Catherine our Inner West Baby hands Teacher was featured in the innerwestcourier this week with her gorgeous 8 month old son Charlie.

As Catherine rightly points out baby’s can start signing a long time before they can speak, its just important to ensure that you are consistent with your signing and introduce a mix of practical and motivational signs.

Read the article below and for more information on classes in Sydney’s Inner West please contact Catherine:

With only 8 days to go, the count down has begun to the Baby & Toddler Show Melbourne.

We are looking forward to being a part of the show again this year and you can come visit us at stand 185.

The show is being held at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens in Melbourne.

The Opening times are from 9.30am to 4.30pm daily but you can get early entry to the show with an Early Bird Ticket (which you can buy here now), getting you into the show at 9am.

As well as having a stand at the expo, we are also being featured on the Bio-Oil Baby & Toddler Seminars. Our talk will be on baby sign language, the benefits, the frequently asked questions, the international research as well as where to start. You can catch the seminar each day at 3pm on the main stage.

If you can’t find our stand, just look for the stand with the cute baby featured in the picture here.

As many of you may well have seen recently throughout the disasters that have been happening around the world and indeed right here in Australia the use of sign language interpreters has become more and more widespread.

Standing alongside those delivering news and updates on the current events, sign language interpreters have been a common site on television recently.

ABC news recently did a story on the growing popularity of interpreters and contacted us at Baby Hands to find out a little bit about the increasing popularity of Baby Sign Language.

You can watch the full story on the ABC website here.

Catherine, our Inner West baby sign teacher has a brief appearance and they show a small snippet of some of the mums and bubs having fun at one of Catherines classes.

If you would like to find out more about Baby Hands Classes or even about becoming a Baby Hands Teacher you can contact us through the website.

The Baby & Toddler Show is back in Melbourne from 8 to 10 April 2011! Bigger & better than ever before, this is a fabulous outing for parents-to-be and parents & their little ones. Featuring a shopping extravaganza (200 of the latest must-have brands), amazing children’s entertainment and fantastic “Show Only” offers.

I will be speaking each day on the Bio-Oil Stage at 3pm to answer all your questions on baby sign language. How to get started, what are the benefits, the 10 steps to signing success and much more. Amanda Crossland, our Whitehorse baby sign language teacher will also be there where she will be running a competition to win a FREE baby sign language class. You can come visit us on stand 185.

Don’t miss out on the Early Bird tickets. Buy your ticket now and receive 25% off the door price plus VIP entry!
It’s an event not to be missed! Find all the info at: www.babyandtoddlershow.com.au

Today is a very exciting day as Baby Hands Classes have gone national with our newest teacher, Yuki, teaching baby sign classes on the Sunshine Coast.

While we don’t have any classes in Canberra at the moment or in the Northern Territory I’m told that a company is “officially” deemed national in Australia once they cover NSW, QLD, SA, VIC and WA so for me that’s cause enough for celebration

We have a range of classes from beginner to advanced covering lots of signs.

In each of our 1 hour baby sign language classes you will:

• Learn a number of signs relating to a specific theme.
• Learn different ways to use these signs with your baby – using song, stories and activities.
• Meet other parents in your local area who are also interested in baby sign language and you will get to know them in our “social time” at the end of class.
• Introduce your baby to other babies in the local area.

If you are interested in taking one of our classes please contact any of the teachers through the links below.

New South Wales Class Locations:

• Sydney Inner West
• Northern Beaches

South Australia Class Locations:

• Marion

Victoria  Class Locations:

• Whitehorse – Melbourne

Western Australia  Class Locations:

• Albany – WA

Queensland  Class Locations:

• Sunshine Coast South

Our newest baby sign teacher Avonna was recently asked to do a piece for Today Tonight in Adelaide.

I think Avonna did a wonderful job as she didn’t look at all nervous despite the fact that they were filming one of her very first classes, so well done Avonna.

You can check out the short clip below where parents are interviewed about their experience with baby sign as well as featuring some signing babies at various Baby Hands Classes.

If you would like to know more about Baby Hands Classes or contact any of our Baby Sign Teachers to find out more information about classes in your area you can contact them directly through the information on their page.

Come and visit with other baby signers in your area and get to meet our Northern Beaches Baby Sign Teacher Lena Lowe and myself as we celebrate Lena’s one year anniversary.

