Tag Archives: family

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow…

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My little girl left yesterday to go to outdoor education camp with her grade 6 class. Okay, she’s not actually that little, I know, and she’s more than ready for a week away with her friends and teachers from school. But I was a bit teary and feeling tender as we pulled up to the school and schlepped her gear to the waiting bus. She saw my moist eyes and shot me a wide-eyed look of despair: please, please don’t gush and embarrass me with a million kisses and hugs, Mom! But that’s all I wanted to do.

I wanted to squeeze her until the very last minute before she got on that school bus.

I held my enthusiasm in as much as I could. I know she needed me to send her off strong. I took a deep breath and gathered my reserves. Suddenly I had a vivid memory of the first day I took her to daycare at 2 1/2 years old. She was a very social kid and was interested in the new toys and teachers that greeted us. I was encouraged to stay and play for a little while but then wisely told to move on without a lot of goodbyes or delays (those teachers were so smart!). It was terribly difficult to leave her, but I knew I had to go. I looked her in the eye as I stood at the door and signed “I Love You” before heading outside. I did that each and every time I left her at daycare, and it very slowly got easier to turn away and head out the door. Some days she cried when I left -tears would literally pour out of her eyes as she signed “I love You” back to me. But some days she didn’t cry. Some days I would have to call her name to catch her eye as she ran in and began playing with another little friend. But either way, soon enough we created a routine that always included saying “I Love You” in sign language before separating, and it was all ours.

Back at the school bus yesterday, I gave her a long hug and told her I loved her, and to enjoy every minute of camp and to tell me all about it when she got back. Then, because it was time for her to go, she turned around and started walking away, but before she got too far, I called her name and signed, “I Love You”. She smiled and signed it back to me, and I felt so much better.

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Ella signing “I Love You” with me & her brother, 2010

Poppies for Remembering

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How to sign REMEMBER in American Sign Language:

Photo of me signing REMEMBER

Are you REMEMBERING our lost soldiers this weekend?

On November 11th in Canada, we observe Remembrance Day as a memorial to the members of our armed forces who have given their lives in the line of duty in wars since World War I. Poppies are a very visual symbol of Remembrance Day since 1920 after the poem “In Flanders Fields” was written, a poem which referred to the vibrant flowers that first grew in the churned-up earth of soldiers’ graves in Europe. The poem was written by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae on May 3rd, 1915, after witnessing the death of his friend, a fellow soldier, the day before.

Poppies are to be worn on your chest over the heart.

I REMEMBER learning the poem “In Flanders Fields” in school as a child, and now my elementary school-aged kids are bringing home their drawings of vibrant red poppies and renditions of the poem in social studies projects every November. Two years ago, my daughter’s girl guide troop made pretty felt poppies, and their creative craft inspired us to make more at home. We always pop some money into the Canadian Veterans Poppy Campaign donation cans and proudly support their efforts each year, but we don’t take a poppy from the tray.

Making the poppies is easy and only requires pieces of red and black felt and some black thread (after sewing the layers of felt together, we hot-glue safety pins to the back for attaching the poppies -this keeps those usually-used stick pins from pricking, and also keeps the poppy fixed in place instead of popping off). It’s a fairly easy craft for kids to do once they are able and old enough to cut with scissors and/or sew with a needle.

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Because they are handmade, our felt poppy brooches are all unique and garner lots of attention.

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My daughter and I made some extra poppies this year for grandma and grandpa and also some for the kids’ teachers. While stopping by to visit our good friends at Bloom Essentials Spa in Vancouver, owners Kim and Nicole’s enthusiasm for the poppies gave us an idea: my daughter and I could make more poppies for Bloom to sell at their front desk and then donate proceeds to the Veterans’ Poppy campaign.

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The $2 poppies sold out in a day, and I’ve since delivered another batch to the shop for the Remembrance Day weekend. More importantly, Kim and Nicole are also generously matching our donations to give to the veterans! I’m so proud that a fun craft with my daughter turned into an activity that could teach her the power of doing, donating, and REMEMBERING.

(a very special thanks to my friends and Bloom Girls, Kim & Nicole!)

Signs of Halloween

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HALLOWEEN is almost here! Much more than just candy and trick-or-treating, I’ve always emphasized the fun and playfulness of Halloween with my kids. Halloween is a very visual event, so take the opportunity to identify and talk about the things you see out in the world with your babies and kids. Putting ASL signs within your conversations will help your babies and kids learn new vocabulary, and it’s easy!

