Baby Talk New Zealand

The birds have come alive, now that spring is here, with wonderful happy songs. The other day, my youngest son and I, were walking to school and in the bottlebrush tree we passed was a tui singing a very bright and cheery song! And it was less than two metres away as we walked under it. With the birds all out and about, it's a good time to introduce the sign for 'Bird'. And here are some more fun activities that you can do at home to give you more opportunities to talk about birds - https://www.pinterest.nz/babytalknewzealand/bird/ - and most of these have other developmental benefits too like helping with fine motor skills 😊. And look out for books that have birds in them like 'Are you my mother?' and 'My nest is best'. Then there are the Pigeon books like 'The pigeon needs a bath' and one of the activities relates to this - this book is available from both Whitcoulls and Paper Plus.

Bird Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.

Spring is a wonderful time of the year with lots of colour and activity - and maybe just a spot or two of rain 😆. There are so many signs that you can be introducing at the moment - last weeks suggestion was the sign for 'butterfly'. This week, why don't you focus on 'flower'? On our Pinterest page, there is a new board dedicated to flowers. There are all sorts of options ranging from activities for older babies/younger toddlers through to preschoolers. So, whether you are a parent or a Childcare Centre, pop over and check out some ideas we have found for you to have fun while learning a new sign....

Flowers Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.

Spring has sprung, the birds are out and we are starting to see butterflies flying around! This week's board of fun activities relate to those gorgeous butterflies that capture the interest and imagination of our little ones.

Check out https://nz.pinterest.com/babytalknewzealand/butterfly/ for some ideas

If you are in Auckland, go for a visit to Butterfly Creek or if you are near Thames then go visit the Butterfly and Orchid Garden. Otherwise, head to the garden as the days warm up and see what you can find!

Butterfly Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.

Here's another Pinterest Board with fun ideas for anything to do with Cars, Trucks, Diggers etc - lots of mess, lots of fun! (Yes I'm the mother of boys 🤣)

Cars, Trucks & Diggers Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.

It's can be challenging coming up with fun activities to do with your baby or toddler that relate to a particular sign you may be focusing on or teaching. We've set up a Pinterest page to post some ideas for you. To start with, the focus is on fun signs and our first is 'Worm' - go and check out https://nz.pinterest.com/babytalknewzealand/worms/ 😆

Hope you have fun!

Worms Worms - Ideas for Parent and Educators to use to make learning a sign fun as well as provide opportunities to use the sign in conversation with your child

One of the recommendations for teaching signs is to look for fun ways to reinforce the signs. At our workshop we look at things like books, games, songs etc to make the teaching fun. One sign that people find challenging when searching for fun ideas is 'worm'. Here's a fun activity with slightly older kids - and it certainly doesn't need to be a Halloween activity!

Halloween Themed Recipes | New World Supermarket As creepy and spooky as this pile of worms looks, they are wibbly-wobbly fun that the kids will love. Serve them in an empty tin can with some crumbled up chocolate muffin for that ‘straight out of the garden’ effect.

Just read an interesting article with an age by age guide for what to expect from our kids. For the 1-2 year olds it states this....

- Towards the end of this stage, they may become more defiant as they start to experiment with their independence. May tantrum because they become frustrated by their lack of words and their lack of ability to communicate.

- Tantrums will also be driven by their experience of big emotions (frustration, anger, sadness, shame) that they don’t have the words for.

Having used baby sign language with all three of my boys, this an age and stage where it proved so useful. Tantrums do decrease because your child has the ability to communicate. And emotions have their own signs too that can help your child to express how they are feeling and so reduce the tantrums from that.

If you want to read the article - and prepare yourselves for the years ahead ;) - then you will find it here - http://www.heysigmund.com/developmental-stage/

Phew! It's Normal. An Age by Age Guide for What to Expect From Kids & Teens - And What They Need... Being a kid or a teen is not for lightweights - it's tough out there! Here's an age by age guide to what is normal behaviour for children from birth to teen

On most occasions when I am talking to a group of parents, I will have someone who wants to know about teaching children two languages and the impacts that it will have on their communication and speech development. This article is a very good one to read - particularly Myth 4 and Myth 8. And even if you are not planning on teaching your children two spoken languages, some of these comments also apply to the use of sign language - as sign language is a language also.

Nine Bilingual Myths That Are Crippling Your Kids Fortunately, some of the most common concerns about bilingual education are outdated or just plain wrong — errors of old educational beliefs and incomplete data from years gone by. A lot of very popular notions about bilingualism are simply untrue.

This is so cool!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11557554

The Santa video that will melt your heart - Life & Style - NZ Herald News Getting your picture taken with Santa and telling him what you want for Christmas is considered a right of passage for most children. - New Zealand Herald

Hey Wellington friends - get in quick if you want to book for the course on Thursday night in the Porirua area - http://manapc.org.nz/parent-education-enrolment-form

Parent Education Enrolment Form | Mana Parents Centre PO Box 50367 Porirua Wellington (04) 237 [email protected] Education Team Parent Education [email protected] Hancox Childbirth education class [email protected]