In my formative years, numbers were my nemesis. Two comments were consistently written on my report card all the way through school, “Nancy talks too much in class” and “Nancy needs to work on her math skills”. Both, proof that I’m a word nerd and that . . . → Read More: It’s All About the Numbers, Baby!]]>

In my formative years, numbers were my nemesis. Two comments were consistently written on my report card all the way through school, “Nancy talks too much in class” and “Nancy needs to work on her math skills”. Both, proof that I’m a word nerd and that language and communication are my thang!

Well, I have made peace with my numerical nemesises (You probably didn’t know that is the plural of nemesis, but a word nerd like me does.) And today I have some numbers to share with you. The first two involve some bragging – 4,000 and 2,000. As of this week, more than 4,000 parents and educators have graduated from my Hop to Signaroo four-week classes and two-hour workshops, and with them came nearly 2,000 of those beautiful babies that I love so! I’ve also been lucky enough to lecture to several thousand additional parents and educators across the state via presentations for PEPS and other parenting groups, through King County and Sno-Isle Libraries and at early education conferences. Suddenly, I like numbers again.

But enough about me, let’s talk about you and your amazing babies and some of the numbers you should know. Have you had fears about learning American Sign Language  to communicate with your hearing baby because you’ve tried  to learn a new spoken language and struggled? Well the good news, my supposedly linguistically-challenged friends, is that 80% of American Sign Language is iconic or representational of the item or concept you’re signing. For example, the sign for “milk” is one or both hands opening and closing to fists, as if milking a cow. When you take a Hop to Signaroo class or workshop, I give you mnemonic memory aids for the signs you learn. Another number that might interest you is sixty-five, as 65% of people are visual learners…perfect for learning the beautiful, visual vocabulary of American Sign Language! Fear not, you 30% who are auditory learners, as I’ve got you covered, too! In my classes you get the verbal cues you need to remember the signs. And for you 5% who fall into the category of kinesthetic, (hands-on and tactile) learners, sign language taps into your natural strengths and you’ll find that your muscle memory kicks in more quickly than it might for others. You may not even need to think about the signs, as your hands will just “go there” once you’ve learned them. The beauty of signing with your little one (besides reducing their frustration and yours!) is that you don’t know yet which of these three learning styles will be your baby’s strength. Luckily, my teaching techniques are designed for all three types of learners and your efforts will strengthen your baby’s individual learning style at an early age! More shameless bragging, your family’s success will come from taking a class from a credentialed, educational professional who’s been teaching and signing for 20+ years.

Let’s talk about one of the most important numbers to not remember when teaching your baby to sign. That number is three. I have nothing against three, itself. A pair and a spare. That’s great for a lot of things, like socks, because the dryer always eats one. However, it is not a good number when it comes to your initial efforts when signing with your little one. I can’t tell you how many parents come to my classes or presentations and say they’ve been signing with their babies for several months and aren’t even seeing recognition of the signs yet. My first response is, “Let me guess, you’ve been signing only three signs – probably milk, eat and more.”  Most of the time, the parents’ response is “yes” because they’ve read that you should only introduce three signs and shouldn’t introduce any more until the baby starts to sign at least one of them back. Well, I hate to break it to you but that is old school, baby sign language thinking. You wouldn’t speak just three words to your baby until you baby speaks them back. Babies learn to speak because they hear an average of 4,500 words throughout the day. I’m certainly not expecting you to sign 4,500 words a day but if your baby is only seeing you model three signs, the communication is far too random and they won’t realize the signs are a means of communication, even for important signs like “milk”, “eat” and “more”. If your little smartypants does catch on with only three signs modeled, she will start using that first sign that got a response for everything, think it’s the magical sign to express all needs and wants. Or your little one will think you’re a mind reading superhero! Well, just by virtue of being a new parent, you are a superhero…but you’re not a mind reader, which is why you’re signing with your baby in the first place!

So how many signs should you start with? Well, I can’t give away all my trade secrets here. However, I can tell you that when you take a Hop to Signaroo class or workshop, you learn which signs to start with to empower your little one to express her basic needs and wants in a much calmer manner than she has been, which likely has been crying or screaming. We’ll also discuss how many to start with and how to add to your signing repertoire for faster results. You’ll learn how to make signing natural, fun, easy and manageable with realistic expectations for modeling the signs in a natural context throughout your typical, daily routine. Remember, you’re not learning ASL sentence structure or irrelevant vocabulary. You’ll be focusing on baby and toddler-centeric signed vocabulary that will help your little one communicate many, many months before his vocal chords are fully formed and your baby can effectively articulate his needs verbally. You’ll also be speaking to your baby as you normally do and supplementing that all important verbal communication with key signs, again tapping into the multiple learning styles detailed above.

When you follow Hop to Signaroo’s tried and true techniques, you’ll likely notice that your baby is recognizing and responding to signs within the first few weeks and signing back within approximately two to three months, if you start anytime from five months of age onward. And that’s just an average, as many of my baby grads have signed back within the first month and some have even signed their first signs in class! Eight month old Olive signed her first sign in class when KING 5 News was there to film me in 2009! Olive, honey, the check is in the mail. Let me start your college fund! Check out Olive’s video and then check out a few other Hop to Signaroo superstars here.

Still need more proof? How about just a little more shameless bragging? Visit my parent and educator testimonials and see what other new parents have to say. Not only do parents have wonderful things to say about Hop to Signaroo classes but many report how signing, and my techniques in particular, made life in the their home so much calmer! Several families have repeated the class with Baby#2 or emailed after Baby#3 to report that they applied what they learned in class with great results for all their babies! I guess I do like numbers, after all!