Here are some Halloween signs to keep you signing with your littles this week:

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Here’s a song you can use some signs in:

IF YOU’RE A GHOST (If You’re Happy & You Know It)
If you’re a ghost and you know it,
You say BOO,
If you’re a ghost and you know it,
You say BOO,
If you’re a ghost and you know it,
And you really want to show it,
If you’re a ghost and you know it ,
You say BOO!

Come inside for a little Halloween fun at my house!

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Yes, Halloween is one of my favourite family “holidays”. There’s lots of kid-friendly fun stuff to do outside at the farms, veggie stands, parks, and neighbourhoods. Inside the house, we decorate with crafts my kids have made in the past and present, and add some little scary touches. Little by little, we’ve found some traditions that have become our own which our kids look forward to every fall.

Around the second weekend of October, the Halloween bin comes out of the basement! We love to decorate the house a little, inside and out, to encourage trick-or-treaters. Decorating also allows our family to enjoy anticipating the big night. Outside, Christmas lights with ghosts on top light up our dark-at-night walkway:

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I’ve found that gel gems and wall stickers are one of the best bangs for my decorating buck because I’ve learned to be very careful in applying and removing them. And I always save the packaging and so I can re-use them yearly. These bat wall stickers were the perfect thing for our shoe bin in the front hall:

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Because my kids are old enough, I can let them help out (and go nuts) with decorating the bathroom mirrors and inside windows with gel gems (this guy greets us as we brush our teeth and also glows in the dark):

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Instead of emphasizing the candy, we always make lots of treats to eat at home and at parties. One of my favourite treats to make with the kids is creamy jello jigglers. I have a post with the full recipe for these, but here’s a look at the Halloween-themed jello we made this year:

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What kind of Halloween fun is your family up to?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Lee Ann

A Mom’s Back to School List

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Okay, July and August are now past tense, and I’m quite pleased with what we accomplished from our family summer bucket list (more on that very soon). As far as I’m concerned, though, it wasn’t truly back to school for us today because the kids went to school for 1 hour; I don’t really count that as school, that is just all the kids (& parents) seeing each other and reacquainting themselves with school life again. The teachers and school staff are fully launched back to work, oh yes! But myself and my kids? We are very slowly wading into the “back-to-school” waters, which is actually just how I like it: nice and slow.

My kids are starting grade 2 and grade 6 this year, with my daughter entering a brand new school for the grade 6 late-entry French Immersion program -we are all holding our breath to see how another location and different language works out for her, but I have a good feeling about it. So, tomorrow will be the first full day of school, and that’s where my brain is going now…

It’s time to make a new list just for ME! I work part-time teaching my baby sign language classes 3.5 days a week, and have 1.5 days to manage our home and work lives, as well as some volunteering. I want to make what little time I have work for me, not the other way around. Making a list has become a terrific way to remind myself of what’s important in life.

I’ve been thinking hard about what kinds of things fill me up so I don’t get run down while I fulfill my passion towards my family and my work.

These are some of the things I’m looking forward to doing once my kids are back in school:

My Mommy Back-to-School List
• Drinking my morning cup of tea while it’s still hot, in one sitting (no microwave warm-ups)
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• Riding my bike, by myself with no kids attached to mine or wavering ahead of me in
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• Listening to CBC Radio 2 as I do the breakfast dishes

• Walking once a week in the forest trails with a BFF (Best Fitness Friend):
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• Creating my new wellness plan: a proper fitness schedule actually booked into my schedule, so no excuses

• Painting my summer-scraped toenails a fun, fall pattern like this:
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• Opening up my Pinterest “Recipes to Try” board and actually trying some of the recipes I’ve pinned

• Visiting the public library and leisurely perusing the brand new books shelf for ideas

• Looking over my own favourite cookbooks to get ideas

• Organizing some meal plans and recipes with shopping lists

• Making homemade soup like this Celery Potato with Blue Cheese recipe:
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• Going to my favourite yoga class and practicing at home

• Reading a novel I’ve been dying to read with a (hot) cup of tea

• Tackling some fall home projects like organizing my pantry & switching over the closets from summer to fall

• Booking some Mommy playdates & catching up with my friends

Fall is a good time to switch gears and think about a list for just you. Here’s a hot-cuppa-tea toast to all the things that “fill us up” so we can live & work better this fall!
Lee Ann

One Fun Thing

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One of our bucket list items this summer was to visit local tourist attractions that we normally don’t have time for during the school year. Have you been a tourist in your own town?

