If you live in Northern Indiana and are signing with your child(ren), come join the fun! Once a month, a group of parents and kids get together to play and sign in a fun environment. All ages and signing skill levels are welcome to attend. Deaf and hearing families get together for this event. All you have to do is be willing to use the sign language you know.
Saturday, May 5, the group will be meeting at Mega Play in Mishawaka from 11-1. Cost is $3.00 for the little kiddo area...loads of fun with bouncers for little ones and ball pits and BIG bouncers for the walkers.
Teens can come too and play golf or video games.
Come join us! We'd love to have you there!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Calling All Signing Time Fans!
Signing Time is shown on a number of PBS stations around the country. Those of us who know Signing Time, love Signing Time. If you live in Northern Indiana, however, you are among the unlucky who do not get Signing Time on our local PBS station, WNIT. If you fall into this category, please take a few minutes and either call or write to the station and tell them you would like to see this program on their line-up.
You'll be glad you did!
You'll be glad you did!
Write to:
WNIT Public Television
PO Box 3434
Elkhart, IN 46515-3434
or
2300 Charger Blvd
Elkhart, IN 46514
Call: (574) 675-9648
FAX: (574) 262-8497
E-mail: wnit@wnit.org
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Beware the Creature in the Pack and Play...
My friend Karen has four beautiful girls. The youngest, Kara, is a little spitfire. (Okay, Riley and Sydney are too!) Anyway, Karen sent me an email a little over a week ago to share a funny story with me.
Kara is a little over a year old now, and actually started signing at 3 1/2 months. She is very expressive and her eyes light up when you sign with her.
Anyway, this is Karen's story...
" I was cleaning and my youngest was in the pack and play. All of sudden, she
starts SCREAMING.
I ran to see her and she is looking at me, screaming and signing "ice cream,
want, and eat" over and over.
Never mind that she JUST had a bowl of applesauce and cereal and it was 8:30 am.
Ha! I guess she got the hang of the ice cream sign yesterday at Grandma's
house."
You go Kara! Don't let that mommy of yours withhold your breakfast of choice! It has calcium. ;)
Kara is a little over a year old now, and actually started signing at 3 1/2 months. She is very expressive and her eyes light up when you sign with her.
Anyway, this is Karen's story...
" I was cleaning and my youngest was in the pack and play. All of sudden, she
starts SCREAMING.
I ran to see her and she is looking at me, screaming and signing "ice cream,
want, and eat" over and over.
Never mind that she JUST had a bowl of applesauce and cereal and it was 8:30 am.
Ha! I guess she got the hang of the ice cream sign yesterday at Grandma's
house."
You go Kara! Don't let that mommy of yours withhold your breakfast of choice! It has calcium. ;)
Saturday, April 14, 2007
You Go Girl! Keep It Up!
I was out at Babies R Us today for their Breastfeeding and Maternity Fair. BS2C had an information booth about signing with the kiddos and info about our classes. I did a little presentation about the benefits of signing with little ones.
The day was a bit slow. I had hoped more people would be there. But the highlight of my day was seeing a mom and daughter who just completed my Level I class a couple of weeks ago. Mom Donna was so excited to share that almost ten month old Savannah used her first two signs recently! Milk and more. Way to go Savannah!
The day was a bit slow. I had hoped more people would be there. But the highlight of my day was seeing a mom and daughter who just completed my Level I class a couple of weeks ago. Mom Donna was so excited to share that almost ten month old Savannah used her first two signs recently! Milk and more. Way to go Savannah!
Friday, April 13, 2007
SKI-HI What's That?
I gave a presentation yesterday to a group of Service Coordinators for First Steps here in our local area. Now this may sound silly coming from someone who spends time standing in front of large groups of people interpreting, but I was nervous.
I CAN stand in front of a few hundred people say, at a college commencement and interpret. I don't even notice the fact that there are so many people around. But stick me in front of a small group of people and ask me to speak, and I start to sweat.
This time, my nervousness came from having never presented this material before. I am a SKI-HI Parent Advisor, and I went through the training. But I only just recently started to use my training, and here I was standing in front of people who could help me get the word out about what my colleagues and I do.
Instead of my trying to go through the presentation again, just click on the link to your left under "Parents with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children." Do you see the one that says "SKI-HI Institute?" That's the one. Go ahead..click on it..I promise, it won't bite. It will tell you more about the program than I ever could. Okay, maybe in a year I might be able to speak more eloquently on the topic than I do now.
What I can say, is that after being an Educational Interpreter in public schools for a few years, I was saddened and frustrated at the fact that Deaf and HOH kids seemed to be falling through the cracks academically. Parents didn't seem to know what was out there to help their kids succeed in school and in life. So when Karen (we get each other involved in lots of trouble this way) brought up the SKI-HI program to me, I thought, hmmm, here's a great way to get parents the information, education and resources they need to make the best possible choices for their kids. Sounds like a win-win situation for everyone.
