sign: TRAVEL , where did you TRAVEL for the Thanksgiving holiday?

With holidays coming many people are TRAVELING to see their families and loved ones. We're lucky enough to have our family TRAVEL to us! 

Our guests are leaving early this year. They're left yesterday. What were your TRAVELING plans? Our Little Fingers and Tiny Fingers are not the best travelers. Any tips to make them better travelers. We TRAVEL in baby steps .. and we're still not ready for the 8-hour ride to the family's house.

sign: PLAN , what are you planning for the holidays?

With Thanksgiving, Chanukah, and Christmas coming up we all have lots of PLANNING to do! What special things do you do for the holidays?

Sign: PLAN (think - get one thing done and move on [over] to the next. PLAN

We have tons of things PLANNED: family in town, Thanksgiving dinner, Black Friday shopping, putting the Christmas lights up ... so so much!

I have to be honest, this isn't on my teach-my-daughter list. But I do use it at work with my students and it's something I sign with my high school student all the time.

#ASLLOVE #IHEARTASL #SIGNINGOURWAYTHROUGHTHANKSGIVING

sign: READ across AMERICA. Dr Seuss time!

It's Dr. Seuss' READ across AMERICA time! 
(signs at the bottom)

Last year we signed READ and CAT for the wonderful CAT in hat... 

We also threw in some great tips to Sign While Reading (click here).

  This year we searched for some great Dr. Seuss activities: (click the highlighted)

1. Here's a great linky party with awesome ideas.



2. The Foot Book - Learn measuring, counting, left and right with feet activities :) 


3. Ten Apples Up On Top activity - so cute. Little Fingers loves apples so I'm all about this one!

4. The Tooth Book - another know concept Little Fingers learned recently 'teeth' - - thought this was cute! (click here).

5. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish hand activity - another one of her fav's!

S signs for S letter of the week (learn 3 new signs in ASL)

Letter of the Week: S

Here's a couple S words we've once talked about for some reason or another ...

SPOON - I remember when we were teaching Little Fingers how to use a SPOON (click here to read that wonder story in our 'high chair saga's')

SHOES: I have a SHOE girl on my hands. While she enjoys taking them off, she also enjoys picking them out! She's not even two years old! So obviously, the sign SHOES came early in her vocabulary!

Sign: SIGNING. Little Fingers has been SIGNING this sign for quite some time now because she sings and signs the theme song from Baby SIGNING TIME! Too cute! Too funny!

(compliments of Lifeprint.com) 

M is for ...

Gees so sorry life is just keeping me so busy. I think I need an assistant! Any takers?! ;) Our tutoring sessions are going in full swing over here ... we're gearing up for all these great sales for the holiday session ... but of course, we didn't forget about our letter of the week.

Here's some M words for ya!

I'm sure we can all guess what this last sign is right!?

What M words do you use with your little ones or family? What M words were you looking for? (I still have the weekend to help - I have a little more time ...promise!)

L is for ... LITTLE, LOOK, LOVE (in no particular order :)! )

L is for ...

LITTLE

LOOK

LOVE!

(In no particular order :). )

L is for LEARN, 5 Quick Ways to LEARN sign language

L is for LEARN

5 Quick Ways to LEARN Sign Language:

• Reading and signing: Signing while you are reading helps with attention and understanding of vocabulary. 

• Signing and singing: Signing with singing makes singing just that much more fun.
• DVDs 
• (though, to clarify: I never suggest placing your child in front of the television and not interacting with them directly. I also suggest watch the DVD with them - trust me, you'll LEARN tons too!)
• Little Fingers has taught herself so many signs through her Baby Signing Time DVDs, I'm amazed everytime. She can sing with the songs on the DVDs and the best part is she uses them appropriately outside of DVD watching time!

• Have fun. 
• Let it be natural. When you change her diaper, make a silly diaper song or find one from Sign2Me(r) or Signing Time(r) and sing/sign it every time its diaper time. Every tub time, create a jingle that you can sign about getting a bath. If your children are too old for diaper changes and tub time, make it a car game or dinner table trivia. Be creative!