I love to read. I can attribute this love for learning and escapism to two things…my family reading to me as a child and Mrs. Tausend, my all time favorite teacher, who read Laura Ingall Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books aloud to . . . → Read More: For the Love of Books]]>

I love to read. I can attribute this love for learning and escapism to two things…my family reading to me as a child and Mrs. Tausend, my all time favorite teacher, who read Laura Ingall Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books aloud to our fourth grade class. By fourth grade, my love of reading was already fully entrenched and that series about a spunky, fellow Midwestern girl from the previous century not only made me love reading even more but also sparked a love of non-fiction, which in turn led to a commitment to lifelong learning and my career as a teacher. Thank you, Mrs. Tausend and thank you, Laura Ingalls Wilder.

A shout-out to my parents and sisters is in order, as well. Being the little sister to three much older siblings meant that there was always someone in the house to read to me, and if memory serves correctly, so one usually obliged. I remember a few favorites being the Disney version of The Jungle Book, Gordon and the Glockenspiel, Shirley Temple’s Storybook, anything by Dr. Seuss and a book of children’s poetry. I still have a few of those originals. I easily own more kid’s books than adult books and always hoped to pass those beloved childhood favorites down to my own kids, especially my Little House on the Prairie series, which was the highlight of Christmas morning in 1974.

I also remember a very large collection of Little Golden Books from my preschool years. Back in the day, they were printed in nearby Racine, Wisconsin and available at grocery and drug stores for about twenty-five cents. All my little friends and I had a healthy library of these brightly colored, little gems of literature (and I use the term “literature” loosely in this instance). You had a deprived childhood if you didn’t grow up with The Poky Little Puppy! You can see my dad reading me a Little Golden Book above, but clearly the plot line just wasn’t sophisticated enough for a peewee, literary elitist like me!

I remember being absolutely crushed in kindergarten when I was told that we wouldn’t be learning to read until first grade. I loved having my parents and sisters read to me, but being the take-the-bull-by-the-horns-kind-of-girl that I am, I wanted this superpower myself! I figured out early that knowledge is power and I wanted to jump in with both tiny feet! When we finally tackled reading in first grade, we started with the Dick and Jane books and I was thrilled. “This is why I’ve been coming to school for the last year”, I thought! I very clearly remember sitting in the front seat directly behind the bus driver on the day my first, beloved Dick and Jane book was bestowed upon me. My first grade teacher, Miss Nicora, taught us how to read the first three pages. “This is Dick. See Dick run. Run Dick run.” I read these three pages aloud, over and over and over again, the entire bus ride home. I’m sure the bus driver was thrilled. I remember being so proud of myself and knowing that now, because I could read (!), my life would change. I’m serious. It really was that dramatic for me and it’s one of my most vivid, early memories.

So, when do you start reading to your little ones and fostering that love of language and learning and far away lands? Sooner than you might have thought! Reading to little ones before they’re even a year old is extremely beneficial for a variety of reasons. Reading aloud teaches your baby about communication, and you know I can’t say enough good things about babies and early communication! Reading to your infant also builds listening, memory and vocabulary skills. Hearing words helps to build a rich network of vocabulary in your young baby’s developing brain. Children whose parents read and talk to them frequently know more words by age two than children who have not been read to often. Reading to your child at any age fosters a closer parent-child bond, especially if there are rituals that go along with story time, like acting out the parts or story time before bed time every night. When reading, your little one hears you using many different emotions and expressive sounds, which also fosters social and emotional development for little people new to the world. Reading also invites your baby to look, point, touch and communicate in the manner available to her at that developmental stage — all of which promote social development and thinking skills.

So read early and read often. As your child grows, you’ll see that publishers finally acknowledge just how smart the peewee population is and stories capitalize on positive life lessons and are wonderful teaching tools about making good choices and building admirable character traits during those formative years. Thank goodness we’ve moved beyond “Run Dick run” and children’s books have become a lot more entertaining, colorful, interesting and sophisticated – typically providing stories with humor, positive messages and opportunities for teachable moments. Here’s a great article with information about and suggestions for reading to young babies.

As much as I love reading, I also love, and am truly grateful for, our libraries. Other countries do not have the amazing library systems we have. My three (yes, three – from all three library systems in the Seattle area) library cards are among my prized possessions. Being a thrifty girl, the library systems are the first place I go for books, music CD’s and movies. I not only check items out of the libraries on a very regular basis, but routinely find current books and magazines for sale at their book sales. Many of the materials for sale come from donations, and some are surplus copies of books that were in circulation in the system. Best of all, you can’t beat the prices, especially for kids books. Library book sales are a great way to economically pick up books for the whole family and support your local library with revenue to keep them a strong and integral part of our community. With our government cutting funding for public resources left and right, I can’t put into words how devastated I’d be, and I think our country would be, if we suddenly no longer had public libraries in our communities.

King County Library System has several book sales coming up in the coming weeks. For some reason, this weekend’s sale at the Sammamish Library didn’t make that master list, so here’s the info on that sale. While you’re on the website, check out the baby and toddler story hours throughout the King County Library System. They offer wonderful, free, weekly story hours for babies and toddlers with activities to encourage early literacy and special events with local performers like Caspar Babypants and Nancy Stewart and guest speakers like yours truly! Don’t forget about the equally wonderful Seattle Public Library System and Sno-Ilse Library System, both offer an amazing array of family-oriented events and story hours, too. I’ve had the great pleasure of working with the Sno-Isle and King County Library Systems’ staff and patrons for several years, offering American Sign Language programing for families, educators and staff!

So dust off that library card, apply for another one, stock up at a book sale or attend a family story hour…or better yet, do all of the above! In the process, you’ll be supporting your little learner, your community and ensuring that we have the the world’s best library systems for generations to come!