital letters - now you know :) 

This is me and my rendition of WHY. Instead of moving my three
inner fingers down away from my head [like the image above], I only move / wiggle
my middle finger.Since it's a WH-question, technically you're supposed to have a slight tilt forward and
eyebrows in (so the eyebrows in is difficult when your husband's laughing at you during the picture).

BROWN BEAR story part 1

Today's post is compliments of Judy G. on Facebook. 
It's a 3 parter!

Now the best part! ... Here's a quick worksheet matching the color with the signs! Enjoy!

Find the worksheet here. (Please let me know if it doesn't work. Also - let me know what you think of it! Thanks!)

sign: 9. Southern SAHM follow up on her product review

Check out Caitlin's thoughts a couple weeks after introducing Baby Signing Time Volume 4 to her son. (Click here). 


A few weeks ago she did a review (here) being a new-comer to sign language. Her son took right to the DVD and enjoyed it immediately! 

Now - he has NINE signs! NINE! 


He is a true testament that sign language is not only fun and entertaining, but it sticks! And he is increasing his expressive language vocabulary using sign language. Kuddos Southern SAHM! I'm so glad he likes the DVD and learned some great signs!

What does your child think of Baby Signing Time?

sign: BLOCKS for WTSW

Thanks Robin H. for the suggestion of BLOCKS for What's the Sign Wednesday.

BLOCKS is a great one because you can talk about colors. (Here's some colors we've done thus far:)
- PINK
- GREEN
(more coming soon with our Brown Bear Brown Bear rendition!)


BLOCKS are great because you can talk about ON top, fall down, and build UP. My little fingers is just starting to play with BLOCKS, knock them down and build them UP - so cute.

There are variations to this sign. I am looking for the other variations to show you
but I might have to take pictures. Sometimes the sign BOX or BRICKS are used for BLOCKS.
Times like this it's important to remember, ASL isn't English-based and there isn't a word-to-word correlation.
We'll talk more about that another time ;)

sign: BABY for Supporting the March of Dimes Walk!

I am very proud to support my cousin's team, Jack Attack, for the March of Dimes Walk again this year so today's sign is BABY. 


This sign means a lot to me as Little Fingers is my first BABY, I understand the challenges some face trying to conceive, I work with infants and toddlers who need medical attention, and now Lil is saying and signing BABY - which is just the icing on the cake.   

Please don't forget to go check out Team Jack Attack and support an awesome cause! 

It's amazing how even the littlest donation can go such a long way.