Have you ever forgotten to take photographs of a particular event of period in your life? I do it all the time. Too busy living to photograph the living. Perhaps it's the single mom thing. Perhaps is a certain photographic laziness. Call it what you will, it happens.
My son learned sign language when he was about 3. I never took any pictures of him using this language when he was 3. But I did get a few shots when we were goofing off with the camera one morning when he was five. And those are the images I put on this page.
I found the ASL alphabet at HowStuffWorks.com and the large hand that is signing "I love you" was from the $1 bin at Micheals. You got 10 cardboard hands, with full fingers, for a buck. I signed "I love you" and laid my hand over the cardboard and then traced around the fingers that were bent. The hands were originally white and I did a direct to paper with SU night of navy ink to match the color of the ASL hands.
The letters were cut out with the Silhouette. I did the entire layout in InDesign, following Cathy Zielske's example, and then printed out just the text from the page - with crop marks created in the program.
The text reads:
When you’re a toddler, and don’t have many language skills, non-verbal communication is incredibly important. Crying, pointing and occasional grunting is really all you have unless you know sign language. Evan was 3 years old and talking in full sentences when he first learned to sign.
We would go to the library every Saturday and he would play with the train set for a hour or more. We would then go get a stack of books for bedtime reading and a video or three of Signing Time. He liked the kids, Alex and Leah, and would sing along to the songs.
He was so excited about signing that he would go to CCLC and show the teachers the new words he had learned. They were so impressed with his enthusiasm that they had all the kids in the 2005 summer program learn sign language. I remember the teachers watching videos to learn some signs so they could teach it to the kids.
These photos were taken on a goof off with the camera day when he was 5 and he still remembered how to sign the alphabet. A lot of the other words are distant menories but he still remembers his ABCs.
Happy Crafting,
1 comment:
I sm fascinated to read of his signing ability! I read recently how it is being taught to toddlers over here in a pilot project to help with the frustrations of communicating. Your page works really well - didn't know you did yours in InDesign too.
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