Baby Signs

"Moaa" and "Aa gone" ("more, "all gone") were the two frequently used words that Ana learnt to sign first successfully, back when she was about one year old.

Since then she has signed to indicate "more", "milk", "eat" and "all gone" consistently till she turned about two, at which point she finally decided she will speak mostly in English with me and in school, and a little Welsh with D and not worry about signing. So, I backed off a little from teaching her other signs.

Now that Ana is home a lot as we can't afford to send her to full time daycare with me on unpaid maternity leave, (I know, I know... I harp on this unpaid maternity leave a lot here as it is a sore point for me - not sure why I expect my employer to pay me to have a baby, but, looking at my friends in Germany, I feel society here is not set up to support families at all, and we lament the degradation of family values... anyway, that rant is for another day)...

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, so, Ana is home a lot, and I wanted to do something useful with her whenever I can manage, especially since my parents have been here to help with Oggie.

We've been working on counting and addition. Ana gets the concept but is still too young to do anything profound with it, so, I don't push it. We do simple everyday counting, like,
"How many beans do you have on your plate, Ana?"
"1...2...3...4...5...6... Six, Amma! I have six beans."
"Good job, that's right, Ana! Now, I give you one more from my plate, how many do you have in your plate now, Ana?"
"1...2...3...4...5...6...7... Saban, Amma! I have saban beans."
"That's right! you have seven. Now, I eat up two beans from your plate; how many do you have in your plate, Ana?"
"1...2...3...4...5... Five, Amma."

By which time she is bored and I've given her a simple enough lesson at lunch:) And I wait for another opportunity to do the same...



And then, a few weeks ago, I decided to pick up on International Sign Language again with Ana. Early Sunday mornings there is a PBS show which teaches signs that I let Ana watch. I am too groggy, so, I sit on the rocking chair with Oggie, and park Ana in front of the TV and try to savor the quiet morning with the two kids, when everybody else is asleep.

While I am at it, I want to mention another PBS show: on weekday mornings I let Ana watch this TV show on PBS called Super Why which I think is one of the better programming to come out in ages - it teaches reading - and Ana has taken to it wildly. She shouts out the super letters when asked in the show, and manages to say the words when they are spelled out - by rote, of course - she still can't quite read: there are only a handful of Super Why episodes and she has seen them all, so, when they are rerun, she just remembers and chimes in :)

Okay, I digressed, but, Super Why was worth mentioning... anyway, so, I borrowed a few baby signs books and have been working with Ana to learn the various signs for common words in daily life. So far our sign vocabulary has expanded to:

Sun
Moon
It Hurts
Hungry
Sleepy
Bed
Hug
Love
Milk
Drink
Toy
Airplane
Play
Mom/Amma
Dad/Appa
Walk
Sit
Swing
Book

Some of the signs are a bit strange to me. For instance, "Hurt" is indicated by tapping the two index fingers pointing to where it hurts. And, I used to wonder how we can indicate if it hurts at the elbow or at the finger... then, of course, we can use the "pain" sign, or even spell "hurt" (as a lexicalized version)...

When Ana randomly comes up to me or D and states, "Appa, you are on the head", or "Amma you are on the chin", it makes us automatically flash a knowing smile: sign for "Mother" is by placing the thumb of your right hand against the chin, and for "Father" is by placing the thumb of your right hand against the forehead.

Well, am not sure how long I can keep this up... especially since my parents are leaving in about a month or so and I will have to relive all the guilt I felt with sending Ana to daycare from when she was only 6 months old... Oh well. I will cross that bridge when I get to it.