My son is a week away from being 5 months old (today's date being Jan. 15) and I am teaching him a little baby sign language. I am learning at the same time so I sometimes have to take a minute to look up words to do the sign. I try to be consistant but I might forget to sign 'MILK' at every nursing or 'SLEEP' at night as well as 'DIAPER' and 'PLAY' and family members. But I try because I really want him to learn it. I am also wanting to take advantage of his young age and teach him something besides sign language. Like phonics or reading, his ABC's and numbers. Sounds like I'm trying to push him over the top but I'm not, no worries =) we have A TON of play time and we rest a lot so I'm not worried about that BUT I want to teach my baby reading, however I don't want to use sight words as this merely teaches him to memorize words and not necessarily to sound the letters out. Of course he is too young to be able to make the sounds right away but is there a program or books I can read or show him that will focus on reading and sounding out the letters and making words? I am thinking of this now so I can have plenty of time to figure out what I need to do for later. How do I jumpstart the baby sign language and what can I do for the reading and phonics for when he's older? I do read to him everyday and I make it active reading with voice changes and signs for certain things. He gets at least 20 constant minutes of reading but we read a few times a day. He's a very happy baby so I want to take advantage of his willing to pay attention and play. Thanks for whatever advice or information I'm given.
***One reason I am concentrated on sign language is because I want his daddy to be impressed when he gets back from deployment. (Not that he won't be impressed to see his little man growing up) I don't want his daddy to think he doesn't know who he is. It would be amazing if he signed 'Daddy' to him when he comes home =) or of course says 'da-da' as he will be around a year old when dad comes back for R&R.***
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OMG I have to tell you, you made me tear up. My hubby was in Iraq before we got married and I understand you completely and I think it is wonderful you making a big deal out of a way for you child to welcome his dad and that will melt his heart. I think it is great you are teaching your child sign lang. and no you can never start to early as long as you are having fun with it and not being strict or hard on the child which you have stated your not. Have fun learning new things with your child. I plan on learning italian with my son when he is older. I might try at a yr old. Also an idea I had is I am sure your doing is show lots of video and pics of daddy to the child so he recognises him. Also let him hear his dad as much as possible when you two are talking put the phone on speaker phone so he can hear him while you talk. Also if you have anything that smells like your hubby give it to your child to smell so he knows his smell when he gets back. It sounds silly but when they are that young they use all their senses to establish who you are I learned this yesterday when I went to met a friend with my son. Our kids are 1 week 1 day and 1 hour apart. I took her child and she took mine out of his carrier for the first time. He did not wake but put his nose to her skin and kept making a face and a few mins later woke up crying. When i took him back he dug his nose in to me and calmed down. My son puts his nose on to me alot. LOL I hope i smell good and not stinky GL and God bless you and your family and I pray for his safe return.