If I had to come up with my own way to explain SKI-HI, I guess I'd say it like this:
"Parents raising a child with a hearing loss have a unique canvas to work with. A SKI-HI Parent Advisor is like a guide who can help you understand the various colors available to paint on that canvas. Only you can choose the colors for your masterpiece. You may blend, shade or highlight colors until you find the right combination. A Parent Advisor can help you through that process."
How will YOU color your child's world?
"
I CAN stand in front of a few hundred people say, at a college commencement and interpret. I don't even notice the fact that there are so many people around. But stick me in front of a small group of people and ask me to speak, and I start to sweat.
This time, my nervousness came from having never presented this material before. I am a SKI-HI Parent Advisor, and I went through the training. But I only just recently started to use my training, and here I was standing in front of people who could help me get the word out about what my colleagues and I do.
Instead of my trying to go through the presentation again, just click on the link to your left under "Parents with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children." Do you see the one that says "SKI-HI Institute?" That's the one. Go ahead..click on it..I promise, it won't bite. It will tell you more about the program than I ever could. Okay, maybe in a year I might be able to speak more eloquently on the topic than I do now.
What I can say, is that after being an Educational Interpreter in public schools for a few years, I was saddened and frustrated at the fact that Deaf and HOH kids seemed to be falling through the cracks academically. Parents didn't seem to know what was out there to help their kids succeed in school and in life. So when Karen (we get each other involved in lots of trouble this way) brought up the SKI-HI program to me, I thought, hmmm, here's a great way to get parents the information, education and resources they need to make the best possible choices for their kids. Sounds like a win-win situation for everyone.
If I had to come up with my own way to explain SKI-HI, I guess I'd say it like this:
"Parents raising a child with a hearing loss have a unique canvas to work with. A SKI-HI Parent Advisor is like a guide who can help you understand the various colors available to paint on that canvas. Only you can choose the colors for your masterpiece. You may blend, shade or highlight colors until you find the right combination. A Parent Advisor can help you through that process."
How will YOU color your child's world?
"
So You Think You Can Just Holler At Me?
My son broke his leg last week, and is now in a body cast for the next month. Lying on your back in the living room is no fun for a normally active two year old. So to help us both out, I hit our local library and checked out a bunch of Signing Time videos that I don't have yet.
I hit pay dirt! He watched them a little before, but now he really gets into the shows. (I know, I know, how can he NOT, it's not like he can run away, right?) I caught him the other day, signing along with Alex and Leah about food. He was showing his stuffed kitty the sign for cracker.
Because he spends so much time on his back these days, he's become pretty demanding. A request for a glass of milk has turned into, "Mommy...Mommy...Moooommmmmmyyyy I WANT MILK!" So the signing has been a blessing, since I now have to remind him to use his polite inside voice and sign "please" when requesting something. "Thank you" has also made its appearance recently. I wonder what's next...
I hit pay dirt! He watched them a little before, but now he really gets into the shows. (I know, I know, how can he NOT, it's not like he can run away, right?) I caught him the other day, signing along with Alex and Leah about food. He was showing his stuffed kitty the sign for cracker.
Because he spends so much time on his back these days, he's become pretty demanding. A request for a glass of milk has turned into, "Mommy...Mommy...Moooommmmmmyyyy I WANT MILK!" So the signing has been a blessing, since I now have to remind him to use his polite inside voice and sign "please" when requesting something. "Thank you" has also made its appearance recently. I wonder what's next...
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Shameless Plug
If you check in the links for Parents who sign with their hearing children, you'll notice a link for Sign A Lot. There are many great products out there for kids (and parents) who are learning to sign, and Sign A Lot has two cool videos. These are geared for older kids (over 3), although the little ones will like the music and signing as well. There are older kids who are featured in the videos, which is why they are cool for older kids.
Why the shameless plug? Well, at the end of the second video (I'll get the title and change this later), my friend Karen and her four beautiful girls are featured in a segment of kids showing their favorite signs. The other reason for the shameless plug is that more people need to check these videos out and buy them so that Sign A Lot can add more videos to their offerings. Right now there are only two videos available, since they are a new company. Want to see more offerings from Sign A Lot? Then get some of your own and tell them you want more Sign A Lot!
Why the shameless plug? Well, at the end of the second video (I'll get the title and change this later), my friend Karen and her four beautiful girls are featured in a segment of kids showing their favorite signs. The other reason for the shameless plug is that more people need to check these videos out and buy them so that Sign A Lot can add more videos to their offerings. Right now there are only two videos available, since they are a new company. Want to see more offerings from Sign A Lot? Then get some of your own and tell them you want more Sign A Lot!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)