We have been working on a few things with the kids, and Darius in particular. He substitutes the word "her" when he is supposed to say "she," so we correct that all day long. He also does not sing the ABC song correctly, singing "meno, meno pee" during the "l-m-n-o-p" part. So, we were in the car tonight and he was singing it from the back. When he got to his meno part, I corrected him and had him do it with me. He asked if he could just do it his way, and I said, "No, you're five, so you have to sing it correctly now." He asked why, so I replied, "because it's the law. If you sing it wrong, you have to go to jail." (In case you don't know Jeremy and I very well, we joke around a lot with these kids . . . and everyone). He asked if I was serious, and I said I was very serious, so we had a conversation about that for a while . . . who would take him to jail (the police), how they knew where he lives, etc. Then, he went back to singing it again, and again did it wrong. When I corrected him this time, he said, "I don't want to sing the ABC song anymore . . . you made it worser!" Woops . . I guess I ruined it. :)
As long as I'm on the topic of playing "teacher-mom," here is what the others are working on right now:
Xavier: Signing more and saying please, saying or signing help, picking up toys when he's done with them, stopping his very loud crying in the middle of a nap when we tell him "no"
Clara: Signing "more" (we'll do please later) . . . we think she did it this morning when we were eating breakfast and we were all ecstatic! Just to paint a picture for you: We all eat at the table together, and I work with Clara on signing during her "puff" time, which is after she's already eaten her other stuff. I have been taking her hands and helping her sign, but these last few days I've been trying to get her to do it herself. When I show her how to do it, the boys and Jeremy all do it for her, too . . so, she has four people all signing and saying "More!" in very enthusiastic voices over and over again. She was doing it a lot today . . . we don't really know if she is just clapping her hands in excitement over the show we put on for her, or if she actually is figuring out that she needs to do that motion in order to get more puffs . . . either way, when she does the motion, I make a big deal out of it and give her more. I think that's the way it's supposed to work, right?
Anyone out there who has taught babies sign language, feel free to chime in and give your expert advice!
2 comments:
That's how you do it, just a lot of repetition. Just when you get sick of doing it all the time, they pick it up!
Watching the Baby Signing Time video was a breakthrough for Zion (there's a link on my blog). I started her with more, then please, then milk... It's encouraged to accept the child's variation of the sign. Zion's first more sign was her taking her fingertips and tapping her temple, it eventually made it to the "real" more sign. The Signing Time videos are great (our library system has many of them) and the website has a forum for asking questions. Used it a ton with Z, probably will with G2.
Post a Comment