#Gratitude365 The Rattle Game

I'm currently blogging a series that I've entitled #Gratitude365 on my personal blog, Mommy's Slice of the Pie (where I truly am more sassy and you ought only to follow me there if you desire to know me on a personal level). Today I happened to be noticing a LOT of things that filled me with gratitude, and being that I've just had a long break from teaching (since Thanksgiving!), it was a good feeling to be back "in the classroom" again. Because this moment of gratitude pertains to what I do with Sign4Baby - I decided to share it here and give you a few little nuggets that can help you in your discovery of what your baby is thinking....

One of my returning families from the last session shared with during our introductions that they had hit a plateau with her twin boys picking up signs and she was trying to pinpoint what else would be of interest to them so they could keep building up their vocabulary. The topic of today's class happened to be "just what the doctor ordered" as it's the class where I demonstrate the signs for all the universal things that babies are intrigued by.   

When we were playing the rattle game, one of her boys was responding with great enthusiasm! We all were paying attention, mom, nanny, the other moms in class, and myself. It was clear that he was intentionally reciprocating the message of rattle in this rhythmic game that we played. We play it all throughout the first class because it demonstrates how much fun showing signs to your baby should be - and the mere repetition as a practice - and often by the end of 6 weeks together almost all of the babies and toddlers are basically "asking me to play rattle" with them. Later, after playing a song while his mom was holding him facing outward, he began shaking the rattle again with an incredible smile! We could all tell he was elated to be making this connection and to see the mom's face was pure joy. I have such gratitude for having these moments in class where I get to observe these kinds of breakthrough!

Did anything here help you? I'd love to hear back from you in the comments below.

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Joann Woolley is owner and instructor of Sign4Baby in San Diego teaching parents how to communicate with their pre-verbal baby using American Sign Language. With her in depth knowledge of ASL as her first language she takes you beyond just the basics in signing, also filling your parenting tool belt with parenting tips and tricks coupled with signing as a great boundary teaching tool for toddlers. Want to know which signs most parents start with but gets them stuck in the mud? I'll send you that hundred dollar tip for FREE.