We had started the tradition a few years back to choose one fun thing to do as a family before the summer ended. Over the years we had done bike rides, pool visits to soak up the last of the sun, evening ice cream shop visits, little stuff like that. Several years ago, our daughter started begging us to go on one of those red trolley tour buses… oh, brother. My husband and I are not keen on tour buses and we found ourselves saying, “Oh, yes, sure, one day we’ll do that!”. And yes, we managed to distract her and not do that for quite a while, but finally the jig was up, and it was her “one fun thing” end of summer wish.
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So off we went, and we had a blast! We learned tons about our city, so many exciting things we had no idea about at all, and we caught the bug for being a tourist in our own town.

Flash forward to this year, and we decided to embrace the not-so-sunny weather this week for our “one fun thing” before summer ends. We hit the UBC Botanical Garden and Greenheart Canopy Trail, a new local destination for our family.
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It was a great place to go to on a cloudy day because the trees protected us from moisture (okay, yes, I mean rain!) and the cultured trails took us through all sorts of wild forest growth. We could let the kids run and play without getting lost easily. There is a paved path suitable for strollers:
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This path leads to the more formal cultivated gardens -an Alpine, Carolinian, Food, B.C Native Garden, and a very cool labrynth -that you access through this cool tunnel:
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We didn’t spend much time in the formal gardens, but my kids ran back and forth through this tunnel a few times listening to the echo as they ran yelling at the top of their lungs,
“ECHO! ECHO!.. Echo!… echo!… echo…”

There’s also a woodchip path which leads you through all sorts of glades and more wild forest areas.
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Following the woodchip path leads you to the Greenhart Canopy Walkway which is a suspended trail system which allows you to literally go up into the trees and walk 75 feet above the forest floor.
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So, because we were now those people who liked guided tours, we waited at the trail entrance to meet the free forest guide:
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(It’s entirely possible we might have played leap-frog here).

The guided tour was fantastic! We got to listen to an enthusiastic university grad student who also had helped build the walkway tell us about the treetop trailway, forest history, the first nations’ uses of local forest materials, and lots of cool facts about the trees of this coastal temperate rainforest including western red cedar, western hemlock, Douglas fir, grand fir, and red alder. We learned that some of the trees we saw were over 400 years old, and some were thought to be close to 1000 years old at least!

I was fascinated hearing about the Taiwanese “Coffin” tree (a relative of the redwood tree which also grows in BC) whose wood is so hardy and resistant to rot, it was used for making coffins. It also has remarkable needles whose extra-thick coating of protective sap allows the massive trees to withstand the hot & sunny climate of Taiwan -the needles look green on sunny days but show blue on cloudy days due to its protective sap. We got extremely close to these enormous trees in the first part of the walkway, and because it was a dull day, we could touch and feel the sticky, visibly blue needles.
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You can see the Taiwanese coffin trees’ needles close up in the top photo above, and then how the trees look blue-er than the surrounding greenery shown in the bottom pic.

My kids were thrilled to traverse the swingy walkways (slightly more than my husband and I were, mind you) and we all loved the incredible balance of adventure and learning. We didn’t make it through all of the gardens, but we plan to return soon. The forest is an incredible place to visit all year around. (Please note: the canopy trailway is best suited for bigger kids aged 5 and up, in my opinion. It is quite swingy and a wee bit tippy.)

So there’s this year’s “one fun thing” before school starts and we ticked off visiting a local tourist attraction (without getting too touristy) from my family’s summer bucket list, too! It was very fun and a great way to tackle a less-than-stunning summer day. I was proud to learn that the Greenheart Conservation Company which built the walkway is a local Vancouver company. They design, build and operate conservation-based canopy walkways and other nature-based attractions around the world. Canopy Walkways are the among the finest examples of the global trend in sustainable and responsible tourism:

“Construction is as non-invasive as possible using the patent pending ‘tree hugger’ suspension system. The tree hugger uses no nails or bolts or intrusive fasteners of any kind, using instead, a variable tension system to provide the least amount of infringement or impact on the trees.”

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What one fun thing are you planning this weekend?

Click here to see the ASL sign for TREE

Cloudy Day Playdate

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I’m not the only one thinking about good old fashioned free play and unscheduled activities for our kids, this summer, and I loved reading about Peekaboo Beans’s Pop Up Playdates currently happening in my Vancouver. They are organizing outdoor playdates at local parks and playgrounds and inviting families to come out and PLAY! Fantastic idea.

