Mr. P. Visits the Zoo

Signing with your child allows you a glimpse into their thoughts before spoken language takes hold. Rather than trying to guess what your child wants by interpreting pointing and grunts, you know what is interesting to them and they'd like to talk more about!

One place that is lots of fun to use signs is the zoo.  There are so many fun things to see and learn during a zoo visit.  Using signs your child recognizes can help him connect with new information, as well as help you know what he's seeing and curious about!

In this picture, Mr. P. is pointing out the interesting BIRDS all around - do you see his sign?!

Detective Eyes: Miss E. Loves to Help!

It's been a little while, but I'M BACK!

I'll be bringing you several posts featuring various kiddos I have had the pleasure of including in my classes.  Their signs may not look exactly like your little one's, and that is OK.  Just like early spoken words don't sound exactly like ours (adults in general), early signs don't look just like the pictures in the book.  By watching different children sign at different ages, your detective eyes will become stronger and stronger!

Have a still picture or video of your little one signing you'd be willing to share for a future post? Please contact me at SigningWithMissSteph@Gmail.com.  I'd love to include you!

OK - on to today's video:

Miss E. loves to help her Mommy and Daddy who are LuLaRoe retailers (you can check them out here).  She just wants to push MORE and MORE boxes - can you catch her MORE sign?

Want to see this success for yourself?

Check out the Signing With Miss Steph website for upcoming public classes as well as details about how to host a class of your own!

Remarkable Discoveries: Lessons Found at the Playground

My two sons are always on the go!  Whether it's skipping rocks, making silly faces in the car, or testing out bubble recipes in the driveway, these two little boys are always happiest when they're doing something active.

Even after a full day of "school" where they play and learn and move almost constantly, they aren't done.  Every afternoon on the way home, my boys ask to stop at one of our local playgrounds. Most days, we're happy to grant their wishes.  It's a great way for them to burn off some energy before dinner and wind-down time; it's a great way for us to spend some time together, and it's a great way to sneak a few more lessons into the day.

Learning through play is what their little bodies were made to do, so that's what we do!

Everyday Lessons

There's problem solving:  I want to climb up and over this rope net, but I can't reach to go the most obvious way.  Is there another way I can go? I want to get to the top of this pretend tree, how do I get there?


There's team work, turn-taking and sharing:  We both want to play on this piece of playground equipment, how can we both feel happy?  I can't turn the merry-go-around by myself, but if two or three of us work together, it will turn.  You can ride for a while, then we'll switch.  Let's play tag!

There are endless opportunities for signs to be used:  HELP, MORE, ALL-DONE, SIT, SWING, and SLIDE are part of every trip.  Sometimes we talk about colors or counting. Occasionally, we have to use GENTLE and I'M-SORRY, too.

Occasional Bonus Lessons

It doesn't happen during every trip, but every now and again, we get the chance to build on science lessons the boys have encountered though school. Our daycare has a visit each week from a *fabulous* teacher who focuses on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) topics. It's always great when we can make connections between her lessons and our lives!

Sometimes we see local wildlife like geese or bunny rabbits or birds. Then we can talk about what they are, what they're doing, what they like to eat, where they live, etc.

One of our favorite playgrounds has a fishing pond.  Both boys enjoy wandering along the edge and out onto the dock (under very close supervision!) where they can see fish in the water, algae on top, and lots of empty snail shells stuck in  the muddy bank.  

Every once in a while, we discover something even more exciting.  On one recent trip we saw an empty SNAKE skin floating on the pond.  Daddy reached it out with a stick and the boys got to examine it. 

Daddy added to their observations by pointing out where the eyes were, explaining how the snake had grown and shed its skin, and reassuring a nervous preschooler that it was definitely NOT a live snake. (All the same, I was perfectly happy to stand apart from the group to take pictures!) 

