sing and sign classes or similar?

I know i go on about them a lot, but i really love them and even now elijah is picking up lots of signs and using them with the right words - i do feel it has helped his communication loads and its good fun also, i love that he can be singing a little song to himself and i know what the song is because he is doing the signs at the same time.

anyway, that aside, i am genuinely interested because i am seriously now looking at applying for a franchise - there are only a handful of people doing the classes in scotland (lots more in england) and i could do with knowing if other people are actually interested??

if you knew/had known about this kind of thing do you think you would have/still go? its for about 3 months to 4 years and you pay for a term at a time at around £50 for 10-12 sessions.

i dont know it its just because its really up my street that i think others would go too (ours were always booked out in advance) or if it is really a popular idea?

Yes I would but I don't think they do it here. Ellie copies mr tumble and knows a few signs such as "yes" and "fountain".

I would but only get two days a week with him and don't want to spend part of that time at a class. Also, he says about 12 words and can let us know fairly well what he wants so its probably a bit late now

I would but I'm way too tight to pay. Sorry! I'm quite lucky in that the children's centre here is really good and do loads of free groups. Maybe if they didn't I would pay. I know lots of people that do pay to go to similar groups and pay. I think its a good idea.

Just something that occured to me. Its cheaper than baby sensory which was £65 for 10 weeks so certainly not the most expensive thing which would help. Also I think baby swimming lessons round here when I was looking were £135 for 10

I do pay because we go to the advanced class now which isn't free. I thought about doing a franchise but there's a few in my area x

I would i am starting a similar course at my local childrens centre which is language and play its a 5 week course.

Char

I would have done but I was back at work by the time Imogen was old enough for it to be worthwhile - they were quite strict with my nearest one as it's oversubscribed.

I think it's quite good - I've seen the benefits of my friend's little one going. We're lucky though as Imogen is a right chatterbox so we always know what she wants anyway. I do think it's lovely though when the occasional little sign language comes out - mostly the fingers going round eachother to say Mr Tumble to be honest though! Might consider it with the next one if I can.

I was always keen to do some sort of baby signing with Oliver when he was younger..but the only classes they did round here were and bus and a train ride away for me .


I reckon it'd be a great idea

fountain! not hugely useful day to day is it? maybe it is...

well, in scotland there aren't any surestart centres so in terms of free classes there basically aren't any at all.

i do wonder about the price though as i did feel it was a bit inaccessible although i don't know if you can control that or not.

pinky are you doing stage 2 now? is ava doing many signs? i guess we probably started about the same time (actually think you were a bit earlier?). we aren't going this term because the new teacher is absolutely rubbish so im waiting to see where we move to.

I only went for a few classes. A)Im not a parent-baby group/class tpye person so amprobably worlds worst to answer this and B)I didnt understand why i was doing stuff like bicycle for example when i did even know basic signs with her then C)She started talking at 8 months and i never needed to

With Awen ive considered doing some signs at homewith her but again shes now making inroads on talking and can do cat (gat), hiya (hada) and ta albeit a bit hit and miss atm as well as mum and dad so if i did it would only be a home based thing rather than classes

That said thats only me and my weirdisms. In theory i think its a great idea-baby signing i mean. Ive been looking at starting awen with food, bottle, drink and thanks

Quote :

)I didnt understand why i was doing stuff like bicycle for example when i did even know basic signs with her then

why DID you do signs for bicycle and stuff? weird.

no, its useful to have input from people who don't go to classes too because obviously im not one of those people so need to know what you are thinking!!!

yeah zee i do that that accessibility is a bit of an issue (financial and physical) i remember loads of stuff i wanted to - and still do - that just wasn't accessible walking or on public transport which really p*ssed me off!

Lol i cant remember if it was bicycle specifically more that it was signs id NEVER used day to day when i wantd to learn nappy/food/drink/thankyou/mummy/daddy/valium etc y'know, the ones id use every day

I'm not sure tbh, only because I've never really had an issue with her communication ... BUT if I did have issues now I would probably say yes I wish I had been able to take her!
Also it wasn't an option as no classes near me ... so maybe if it was I'd have thought more about it early on!


I don't think the price is bad as I pay that for the same amount of music lessons she goes to, her swimming lessons will work out similar, maybe even more actually..and her dance lessons will definitely be more (she starts dance and swimming in March)...so cost wise I don't think i would have been put off if i wanted to do it.

Quote :

Lol
i cant remember if it was bicycle specifically more that it was signs
id NEVER used day to day when i wantd to learn
nappy/food/drink/thankyou/mummy/daddy/valium etc y'know, the ones id use
every day

haha those are the ones you learn in stage 1 anyway...i was trying to remember what 'v' is for in the alphabet, thanks!!!

lisa it isn't really about issues with communication (although lots of children with different extra needs are recommended to do signing) but more about trying to reduce frustration when they are a bit bigger - like the stage elijah is at where he wants to tell us things but can't physically form the words with his mouth! and its quite good fun too.

it sounds like maybe there are just one or two 'types' of parent that are interested in it...

mariheartselijah wrote:

Quote :

Lol
i cant remember if it was bicycle specifically more that it was signs
id NEVER used day to day when i wantd to learn
nappy/food/drink/thankyou/mummy/daddy/valium etc y'know, the ones id use
every day

haha those are the ones you learn in stage 1 anyway...i was trying to remember what 'v' is for in the alphabet, thanks!!!

lisa it isn't really about issues with communication (although lots of children with different extra needs are recommended to do signing) but more about trying to reduce frustration when they are a bit bigger - like the stage elijah is at where he wants to tell us things but can't physically form the words with his mouth! and its quite good fun too.

it sounds like maybe there are just one or two 'types' of parent that are interested in it...

yeh thats what I mean...we never had any frustration, she learn't what she needed to say very quickly, and didnt seem all that bothered about stuff she couldn't say ...but reckon if we had the frustrated phase I'd have wished I'd taken her!
Now...well there aint much she cant say, even if its not perfectly worded its obvious what she is saying ... like ''i run from nursery to WE house'

hahaha that sounds a bit rastafarian or summat

hmpphh and Ive been stopping her watching that stupid Rastamouse as well!

Leo went to baby sign classes and he picked it up really well, i havent seen anything like that since having oliver...suppose its pointless now anyway cos he can more or less tell me what he wants

I took Seb from 6 months because I'd heard the classes were fun, rather than specifically to get him to sign. I wasn't that dedicated at home either so after 5 months of signing classes he never learnt to sign, but he really enjoyed it. Now that Seb is in pre-school I've started taking Anna, but again because I like the teacher and the classes are fun. We had our first class on thurs and so I've been thinking about what she does that makes it good:
* very chatty, gets to know the parents, genuinely enthusiastic and friendly
* good powerful singing voice so it doesn't really matter if you join audibly!
* keeps the class moving at a good pace so you don't get bored (unlike the free baby rhyme time at the library where they do every rhyme twice and still finish in 20 min...).

We end up learning signs that we don't need from day 1 if they crop up in the songs (e.g. we did monkeys jumping on the bed in the first lesson and hence learnt signs like Dr) but the lesson is focussed around key signs e.g. this week it was eat/drink/more/please/thankyou.

The class is central in town in a nice heated room with carpet to sit on, but it is upstairs so people with a new baby often drop out. The teacher does help people carrying twins though.

Good luck if you decide to give it a go!
Ros

i have had one really awful teacher and one really good one, so in a way that's really lucky its nice to compare!!! glad to see your experiences were similar to mine although we still do a lot of signing at home - i definitely think the location of classes is important as a lot of places seem to assume you have a car these days