Speaking of playdates, this week my family invited my Very Inspiring Friend and her kids over for a playdate on very a cloudy summer morning. Our 5 kids together all range in age from 6-11 years, have known each other since birth and all get along really well, but we live about 30kms away from each other, so our visits are never frequent enough. The kids immediately scurried off to begin playing and the moms hunkered down in the kitchen to drink some much-needed caffeine. We shared stories of the summer as small boys dressed as superheroes/ninja’s crept by us under the table, styrofoam nerf pellets soared past the kitchen door, and teeny, tiny pocket doll outfits pleaded for our mom-hands to help them get even tinier dresses on over the disproportionately large doll heads interrupted us sporadically, but for the most part, the playdate was fairly quiet and relaxing for all of us. We ate some lunch, and the kids went outside to paint some rocks. The moms wandered into the living room (which, incidentally, is a designated no-toy room in my house -every other room in the house ends up hosting toys at some point, but I try to keep one oasis in the house), and we were enjoying the quiet beauty of a tidy room when the 2 big girls walked in looking for us. They had finished their rock painting and didn’t know what to do next, and being 11 meant that they were kind of interested in what we grownups were talking about, so they quietly slid into the living room and sat down with us. Then the boys came in too, because they heard that the girls were in there, and before we knew it, all 5 kids were in the living room looking at us moms.

So, usually I implore my kids to go play and leave the adults alone during playdates, but suddenly a spontaneous game of Froggy Murder started (Froggy Murder is a circle game where one person is a silent “murderer” who looks at the other people in the circle and surreptitiously sticks his tongue out at them to “kill” them. Another person standing in the middle of the circle is the “detective” who tries to watch and guess who is murdering the other frogs. You might remember another version of this game called “Wink Murder”). My son loves these circle games he learned to play at school, but which never work at home because there’s usually only 4 of us. But 5 kids & 2 adults can totally play circle Froggy Murder, and we ended up remembering a few more games of the same ilk. We were playing together for over an hour before it became time for them to go home. The guessing games were definitely an unexpected highlight on a dull, cloudy day. Both myself and my Very Inspiring Friend enjoyed the game-playing, and we realized that our kids are reaching a lovely stage in their lives -able to play with their friends without much interference or refereeing, and also super fun to play with all together as a family of all ages.

Given that I’ve dedicated this summer to thinking up good old fashioned activities to occupy our days and nights for a less-structured summer, I honestly don’t think it would have occurred to me to try that kind of game-playing otherwise, so I’m glad a spontaneous froggy murder suggestion came out and got us started. I guess just being open to unscheduled fun allowed for it to unfold that way. My Very Inspiring Friend continues to inspire me, and I’ll be adding that to my summer bucket list under “Cloudy Day Activities”.

What games do you play as a family? Did you play together while you were growing up?

Pick a Sign (but not just any sign)

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I often get asked, “What signs should I teach my baby?”

Easy beginner words like MILK, MORE, ALL DONE, MOMMY, and DADDY are an easy start, but some parents aren’t sure what signs to pick next. Don’t worry, there are endless ways to incorporate American Sign Language into your daily lives, and choosing your first round of signs is easy!

I find a two-fold approach in choosing signs is always successful: some for you and some for baby. In other words, pick some signs that are routine-based, and also pick some signs that reflect what your baby is interested in. Remember, sign language is the bridge between communicating with your pre-verbal baby until they can speak, so pick signs that help name what’s happening in your day (routines) as well as what your baby wants to talk about (the fun stuff).

So signs like DIAPER, EAT, BATH, BED, UP, etc, are great choices for describing what’s happening or about to happen –everyone loves to know what’s happening next, even babies. Spend time talking about and naming what you’re doing, and your babies will soon learn your natural routines and feel calmer and more included in the daily schedule. I’ve always said, “Happy baby, happy family” (sigh), and I still believe that’s true.

And also pay attention to what your baby is telling you! Do they love a particular TOY or object in a BOOK you always have around? Do they giggle when they see DOGS outside on your strolls? Do they tap at the FISH tank in your house? Do they stare at certain colours, toys, anything? Then name it! Sign it! Discuss it! This is your chance to connect deeply with your babies because they will know you are noticing something they want to tell you, and you are responding. Bam! That’s communicating! You are an awesome parent and an outstanding communicator.

My daughter, Ella, noticed BIRDS while we were on neighbourhood strolls. I, of course, did not notice BIRDS; I was staring straight ahead, viciously sleep-deprived most days and barely picking up my own feet, but my baby was mesmerized by birds in the trees. She was always watching them flit around above us and listening to them chirp away. I hadn’t really noticed how much Ella loved watching birds until I saw her craning her neck to still face the trees after I had turned the stroller around to head home from the park.