SNAKE - Mr. L. at 30 months

SNAKE

A simple trip to the play ground is always fun for two growing little boys. Mommy and daddy know it's not really as simple as it seems though; there's much learning to be done amidst that fun play time!

What are your favorite playground activities?  Leave a comment, so we can discover some new fun ways to enjoy our trips!

2 Sure-Fire Steps to A Great Flight with Your Little One

Recently, we were lucky enough to be taken to Disney World for vacation by a set of very generous grandparents (Thank you!).  We had lots of fun, and even learned some important lessons along the way.  The lessons started immediately - at the airport.  Flying with a toddler and a pre schooler is no joke; but it doesn't have to be a disaster!

I'm not going to give you my list of 30 things to pack when you fly with toddlers.  I can't tell you what snacks to pack that will magically keep your little one happy during the long travel day.  I have no idea what activity or what movie will keep your child occupied long enough for you to drink your 3 oz. of complimentary beverage. 

Do you know why?  Every kid is different, and every trip is different.   What worked wonderfully for someone else might not work at all for you.  What worked on the flight TO your vacation might be the worst thing in the world on the way BACK from vacation.  (If your child is anything like mine, nothing ever works twice, so you're used to inconsistency.  If not, welcome to the club; let your creative juices flow!) What works great for one of your children, may not be the right fit for a sibling.

Let's face it, flying is a great way to get somewhere, and there are some cool parts about it, but it makes for a long, stressful day.  Most kids love watching planes take off  and land through the giant terminal windows.  It can be a fun adventure: seeing the cockpit, soaring like a bird, etc.  There's lots of waiting and lines, though.  For little ones, without a fully developed ability to wait patiently, all that time between take-off and landing where you can't really move around too much can become a problem pretty quickly.

I do have some advice about how to make your trip go as smoothly as possible, though, and it all boils down to just two things.

1. Over Pack

Is your child still wearing diapers? Pack way more than you think you'll need.  If you get delayed for any reason, you don't want to run out!


The same goes for extra clothes.  Even if your kiddo has been using the potty for a while, you never know what's going to spill, leak, rip, etc.  Pack extras of everything - for you and them in your carry on.

Things to do, too.  Distraction will be your friend for passing the time.  You know your child and his or her interests - follow them.  Pack small toys, books, paper, crayons, stickers....whatever will keep them occupied for a while.  Electronics are fine too, if you use them.  I suggest making them a last resort - once they come out other things don't always seem so cool anymore.  A few new surprises never hurt, but familiar favorites are great too! (We packed everything in an individual back pack for each boy.  They felt special getting to carry their treasures, and it made them easy to get to when we needed to switch activities.  All except the lap top - that was stored safely in Daddy's carry on when not being used!)

2. Create a Mental Blueprint

This is especially important if your little one is taking his/her first flight or may not remember the last one.  They have no way to anticipate what will come next, which can be scary and frustrating.

On our trip, Mr. L. loved the tray tables that pulled out so he was able to reach them.  He was really enjoying using his little personal table to play before we took off.  Then came time to put the tray tables up for take off. Without the experience to tell him what would happen next and that he would, indeed, get to play again, my tiny two year old got mad pretty quickly.  (Hey, you would too!)

That's where signs saved our day, yet again!  We used the sign AIRPLANE along with classifiers to explain what was about to happen....we would TAXI-DOWN-THE-RUNWAY, then we would TAKE-OFF and CLIMB before LEVELING-OFF. Right now we needed to WAIT.

Mr. L. shows off his approximation
of Daddy's explanation

We had to re-iterate this fact several times, but it helped Mr. L. (and big brother, Mr. I.) make sense of their situation, connect to something they did have experience with, and have a successful flight.  In fact, but the time we got on our connecting flight, Mr. I. was using classifiers to explain to the stranger sitting behind us what was about to happen.  (Thankfully, she was very accommodating, albeit a bit thrown off.)

If all else fails....hope they nap!

