For parents looking for activities that entertain and amuse try signing as you sing. My wife took over this role and my son really enjoyed it. At a point he was making requests for certain songs and signing along to boot.
Sign songs are great near bedtime or while driving (keep both hands on the wheel though!). Better yet, many songs and nursery rhymes lend themselves very well to signing since many of the words are repeated multiple times throughout and are on topics that kids find interesting. Signs in songs are a great way to put the words you want your baby to learn in context and repeat them over and over again to help in memorization.
Signing in a song is just like signing regularly. I’ve seen some songs where the entire song is signed, but this is unnecessary and probably counterproductive. For signing purposes you’ll just want to sign one word in each sentence – the key word.
Many nursery rhymes also have actions associated. These however, are not signs and should not be confused with actual sign language. While you might prefer the action, it might be confusing for your signing baby to mix the two types of motions together. Because your baby is learning to sign, they are learning that motions with the hands have meaning so I would strongly suggest not using any action in association with a song that is not an actual sign. If you do your baby will likely pick this up and use them outside of the song context as a real sign. This will make it difficult for your baby to learn the real sign later on.
By signing up for our online course you’ll gain access to dozens of signs songs. To get yourself started today try Itsy Bitsy Spider and Old MacDonald! Outlined too are the key words.
Happy signing!