I finally realized she was pointing at the birds and I had a mini-AHA! moment. I promptly taught her the sign for BIRD and started talking about those birds: “Hey, I see all the BIRDS! Look at the BIRDS! How many BIRDS do you see?” Her response was almost feverish, and a truly triumphant look came upon her face. She knew I knew what she wanted to talk about! And so began a massive daily dialogue about birds: birds in the trees, birds up high, birds down low, birds by the pond, birds in books, birds chirping outside every morning. I could visibly see how much she wanted to tell me about the birds, and it was fantastic. I’m guessing your baby will be feverish about something around you, too. Keep an eye out, and you’ll find your next sign.

Successful early communication with babies involves some mindful decisions about what to say, but it’s not tricky. Think about the words that will help you name your daily routines, and also be very aware of what your baby is interested in. These words will quickly become your arsenal of vocabulary to work on. It will build naturally as your baby grows, and as you make more routines and do more activities together. Always say the words aloud to your baby as you sign them, and repeat often to maintain context.

Oh, and please allow me to introduce you to our family’s new pet bird, Lucky!
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Lucky was rescued from a nearby alleyway by friends who couldn’t keep her. Both my kids are thrilled that we adopted a bird, but it’s especially cool to pull a favourite word from my daughter’s first roster of signs into her life as a big kid.

What does your baby want to talk to you about?

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To sign BIRD in American Sign Language, tap your index finger to your thumb a few times, like the beak of a bird.

Mid-Summer Bucket List (Weighing In)

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Okay, I have to admit it. It’s no longer the beginning of summer, but, indeed, the middle. Smack dab in the middle. So it’s time to look at the summer bucket list my family made at the beginning of summer and take stock. Creating and using a family bucket list has been truly changing. It’s added some good, helpful structure to our days while avoiding over-planning, of which I had been guilty. Last summer, I could add up the days on one hand that we stayed local and did unstructured, unplanned things. And I could also tell you, it kind of sucked always driving to booked locations, back & forth-ing to summer camps, hauling equipment and packing backpacks. I don’t remember having a ton of spontaneous fun, and more importantly, neither do my kids. So I got inspired, changed things up, and refocused this summer’s activities.

Here’s an updated list of what we’ve already done & crossed off:

• Watch a movie in the backyard (on blankets!)
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• Paint rocks
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• Jump in a lake
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• Make s’mores over a campfire
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• Go on a day hike
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• Roll down a grassy hill
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• “Fish” off the back deck
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• Make a lemonade stand
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• Learn how to skip rocks
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• Wade barefoot in a cold creek & build some dams & bridges
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• Bury ourselves in sand
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• Plan a beach party with friends
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• Join the public library’s summer reading club
• Have friends over for a summer sleepover
• Have a water fight in the back yard -sponges, shooters, & a bin of water
• Make homemade backyard relay games (the kids are in the backyard doing wheel-barrow races through a homemade obstacle course with the neighbours’ kids as I type this!)

Here’s what we haven’t done yet:
• Wake up and watch a sunrise
• Make a meal only from ingredients gathered at the farmer’s market
• Look up at the stars laying on blankets
• Write our names with sparklers
• Fly a kite
• Bake some treats & have an (iced) tea party
• Go to an outdoor movie
• Visit some local tourist attractions we never usually have time for
• Try a new sport
• Ride different local transit -the Seabus, skytrain, Aquabus etc
• Bike around the seawall
• Make homemade popsicles
• Make a summer photo slide show
• Paint our faces, and arms, and legs
• Play showercap shaving cream cheesies tossing game and other silly games
• Paint each other’s toenails
• Play the cloud game on the grass
• Blow bubbles in the bathtub
• Explore 3 new playgrounds or parks, make obstacle courses
• Watch a sunset together

Granted, I think the “Still To-Do” list may be longer than the “Done” list, but my initial goal of identifying simple but often-forgotten fun things to do together has already been met only half-way through the summer.

So, to me, from here on out, the rest is gravy!

Stay tuned…

What simple, local, or spontaneous things are you doing this summer?
(There’s still lots of time!)

Beach Blanket Birthday Party

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My family and I are ticking off quite a few items on our summer bucket list, and it’s incredible how the list has really made this summer unfold differently than our normally busy, scheduled summers. I’m loving the “unplanned-ness” of our days and spending time doing activities that focus on good old fashioned, local, natural, spontaneous fun.

