More Fundamentals for Signing with Your Baby
Recently, we posted a blog explaining some keys to succeed with baby sign language. In this post, we provide you with more tips and advice to ensure you have a successful and rewarding experience teaching your baby sign language.
Make Signing a Family Affair
One of the most important factors for success in teaching your baby to sign is whether or not others are involved in the process. If you are like most parents, lots of people take part in caring for your child on a daily basis. These people play a key role in the development of your child. Most children have regular contact with other family members. In our family, we could not get by without regular help from wonderful grandparents. Make signing a “family affair” and get the entire family involved in the process (especially Grandma and Grandpa).
In many homes today, both parents work full time, while the child is at daycare. Baby will have a huge advantage in learning sign language if his daycare workers are involved in the process. Baby’s daycare workers and babysitters are part of his extended family. Make sure your child’s extended family knows that you are teaching him to sign and show them the signs you are working on with your baby. In the least, they should know some of the basic signs he uses on a regular basis and be willing to be involved in teaching those signs. If they refuse to participate with signing, consider finding a new daycare or sitter. As for your actual relatives, insist they take part in the teaching process. If Grandma is watching baby, she needs to know when baby wants more “milk”. Otherwise, baby will be confused as to why Grandma doesn’t understand him.
Perceive Baby’s Perception
A child is constantly seeing and perceiving new things. For better success with signing with your baby, you should be alert to your child’s perceptions. If you notice what your child is perceiving, you will know when and what to sign. By the time his eyes and gazes start to connect with yours, baby is ready to begin learning to sign. Get down on your baby’s level, literally and figuratively. If you are aware of what your child perceives, you will be a better teacher (and caregiver).
Your baby has different types of perceptions, each presenting a chance for a new sign. Your child may have a need or want to express a feeling or desire. For example, if your child finishes drinking his juice, he may “express” that he wants more. The moment that you recognize this perception is a great time to mnake the sign for more. Sometimes, it is clear that your baby perceives you. You and baby may look at each other at the same time. When you make this type of contact with your baby, he is ready for what you have to say. Recognize this as an opportunity to introduce a sign. At other times, it will be clear that you and your baby are perceiving the same thing. For example, you may both be focused on the family dog. Obviously, this is great opportunity to sign the word dog. One technique to help direct what your child will notice is to use a sign in front of the object you are signing about. Or, you can even sign with the object on your baby’s body!
Have Fun!
As with all activities, a key ingredient for success with signing with your baby is attitude. As the caption says, Have Fun! Get excited and have fun with your baby when you are showing him a sign. Teaching your baby how to sign is more about attitude and persistence than any scientific technique. If you recognize teaching opportunities, and you stick with it, your baby will be making signs before you know it. So don’t get frustrated if baby is not signing back to you right away. Remember, every child is different and every child learns and responds at his own pace.
Communication with your baby should be intuitive and natural. You don’t need a book to make a connection with your child. Trust your instincts and be expressive when you communicate with your child. Match your expression with your sign. Children respond as much to emotions and facial expressions as to anything that may be verbalized. And don’t get frustrated if your baby does not make the perfect sign. Rather, recognize what he is trying to say and applaud him for it. The process should be fun for both you and baby. Your baby will refine his technique as he continues to develop.
Filed under Family | Comment (0)Dealing With Retirement Financial Management, Retirement Gift Ideas And Online Retirement Planning Calculator
When you have a senior parent and are having to deal with planning for retirement the concern for their ability to maintain their lifestyle can be a significant worry. Almost without exception, senior citizens resist the idea of moving out of their house and into an assisted living facility or nursing home and this is one of the key things to consider with retirement planning tools. You as a child of a senior citizen may see issues of safety if your aging parent continues to live independently. When thinking about retirement planning tools if their spouse has passed on, there may be issues of loneliness and depression. Hallways and doors of old homes are often not built to accommodate walkers or wheelchairs. And the vision of your children’s Grandma or Grandpa falling and being unable to reach you for help is frightening. And then there is the financial side of maintaining their home and paying the mortgage if it is still active.
