Sign & Sing

Yesterday we started our Sign & Sing class! It’s a 10-week series to help learn sign language with the kids. Not only do I think it’s a good thing to learn as far as language development and improved communication, but it’s also a fun outing for all of us to do together. Joining groups and taking classes is not usually M’s thing. I’m definitely more of the extrovert, more likely to seek out activities and things. But he likes the idea of sign language, and we agree that it’s not the kind of thing that would be very effective for me to go learn it on my own and then come back and show him. Plus, I’ve really been itching for something that all four of us can go out and do together on the weekends. We’re kind of homebodies, and also end up doing a lot of baby hand-offs on the weekend (i.e. he hangs out with them while I go to the store, etc). That works in some ways, but I wanted something that was fun and out of the house for all four of us.

The class was great! It’s not too early in the morning for Mr. Not-a-morning-person, starting at 11:45. Makes for a slightly tricky afternoon nap situation, but it’s alright. There were a total of six babies in the class. I was worried that we’d have the youngest ones, as the stated age range for the class is 8-24 months. Thankfully, they’re almost all around 8 months, with the oldest being 11 months! Whew. And, lucky for M, there’s even two other dads there! That was my other worry, but I think the fact that it’s a Saturday helped us. Anyways, most of the signs are done in the context of a song (as the name of the class might suggest), which seems to be fun for the kids and helps the adults remember the signs. There were toys to play with, and the big hit of the day, bubbles. At 45 minutes long, it was just enough to keep their interest, and end before they totally lost it.

Language is a funny thing. You think to yourself that it’ll be plenty just to learn maybe 3-5 new signs, that it would be hard enough to remember that many. But when I look back and remember all of the words we did, it was closer to 15-20! Hello, happy, here, mom, dad, bear, mountain, see, what, music, more, all done, silly, clown, ball, jumping, blocks, bubbles, high, low, sky, goodbye… many of them are obvious and intuitive, and the teacher had some good cues and associations to help the rest make sense. I think the trick now is to make signing a habit, something that I just do, without having to think to much about doing it on purpose. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyways, after the class, we decided to be bold and go get lunch (plus, it was 12:45 and we were hungry). We walked down to a casual burger joint, grabbed sandwiches, and had a nice time. Daniel got fussy, so we fed him, but otherwise it went pretty well. Especially given that it was rather past their normal nap time. I definitely enjoyed the family-of-four outing, and I think M did, too. I think it’s good for him to do things like this, because while I’m used to being out and about with the kids, he doesn’t do that as much. I think it helps him get a sense of what they’re (and we’re) capable of, and what their (our) limits are.

A good time was had by all, and this will be our Saturday morning until early June! Wow!