And in that spirit, late last week I put the call out to nearby friends to meet at the beach for a dinner picnic. It’s a week of birthday celebrations: I’m celebrating not only 10 years of teaching my baby sign language classes, but also my actual birthday -2 great excuses to get together, play in the sand, relax, and have cake!

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The turnout was great -luckily quite a few people were still lurking around the city on a sunny July weekend and could immobilize their troops at the last minute. The kids ranged from almost 2 years old to late-teens. We all met at a local beach and set up blankets and beach chairs, soaking up the late afternoon sun. Yes, my poor beach umbrella is on its last legs, but it still managed to provide some welcome shade from the intense heat (recognize that blanket?).

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Everyone packed their own dinner picnic, so no one had to prepare any big dishes to share, just their own meal. I brought our family’s dinner, a bucket of cut up watermelon, a sheet cake from the grocery store, and that was it!

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The kids played soccer, batted at tennis balls and built sand castles; the older kids kept watch on the younger ones while the adults chatted and shared stories of their summers so far. This was exactly how I remembered growing up -gathering people, eating food, and playing together with no schedule at all.

At one point, as I sat on my blanket and looked all around me, I took note of everyone relaxing and enjoying each other, and felt so incredibly happy to be surrounded by loving friends and family this summer. I’m not an experienced party-thrower, but I’m realizing this summer that a little bit of effort and mindful UN-planning can yield a lot of joy. (And nope, I did not wear a skirt to this party!)

Want to try it? You don’t need a lot of notice or fancy plans, just send a quick email out and see what happens…

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Why I Do What I Do

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To me, so much of the beauty of early communication with your baby is about ending the constant guessing games and being able to act on what you know -because they can tell you! As humans we all just want to be understood. And how beautiful is an exchange between you and your (non-verbal) baby where you know exactly what they want and can act on that expressed need? That’s what made me passionate about sign language. That’s why I started teaching classes to new families.

Many people ask me why I started teaching baby sign language. I always answer that it came from a personal passion for sign language, which is absolutely true. But, honestly? It was also kind of a fluke. I had worked with kids of all abilities when I taught preschool before having my own kids, but I’d never heard of sign language for babies until I became a parent myself. One of my best friends who was bravely blazing the trail of parenthood a few years ahead of me suggested looking into baby sign language as a fun activity to do while on maternity leave. So I looked it up and found a class and I tried it. The class got me out of the house, I met some other new parents, and it was fun. I learned quite a few signs, and for many months it remained a fun, light-hearted activity within my long days and nights as a new parent. Until the morning my daughter signed EAT.

At the age of 10 months, my daughter noticed a piece of pasta underneath our kitchen table. She pointed at the pasta, looked at me and signed EAT, and then dove under the table to go eat it! I was ecstatic to see her very first sign, clear as day. We celebrated and I started clapping and cheering, “Yes, EAT! EAT!”, even though I was a teensy bit appalled because I realized that noodle was from last night’s dinner. Oh well. I still considered it an outstanding victory in parenthood after months of not really knowing what the heck I was doing most of the time.

Her first sign was a day I’ll never, ever forget.

We signed and said EAT at every meal– “Okay, let’s go in the kitchen and get your breakfast, time to EAT!” or “Mmm, mommy has some apples, let’s EAT!”. Mealtime happened many times a day, every day, so there was lots of repetition, and I would also sign it when I was eating, even if she wasn’t joining me.  EAT was a natural first sign because I had practiced it with her a lot, and boy, was it nice to know what she wanted! Once she was able to sign EAT, it meant she could tell me when she was hungry or just wanted to talk about food. Prior to that, she and I could only play guessing games, which often ended in tears for one of us (and sometimes both of us). But all of a sudden, well before she could say the words for EAT, or MILK, or HUNGRY, she could sign them. WOW.

Sign language is the bridge between what our babies can tell us with their bodies before what they can tell us with their mouths.

I started teaching sign language classes because I became so passionate about what sign language can do for both babies and parents –the possibilities are endless. I still use sign language with my big kids everyday. My background in creating and teaching preschool programs allowed me to build a curriculum based on what I had learned in my first sign language class and also incorporate my own personal experience as a parent forging a path of greater communication with my family.

And so, my love for sign language really started as a very personal story of the pull I felt as a new mom who couldn’t stand not knowing what my baby wanted and why she cried. And my classes became what they are today –my passion. I’m so thankful I get to share this passion with you.