ASL Recommendations?

I really like Signing Time by Rachel Coleman.  We just get them (DVD’s) from our library.  Watch a few times I take some notes and make flash cards and we practice daily.  They are simple and fun for the young ones.  My older ones (14 & 13 yr) feel silly so we just watch the “review” vs. the “main” show.

We have learned a lot.  it comes in handy at church and places we don’t want to say something but it needs to be said.  Also, wonderful for the little ones to help communicate.

I would like to add (fi you don’t mind) to this and say .. what do you do when you are done with the 2 volume sets?  Where do you go from there?

You can buy the super disc of all the lessons from the site above (lifeprint.com) for $20.00.  My ASL teacher recommended it to us in addition to her lessons for daily review.  

I wanted to mention that my dd 3yo has learned a lot of the regular adult signs just by doing it with us.  It is so fun to watch! Just tickles the deaf gentleman at church.  I am mentioning that so no one thinks that their child is too young to learn adult SL.  =)  

We have used Goldilocks and the Three Bears in Signed English, first from our library and then purchased off Amazon.  I know it is signed English and not ASL, but it really has increased our vocabulary.  My dd can do about 1/4 of the story now in Signed English.  We showed it to an ASL interpreter at church and she was very impressed with how much vocab she had learned.  I like it because she learns the words in a context which helps her to remember them.  There are several books in the series – we also have a Nursery Rhyme one. 

The other resource we have used is going on Youtube and putting in hymns and worship songs in ASL in the search.  We have learned a lot of vocab through song.

Some day we will do a more formal ASL course, learning proper grammar, etc. But, this has been a really effective start for us. 

HTH

We are also using Signing Time. We watch it 3X per school week. We watch the whole show on day 1, review a previous show on day 3 and watch the review segment of the new show on day 5. What has really helped their retention is to have narration after the show besides doing the signs along with them on the show. So when the show is over, we take turns showing signs we remembered or liked and practice them together. It is something that really needs to be practiced daily and that is where I need to remember to use it more, especially with every day food items and easier things. So I am working on improving there. If I start using it more, my kids will too.

I’ve got to try this, but if my wii is hooked up to the internet, we should be able to watch these videos on the living room tv.  I’m hoping to try this soon as I can talk to my dh our residential tech.

Signing Time has a curriculum. It’s called Signing Time Classroom Edition. There’s also a preschool/childcare curriculum, and you can even find a teacher in your area at http://www.signingtimeacademy.com and attend classes.

This post that I started about sign language was met with some great suggestions from other moms. especially like the memory box system suggestion for review. I just ordered three Signing Time DVD’s for first grade as that will be our foreign language for this year. I have a 6dd and a 3dd. Hope that helps. 

http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/sign-language-as-foreign-language

Here, too. There is a DVD you can order. Print and bind your lessons. http://www.lifeprint.com/