Ready to make American Sign Language part of your communication with your little one?  Check out SigningWithMissSteph.com to find out about classes in Northeast Ohio, or Contact Me about scheduling your own in person or virtually!

Celebrating National Dance Day - With Sign (Detective Eyes #9)

As described by  calendar.com, "National Dance Day is observed each year on the last Saturday in July.  Created as a day to raise awareness about and encourage Americans to embrace dance as a fun and positive way to maintain good health and combat obesity."

In our house, any bit of music is usually met with dance.  It doesn't matter if it's the radio, a TV commercial or a song we've chosen to play.  The dance might be just a little wiggle or an all out, full family room performance. While I'm treated to these feats on a daily basis, rarely am I lucky enough to catch them on video.

Today, as the US celebrates National Dance Day, I was lucky enough to catch my 2 year old, Mr. L. signing his celebration, though!  Do you see it?!

Even tiny infants sometimes bless us with their own dances.  What do your little ones love to dance to? What about you?

Fascinating Fill-Up Faces: A Sure-Fire Way to Pass Time

It happened the way many things do....completely by accident and out of necessity.

My husband had stopped at the gas station on the way home from daycare with both boys one day. They were itching to get out of their car seats and go to the park, so they weren't being terribly cooperative about waiting while he filled his tank.

In an effort to try to keep them entertained, Daddy started making silly faces through the windows. It definitely made the boys giggle, and they even started making their own funny faces back at him. With the boys sufficiently distracted, Daddy was able to finish filling up the tank and they were on their way to play.

Now, every time we stop for gas, the boys insist on playing this game.  Mr. L. likes to make sure that no one misses out on the fun, and insists everyone gets their own turn.  It's hard to hear him through rolled-up windows, though, to determine who's turn he thinks it is.

Once again, our signs save the day!

I started signing YOUR-TURN to each of the boys who would come up with the silliest face they could then MY-TURN and I'd do the same.  This wasn't a brand new sign for any of us, but it was definitely a new context for it to be used!  At first, the boys would point along with my sign to whoever was to make the next super silly face.  Then, out of the blue one day, Mr. I. started using the sign all on his own.

We were on our way to an out of town birthday part and made a quick stop to fill up and grab a drink from the convenience store.  I was pumping gas while Daddy ran in to make our purchase.  I was a tad lost in my own thoughts and had forgotten about our gas station ritual.  The next thing I knew, I heard a little knock on the window, and Mr. I. was excitedly grinning and signing YOUR-TURN.  We each took a few turns making silly faces and signing YOUR-TURN while little bother snoozed in his car seat.

At 4, signs are not a daily part of our communication strategy with Mr. I. but our experience using the Signing Smart tools and strategies definitely still serve him well.  He is able to pull out signs at exactly the right moment to make sure he's fully understood!

What are your favorite ways to pass the time for your little ones while you run errands?

Detective Eyes #8a

Back in January, I posted about how signs change and develop over time. I showed you the same child signing HELP 10 months apart, and mentioned that in time the sign would continue along the path to looking just like the pictures in the dictionary.

Well, here it is - OH SO CLOSE!

It happened quite unexpectedly, too. 

Just before nap time, we were all starting to settle down by snuggling on the couch.  Mr. L. requested his "bobo," but none were to be found.  We let him go upstairs to retrieve one from his crib, where quite a collection had amassed.  (We're currently treading the fine line between safety and independence, so I stayed quite a bit behind as he climbed the stairs.)  The next thing I knew, he was walking out of his room quite calmly and clearly requesting "hep" and signing HELP clear as day!

I know it won't be long until he's got that thumb up and his sign is picture perfect.

I was more than happy to reward his successful communication by helping him retrieve just the right pacifier from his crib.  You can see for yourself how proud we both are!

After showing off for Daddy, we snuggled down for some wind-down time, and Mr. L. fell soundly asleep in my arms.  Success!

