Okay.
First, just let me start with "Planet Earth". Remember when I talked about the first three episodes? The two they showed this past Sunday - "Deserts" and "Ice Worlds" - did not disappoint. I can't wait to see more of this stuff - if you don't get the Discovery channel, you can get them on Netflix or buy them at www.planet-earth.com. Our planet is phenomenal.
Second, for those of you interested, my cholesterol was just fine. Thanks for asking.
Thirdly, and by far the most exciting, Rachel Coleman herself posted a comment on my blog! Check out the comment section for this post and see for yourself! If you don't know who Rachel is, she and her sister created Signing Time, a series of DVDs and books that teach American Sign Language to both hearing-impaired and hearing children. It also has great success with children who have Downs Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, speech delays, or other learning challenges. I've mentioned that Henry has been doing sign language at other times but haven't gone into real depth about it. When he was about 11 months old, his home-daycare provider did an inter-library loan to check out a children's sign language DVD. This DVD came on loan - all the way from FAIRBANKS, ALASKA! For those of you who know where we live, that's pretty much as far away as you can get and still be in the U.S. Anyway, she showed it at daycare and then let us take it home for a weekend. We were sold - Henry showed a lot of interest in it and it was simple enough for us to pick up the signs (but not have to do a lot of studying). There were a lot of reasons why we asked family members to chip in for us to then buy the first 6 DVDs - we thought it would help Henry develop his language skills (they did); we thought he would like the songs (he does); and we hoped it would help him bridge the gap until he could communicate with words (it did). We bought him DVDs 7-13 for his second birthday. There was also another feeling I couldn't put my finger on - that maybe someday he'd have a friend who needed to communicate this way, and he'd be prepared and so would we. Turns out, his friend G has just been diagnosed with apraxia. During the year and a half they've been struggling with his communication problems, we lent them our DVDs and finally they had a way to help him. I encourage you to click on this link and find out more about this speech disorder. Now G can have two other adults who can understand what he's trying to say - this totally left him befuddled when he and his parents came to dinner last weekend! We saw his signs and were able to get him what he needed - a nice break for his poor mother who bears the brunt of his frustration with communication. So, even if your child can hear perfectly well, I highly recommend Signing Time. Whenever we are blessed with another child I will definitely be starting signs from the very beginning - maybe not with the DVDs, but certainly I can do them myself and Henry will have another friend who he can sign with. Many public television stations are now showing episodes as well, or your library may have it to check out. We thought it was well worth the money.
Now, if we can just convince Henry that there are, in fact, TWO Rachels. One Rachel is on Signing Time. The other is Rachel Ray. Maybe one day he'll grasp that!
First, just let me start with "Planet Earth". Remember when I talked about the first three episodes? The two they showed this past Sunday - "Deserts" and "Ice Worlds" - did not disappoint. I can't wait to see more of this stuff - if you don't get the Discovery channel, you can get them on Netflix or buy them at www.planet-earth.com. Our planet is phenomenal.
Second, for those of you interested, my cholesterol was just fine. Thanks for asking.
Thirdly, and by far the most exciting, Rachel Coleman herself posted a comment on my blog! Check out the comment section for this post and see for yourself! If you don't know who Rachel is, she and her sister created Signing Time, a series of DVDs and books that teach American Sign Language to both hearing-impaired and hearing children. It also has great success with children who have Downs Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, speech delays, or other learning challenges. I've mentioned that Henry has been doing sign language at other times but haven't gone into real depth about it. When he was about 11 months old, his home-daycare provider did an inter-library loan to check out a children's sign language DVD. This DVD came on loan - all the way from FAIRBANKS, ALASKA! For those of you who know where we live, that's pretty much as far away as you can get and still be in the U.S. Anyway, she showed it at daycare and then let us take it home for a weekend. We were sold - Henry showed a lot of interest in it and it was simple enough for us to pick up the signs (but not have to do a lot of studying). There were a lot of reasons why we asked family members to chip in for us to then buy the first 6 DVDs - we thought it would help Henry develop his language skills (they did); we thought he would like the songs (he does); and we hoped it would help him bridge the gap until he could communicate with words (it did). We bought him DVDs 7-13 for his second birthday. There was also another feeling I couldn't put my finger on - that maybe someday he'd have a friend who needed to communicate this way, and he'd be prepared and so would we. Turns out, his friend G has just been diagnosed with apraxia. During the year and a half they've been struggling with his communication problems, we lent them our DVDs and finally they had a way to help him. I encourage you to click on this link and find out more about this speech disorder. Now G can have two other adults who can understand what he's trying to say - this totally left him befuddled when he and his parents came to dinner last weekend! We saw his signs and were able to get him what he needed - a nice break for his poor mother who bears the brunt of his frustration with communication. So, even if your child can hear perfectly well, I highly recommend Signing Time. Whenever we are blessed with another child I will definitely be starting signs from the very beginning - maybe not with the DVDs, but certainly I can do them myself and Henry will have another friend who he can sign with. Many public television stations are now showing episodes as well, or your library may have it to check out. We thought it was well worth the money.
Now, if we can just convince Henry that there are, in fact, TWO Rachels. One Rachel is on Signing Time. The other is Rachel Ray. Maybe one day he'll grasp that!
2 comments:
i'll have to check those out- i've ben signing "more" and "eat" with avery. trouble is, i'm not consistent. maybe these dvds will help?
i just checked out signing time disc 3- everyday signs. can't wait to watch it!
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