Monday, November 30, 2009

What happens when I don't teach signs fast enough


Isabel sometimes has "silent" days, where she only signs. A funny thing about this is that she also keeps her lips clamped tight, as if to emphasize that there will be no talking today. It was on one of these days that we saw her signing "please milk mama shirt" where her usual version is "please milk mama SURE!" ("Sure!" is apparently the answer she's anticipating, and the answer she thinks worth prompting. It works pretty well, I have to say.) So this one was pretty easy to figure out. It got me thinking, though, about why she might be signing what looked like "pig" whenever she played with her mini-pumpkins. Sure, they both started with "p", but...


This morning the explanation emerged. Isabel was quietly stacking her pumpkins, when Signing Time came on and Rachel said "Hopkins!" (the frog). Isabel was exceptionally pleased, and raised up one of the pumpkins signing what was now, clearly, "frog", and yelling "UPkin! "
(By the way, Isabel DID have a clip in her hair the morning we went to Webb Ranch, above, but she soon took care of THAT...)




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