I know it won't be long until his sign is picture-perfect.  In the meantime, though, it really doesn't matter.  I absolutely understand his requests, and he knows that he can ask for help without screaming, grunting or pointing. 

Happy toddler, happy mama!

I Love You!

The hand shape that creates the sign I LOVE YOU is rather complex - it combines the signs for the letters I, L, and Y. My family didn't let that stop us from incorporating it early on into each of our sons' signing repertoires, though!

It was important to us that they be able to participate in the exchange of this sentiment that is used in our family.  We knew that they would show us their own versions of the sign, based on the research done by the Signing Smart founders, so we didn't hold back.  We tell our boys multiple times a day that we love them, so we just added the sign.  For us, this was a sign we both knew long before we had kids, so combing the two wasn't a big deal.

I tend to add a little hand wave when I sign I LOVE YOU.  My husband picked up on this somewhere along the line as well, so this is the way our boys saw this sign.  Sure enough, after some time, we started to see that hand wave come back to us!

At first we saw the wave of a loosely closed fist. 

Then it turned into a pointer finger.  Around the same time, we started to hear verbal attempts as well.  Seeing little hands wave and hearing "a-you-you" during drop off time at day care definitely made the moment a little bit sweeter and easier to survive!

After much "practice" (I say practice with quotations, because there was never a time where we drilled our boys or forced them to show us a sign - we always used the 4 Keys to Signing Smart Success.  Their practice was done in choosing to repeat the sign.) and some muscle development we now see our older son sign I LOVE YOU clear as day!  This is no short process.  We started to see his hands work toward the correct handshape around age 3.  At first he had to help his fingers get into the correct positions as the muscles learned to do something new.  Now, at 4 he can sign this without even thinking twice about it!

At 2, our younger son is just starting to help his fingers try to make the correct handshape.  It's even more exciting to go through this process the second time around, because I know the awesome thing waiting at the end isn't all that far away!

Detective Eyes #8

It's been a while since I've been able to capture little ones signing with my camera.   Here's a look at the same boy signing the same sign 10 months apart.  They look similar, and yet, they are quite different.

Signs grow and change as our little ones grow and change.  Those hard to distinguish movements will turn into signs worthy of pictures in a dictionary.  It takes time and experience though!

Here's a video of Mr. L. from about a week after his first birthday.  Do you see his exaggerated sign at the end for HELP?  

Here is the same Mr. L. signing HELP at 22 months.

The hand shape is still two open hands, but the sign is changing.  He uses one movement like the sign class for instead of the repetitive clapping.  Plus, paired with the spoken word, his need is easily understood!

With continued exposure to the sign used correctly in a variety of contexts, Mr. L.  will continue to change and hone his own production of the sign.  Eventually, his signs will look like you might expect by studying dictionary pictures or online videos!

Festive Autumn Cookies

As I was preparing some fun Thanksgiving cookies for my boys to take to their pre-school Thanksgiving luncheons, I was thinking that it could have been a fun activity to let them participate in.  Now, I needed several dozen of these guys, and they needed to be consumed by people outside of my immediate family, so I chose to complete the project without help this time.

I definitely held onto to all of the extra parts and pieces so we could pull this out as a fun activity over Thanksgiving break, though!  I even convinced Mr. I. to let me take pictures of him signing most of the ingredients.  Even though Thanksgiving has passed for this year, these are signs that might come in handy if you're doing or enjoying some holiday baking!

I decided to make two different kinds of treats for the FEAST this year:  turkeys and acorns.

 

 

 

 

 

Acorns

The acorns were super simple to make and wildly popular at the preschool luncheon. The hardest/most time-consuming part was unwrapping all the chocolate kisses!

They're made with 3 ingredients and held together with icing: mini vanilla wafers (COOKIE), chocolate kisses, and mini chocolate chips (CHOCOLATE).



The C makes a small circle on the top of your opposite hand.




Your hand rotates twice in the palm of the other hand.

