Teaching Baby Signs - One Of The Earliest Forms Of Homepreschooling

I haven't mentioned in my previous posts what I'll be mentioning now - as I write this, the kids and I are in Brunei with my parents to visit my sister and brother-in-law, who are based here (working). Hubby and I decided at the last minute that the kids and I would join Papa and Mama on their trip here. You could call it a working vacation of sorts. Anyway, either way, I feel truly rich and blessed to be here - there is always that feeling of "coming home" (probably since I practically grew up here!)

Anyway, I'd better go to the topic of this post, which is on teaching baby signs. When I was a new mom to Tim, I wanted to make sure that I was a well-informed parent, along with my husband (who by the way, is not much of a reader, so whatever tips and information I'd get, I would just share with him and he never fails to forget what I tell him! :) Just goes to show, everyone has his/her own learning style!). Anyway, as I was saying, I read lots of books and searched online for useful parenting info. One of the things I learned was the benefits of baby signs. So when Tim was about 7 months old, we started introducing baby signs to him, using signs from books and the Internet. Pretty soon, he was signing well enough for us to be able to know what he wanted or needed. He was speaking fluently earlier than a lot of his peers, and though I believe it wasn't just due to baby signs alone, signing did help him in acquiring language skills at a fast rate. Even when he was already speaking in complete sentences, there were times when he would use signs (like "more" - tapping one's fingers together) to emphasize a word or two.

Fast forward to the present... Tim's little sister Rysse is now 1.3 years old and even if I have not been that consistent in teaching her signs, she has quickly picked up all that I've taught her so far, and has even started to vocalize her own "words", like she says "a-pa" when she sees an apple (or any other round fruit for that matter, and onions as well! hahaha), and she can say "up" pretty clearly when she wants to be carried, "Papa", "Mama," "K-ya" for Kuya Tim, "Wowo", "Wowa" (for Lolo and Lola - grandpa and grandma), "Tito" for uncle and "Tita" for aunt, among other sounds, which fortunately most members of our immediate families can decipher as "words" coming from Rysse's lips. It is amazing when we are able to witness the miracle of life unfolding every day, and God just shows it more and more through the development of our kids!

As I am all for baby signs, I was so happy to have been able to borrow a book on Baby Signs written by pioneers Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn from a Filipina friend here in Brunei. I made myself a copy of the book for personal use, and I am really enjoying reading it so far, especially when it's nursing time for Rysse.
Because of this, I was led to searching for information on baby sign language classes in the Philippines, and was pleasantly surprised to find these helpful links:

http://www.mysmarthands.asia/
http://babylingo.multiply.com/
http://mom.exchange.ph/bloggerfeeds/rwchick/baby-signing-classes-in-manila
http://www.smartparenting.com.ph/baby/development-child-care/My-Smart-Hands--Using-Sign-Language-is-An-Effective-Tool-for-Baby-Communication/page/2
http://www.hthyou.com/2009/10/baby-sign-language-faqs.html
http://www.babycenter.com.ph/baby/development/stimulatingdevelopment/babysigning/

Fellow breastfeeding advocate and mompreneur Jenny of the Chronicles of A Nursing Mom also has some  informative posts on baby signing. You can find them here: http://fabnaima.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-signing-baby.html and http://fabnaima.blogspot.com/2010/06/baby-signing-classes-in-manila.html.

Part of my personal advocacy as Teachermama is to promote what I feel is of benefit to both parents and children, so I hope that through this post, I can encourage other parents to learn more about baby signing and use them on their kids. Hubby and I can personally testify that baby signing has made life a lot easier when it comes to communicating with our children. Even their grandparents, aunts and uncles have seen how it is a huge help for the whole family. And it always gives us a sense of pride whenever people see us signing together and they go "Wow! Ang galing naman ng baby niyo! So smart!" Hehe. Praise GOD for that, and for Baby Signs!

Baby Signs is available in all major bookstores in the Philippines. :)