If you have already been to one of Lena’s baby sign classes you’ll know what great fun they are and if your just curious what they are all about then this is a great opportunity to come along and talk to Lena and myself about any questions that you have about baby sign.

For the seasoned baby signers among you it will be a great chance for you to catch up with classmates and to meet other parents who are on the baby signing journey too.

There will be morning tea for you as well as fun activities and games for your children and of course a Teddy Bears picnic wouldn’t be complete without a Teddy Bear so Sammy will be there too.

When and where:
Sunday 21st March between 10am and 12pm
32a Oxford Falls Rd, Beacon Hill
(Look for the balloons on the gate)

Click the invitation on the top left or here for a larger printable version for further details or please contact Lena directly to RSVP by Friday the 19th so that Lena can arrange catering numbers.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Happy Signing

Jackie

With less than a week to go, it will soon be December and the count down to your baby’s first/second/third… Christmas is fast approaching.

I love sharing the joy of Christmas with others.  I’m always one of the first to put up my Christmas tree each year and I start the Christmas carols from early December to help get us in the Christmas mood.

So for this reason, I thought I would share my love of Christmas with you all through our NEW Christmas themed baby sign language class.  This one off class where you combine the FUN of Christmas and the benefits of play with baby sign language is available from all our teachers now.

In or new Baby Hands Christmas class you will:

• sign and sing your favourite Christmas carols
• learn signs for your favourite Christmas things
• get a sheet of Christmas signs for you to take home and practice
• meet other baby signers  in your local area
• share in the Christmas spirit

Also, with our special offer if you can get 5 or more of your friends together to attend a Baby Hands Christmas class, as the organiser you will get the Christmas class for FREE!

All you have to do is arrange a class with one of our teachers and bring 5 people from your mothers group, playgroup or other friends and you will get the class for free. Talk to one of our teachers to make the arrangements and they can even come to you if it is within a reasonable distance.

If you are a childcare centre, our teachers can come to you and spread the Christmas joy to your staff and children.  The class will introduce staff to a range of Christmas carols which they can continue to share with the children in the run up to Christmas as well as lots of FUN Christmas activities.

Classes are booking up fast so contact your nearest teacher today.

Apologies to those who are to far outside the current areas that our teachers are in to travel to a class.  We will be starting classes in new areas in other States in the New Year.

If you are interested in becoming a Baby Hands Teacher then please contact us and let us know why you would like to become a Baby Hands Teacher and we will get back to you shortly.

Im really happy today to announce the launch of our latest classes in Sydneys Inner West.

Catherine, our latest Baby Hands teacher, has started her classes covering Sydney’s Inner West area with a fixed venue at the historic Woodstock Community Centre in Burwood.

As well as regular classes in Burwood Catherine is available for private lessons for Mothers Groups, Play Groups and Childcare Centres in the area.

Catherine has been signing with her own son since he was 3 months old using Australian Baby Hands, by 5 months he understood several signs and now at 13 months he has a wide range of signs that he uses everyday.  The benefit that signing brings to the communication level that Catherine now enjoys with her son inspired Catherine to want to teach others how amazing using baby sign can be.

We are lucky to have her on board and if you would like to join Catherine at one of her classes please contact her through the details here.

If you are interested in a class that is in another area please check our Baby Sign Classes locations page.

Happy Signing

Jackie

Last week we were featured on New Idea TV with a short segment on our baby sign classes.

Thanks so much to the parents who took part and of course your wonderful children.

Lena our Northern Beaches teacher did a great job and looks like a complete natural on the telly, a far cry from me and the nerves I felt when I did my first interview on Kerry-Anne several years ago.

As Lena points out the benefits from using baby sign are to help reduce frustration and tantrums for your little one while they are pre-verbal.  Lena also addresses the common misconception that using sign language with children will delay the speech process, when in fact the opposite has been found to be true, with signing children generally talking earlier and having a wider vocabulary range.

If you missed the segment of the show then you can view it below and hear what other parents have had to say about using baby hands and see children using sign in action during the class.

We would love to hear your feedback either on the program or from your experience of using baby sign so please feel free to leave a comment below.

If you would like to contact Lena or any of or other teachers about classes in your area please contact them via the contact us forms on their page.

If you would just like to get started in your own home then we have a range of baby sign products in our online shopping cart that are all easy to follow and can be implemented into your daily routines very easily.

Happy Signing

Jackie