Our fourth child was born under some strenuous conditions resulting in hearing loss. Even though we were able to get him into hearing aids very quickly, we wanted to teach him sign language so he would have another avenue with which to communicate. As a result, we decided that this year of homeschooling would include a new subject – sign language. (Read the whole story here)

In order to start into this new subject, and to get our kids involved with the right spirit, I checked out some children’s sign language videos from our library. Right away one caught the kid’s attention – Baby signing Time. The songs got us dancing together! My kids started signing to each other right away and begging to watch it again. And again. And again! So back to the library. That’s when I also found Signing Time. The kids just took off with it.

We started purchasing all we could of the Signing Time videos. The kids are now teaching my husband and me how to sign all kinds of words! Anyway, I’ve noticed some great benefits that I would never have thought to expect.

I’ve had a tough time with some aspects of homeschooling. I love the chance to be the one to teach my kids to read, to see them figure out for the first time that B-E-D spells bed and to catch praying mantises with them in the morning.

However, I’ve had a tough time getting them to pay attention. For the first twenty minutes or so (or even less, some days) it’s great. Then attention starts to waver to the next activity. I was at a bit of a loss to know what to do to keep everything interesting.

Once I started the sign language lessons, were able to connect ideas with each other in their own minds. For instance, during reading lessons, the difference between “were” and “where” started to make sense to my son since he could sign each of these words separately. My two-year-old started learning his colors by himself and asking for more cereal instead of throwing a fit. He’s also nearly mastered the alphabet, both vocally and in sign. My four-year-old can now count to twenty without mixing up any numbers – and can count in sign while she’s doing it.

I believe the reason behind these advances is the combining of learning styles. Suddenly the kids are learning with visual, auditory and kinetic cues at the same time. The results though, are much greater than I could have imagined!