J is for JUMP

J is for JUMP!

G is for GO GO GO

Ms. Little Fingers loves the Stop GO song from Baby Signing Time.  GO is one of the core words that help with language development. When I say that I mean that GO is used for so many things, not just 'doll' and it only means the plush baby toy a child plays with.  ... rather, GO means "Ready set GO" during a race or game. Cars GO. You ask someone to GO if you are waiting for them to move ... there are many reasons to use GO. 

just DANCE!

My daughter is in love with DANCING. It's not new but it's definitely growing in interest. She's only 16 months and my sister swears she's going to DANCE class some day. We shall see. So DANCE, just DANCE! Maybe I'll have to get a video together of her 'raising the roof' and DANCING around. Actually these hands 

... look like her DANCING!

move those DANCING legs (upside 'V')

sign: THROW a new concept we're teaching

I don't know what age this is supposed to start, but Ms. Little Fingers loves getting her fingers around balls so much I decided to start teaching how to have a catch and THROW!

I'll let you know how it goes :) What age did your little start having a catch? She's starting to try - I'll take it!

sign: GENTLE for Dog's sake

One of our new signs we sign with Ms. Little Fingers is GENTLE. She just loves jumping all over the dog and climbing and ... well you name it - she's loves him! So now we're signing GENTLE! (It turned into a situation for both of them - the dog and Lil are told GENTLE) - they surely love to rough house together!

Sign: SWIM!

With summer right around the corner, I thought it was appropriate to have the word SWIM. Ms Lil hasn't appreciated the cold pools (even her own baby pool) like she does her warm tubs; but this weekend was the first weekend she went into her little pool by herself and went SWIMMING! So I thought the sign was definitely appropriate! Yah for Ms. Lil's next step!

SWIM!

sign: APPLAUSE

I thought it was appropriate to talk about APPLAUSE. I have children with degrees of hearing loss on my case load for speech-language therapy in Early Intervention and the school system - most recently more so for EI. This week I had a great moment with a two year old, so I wanted to share....

I have been signing 'ya' APPLAUSE (versus clapping for the hearing culture) every time I provided him with praise. This week it made sense to him and seeing his face light up when I provided APPLAUSE - it makes everything worth it! Seeing him learn language and being a part of that experience .. just makes me want to APPLAUD. Lightened my heart and I had to share :)

I also wanted to APPLAUD all of those who participated in the 2-Day $10 DVD sale. I feel like I help so many families with language development and early communication skills by opening them up to the idea of using sign language in their children's lives - APPLAUSE to all those families who took that next step to jumpstart their children's communication skills! 
Didn't get to order? I'm finalizing right now - call call call! (or email email email!)

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)

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: 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!!

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.

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!)

Easter book ideas with a signing twist! YES

I have started reading to Lil a handful of weeks ago so now I'm on the hunt for Easter related books. This is what I came up with... 

1. Where Are Baby's Easter Eggs?: A Lift-the-Flap Book by Karen Katz 
2. In Elmo's Easter Parade (Sesame Street)
3. Duck & Goose, Here Comes the Easter Bunny! by Tad Hills 
4. Happy Easter Mouse (If you give ...) by Laura Numeroff

5. Easter Bugs : A Springtime Pop-up by David A Carter

   
   We're going to the library today! She officially lets me change her on the changing pad. Why? Because she has her books in her line of sight! She points to different the entire changing process. It officially takes 10 minutes and at least 3 books to get changed but at least we're having fun!
   I'm a visual person so I made this to help

   
   

So how am I using these books with sign language? Easy! 

Since Lil's signing and word repertoire is increasing significantly I am starting to put two signs together. So I sign (and say) READ MORE? YES, READ MORE!

compliments of Sign2Me 

Compliments of Sign2Me

Then I continue...

Oh Look, BUNNY! HOP HOP HOP! (same of JUMP)

compliments of Sign2Me