Hi Everyone!
I hope you had a good time “at the park” this week in class. Visiting the park is one of the best ways to engage your child in Sign Language. You have a captive audience while they are swinging or going down the slide. Remember if there are additional signs you wish to learn, please let me know.
On raining days you can make your own park indoors by sliding and swinging to music. Don’t forget to hammock your child for some additional swinging. You can also bring balls in and roll them while listening to your Busy Days! CD. The boys really enjoyed our indoor “stroller” ride as we pulled them in the laundry baskets (string a rope or towel through the holes in the basket).
Below are some ideas for family fun and developmental information.
Remember there won’t be class this week. I hope you all have a great 4th of July.
SuzAnne
Remaining classes: July 11, 18, & 25 (Makeup August 1–All are invited to this class even if you don’t miss a class.)
Take a trip to South Africa–
Visit http://www.bravamusic.net/africam.html to see baboons, kudus, wildebeests, elephants, and much more. Africam is a live webcam in South Africa. The best time to view this site is between midnight and noon. Be careful! It’s addicting.
Fun Family Activities: http://www.bravamusic.net/resources.html We will constantly be adding to this page as we find different activities, vacation spots, recipes, books and etcetera, that are of interest to families. Check back often for fun ideas.
Go the Fair!– www.shiawasseecountyfair.com I have it on good authority (from one of our KM moms) that this is a great fair. She says the $3/adult and $2/child ages 6 and up is well worth it. Check out the entertainment link for the free shows tent and FREE Draft Horse Pull. The 4-H barns are great!
The Benefits of Sign Language for the hearing child:
Recent studies show that children who use words and signs together display higher literacy rates than children who don’t. Even hearing children who are not exposed to signs until the preschool years go on to display enhanced vocabulary, spelling, and reading skills over non-signing children.
- While the average 12 month old will have 3-5 spoken words, a signing child will have 25 signs and 16 words.
- At 18 months, the average child will have 10-50 spoken words. In contrast, a child who signs will have 79 signs and 105 words.
- In addition, signing children begin to form little sentences at 11-14 months. Compare this to non-signers, who do not begin to combine words into short sentences (e.g., “Da-da car”) until 20 months old on average.