I used store-bought icing and placed it in a piping bag with a writing tip attached.  I used the smallest tip I had.  (After trying a larger tip, I realized that too much icing would just squish out and make a mess.)

Once all the kisses were unwrapped, I "glued" each one to the flat side of a mini vanilla wafer.  I needed a whole bunch, so I just did the whole bag worth of chocolate kisses....it would be just as easy to do only a few too, though!

Once all the kisses were attached to the cookies, I went back and did the same to the rounded side of the cookie with a mini chocolate chip. ( A little trick I found helpful was to set the icing bag in a cup when I wasn't using it - it seemed to help it from "leaking.")

It took a bit of time for the icing to set - putting the tray in our cold garage helped!  These don't need to be refrigerated, but we found that keeping them in the fridge or garage helped keep the acorns from sliding apart as the icing warmed and thinned.

Turkeys

This treat was a little more complicated to put together, but well worth it for the smiles they brought.

This project used chocolate sandwich cookies with "extra stuffing" (COOKIE), candy corn, and malted milk balls (CANDY). To decorate the faces, I used store bought white icing, red "writing icing" and food-safe markers.

The first step was cutting the malted milk in half so they had one flat side.  I thought a serrated knife would work best for this, but found that knife chipped off much of the chocolate coating.  In the end, we found that the long, thin knife from our butcher block worked best.

Next, I stuck 5 candy corn "feathers" into the icing of each cookie. If any of the cookies popped off, I just used some icing to stick them back together.

Once everyone had feathers,  it was time to go back to the halved malted milk balls - our turkeys' faces.  I used the same tiny icing bag tip for this.  When I tried a larger tip, I found that icing leaked around the sides, and it looked pretty messy.

After that came the most tedious part of the process - creating orange beaks.  I used the white tips from extra candy corn and a food-safe marker.  (This step is MESSY - I had orange fingers for the rest of the day.)

With a return of the bag of icing and the itty bitty tip, it was time to glue the "beaks" onto the "faces."  Many of my beaks laked icing onto the face it was glued too. You can use a toothpick to clean up the look a bit, or just cover the white icing with a red waddle.  (I thought about using chocolate icing after the fact which might be less noticeable.)

All that was left to do was a little bit of decorating.  Two dots of white icing for eyes and a red waddle.  The very last thing I did was add black dots to the eyes with a food-safe marker.  This extra step was pretty quick and made the turkey faces look a little less creepy to me.

Detective Eyes #7a

Did you try your hand at figuring out the signs in the most recent segment of "Detective Eyes"?

If not, I encourage you to take a peek at that post first, and see how you do.  When you're done, come on back to this post to see if you were right!

Now without further ado.....

Mr. I. is signing FROG at 18 months old.

Mr. I. is signing LION at 16.5 months old.

Mr. I. is signing WHAT at 16 months old.

Miss M. is signing MORE on her 2nd birthday.

How did you do?  Do you feel like you could use some more practice? Here are links to the prior practice posts:

Detective Eyes #1

Detective Eyes #2  (and the answer)

Detective Eyes #3  (and the answer)

Detective Eyes #4 (find the answer in the comments)

Detective Eyes #5 (and the answer)

Detective Eyes #6 (and the answers)

Do you have pictures of your little one signing that you'd like to see in a future posting about Detective Eyes?  Please e-mail me at StephanieBowlin@SigningSmart.com

Detective Eyes #7

It's been a while since I've had some practice for your detective eyes.  As my boys get older, it's getting harder and harder to catch them signing on camera.  (Do you have pics of your little one signing you'd like to share, please e-mail me at StephanieBowlin@SigningSmart.com)

When I was digging through some photos for a family project, I found a few that had gotten buried.  Can you recognize these signs?  Check back soon to see if you were right!

Mr. I . - 18 months

Mr. I. - 16.5 months

Mr. I. - 16 months

Miss M. - 24 months