So the question with retirement planning tools is whether you should try to help your aging parent with moving on to an assisted care facility or if it can be worked out for them to stay in their home. There are some compelling reasons to help them stay in the house they have lived in for so long if there are ways to overcome the problems. Studies show conclusively that senior citizens that live in their own homes are happier and healthier. Your parents may have long lasting friendships in the neighborhood who provide tremendous emotional support and can look in on your parent from time to time to assure they are safe. And the ability to get out in the yard, feed the birds, keep a pet or tend a small garden has untold health benefits both mentally and physically for a senior citizen.
With retirement gift ideas steps can be taken to provide for the unique needs of a senior citizen when dealing with retirement gift ideas if you want to work with them to keep them in their home. The family and friends of the senior citizen can take on the chores of upkeep of the home, yard work and repairs so the home continues to remain safe and viable as a living space. This also reduces the expenses of home ownership.
It is very likely with retirement gift ideas that from a financial point of view, you can work with your senior citizen to reduce the costs of staying in their home. If they still have a mortgage, the outstanding balance may be quite low but the payment still high. By working with the mortgage company, you may be able to refinance the loan to drop the payment considerably and make it more affordable even than living in assisted care or a nursing home. You can also work with utilities companies and credit sources who may have programs to assist the elderly in owning their own home. By utilizing the resources already in place, you may be able to get your aging parents costs into a reasonable range and help them establish a budget that allow them to live comfortably on social security and whatever retirement funds they have.
You can also find home nursing care and put good technology to use to make it possible for your parent to have quality care in the home and to have the resources to be able to reach out to you in the event of an emergency. online retirement planning calculator services like these do well at providing for the needs of senior citizens so they can virtually spend the entire remainder of their years living in their home where they are happy. The key to making all of these military retirement financial advice steps work is to enlist the partnership of your senior citizen parent. By sitting down with him or her, you can review that keeping them at home is a shared project and that they should do all they can to make this work. They will be enthusiastic to make that kind of effort and stay in the home they love so much.
Filed under Family | Comment (0)What You Need To Know About What To Write In An Anniversary Card
Did you mark your calendar with the date of your special anniversary? As the days pass by, you start planning what to give your loved one for this special day?
If you are many others, you probably wonder what to write in an anniversary card. Your anniversary is a time to give anniversary greetings that say I love you, I appreciate you, let’s keep our relationship strong and loving.
Saying “Happy Anniversary” takes many forms. Card shops, supermarkets and drugstores stock cards with all kinds of artwork, many different verses, written in various words and tones.
For example, there are elegant greetings and verses, religious sentiments and just plain, old fashioned blank notes. You can buy “tongue in cheek” risque cards that offer double meanings. There are funny anniversary cards that make jokes about the person receiving the card and the person giving it.
Let’s face it, anniversary cards that don’t strike an emotional card often get thrown out. Unless you put your heart into writing, it’s just a piece of paper. When you know what to write in an anniversary card, you give your loved one a “keeper.”
Anniversaries are fleeting. They come one day and leave the next. Just writing “Happy Anniversary” is not enough. Forgetting an anniversary is even worse. An anniversary card and love letter can take your love to a higher level.
Many times, you may find that the greeting and words printed on the card just don’t do justice to your relationship. Every anniversary is different, because of the amount of time you have invested in a relationship or the season of your life.
Writing a personal note with your anniversary greetings that express your heart feelings, your loving thoughts about your spouse or loved one is the best way to continue the flame in your relationship. If you struggle to find the words, it helps to look at samples of love letters to get a feel for what words to use. Then, you will have ideas that you can make into your own.
You can write a long love letter on a separate piece of paper and then fold it and put in in with your anniversary card. You can write an anniversary love poem right on the inside flap of the greeting card. You can look for love quotes and print them in your card.
Remember, celebrating an anniversary isn’t about just the day itself. It is a symbol of your love and time together. your relationship of togetherness. You and your entire family is affected by your love and how you celebrate this special time.
Including a love letter is an important part of saying Happy Anniversary. Don’t miss your chance when the anniversary day arrives. Make sure that you capture the moment by writing a “keeper.” All you need are good examples to mimic and make your own.
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