My friend, Lisa, is a mom who is benefiting from Signing Time and she has generously sponsored this giveaway of a Signing Time DVD to one of my lucky readers. I want to share with you Lisa’s experience by asking her some questions:

When did you start signing and what inspired you to start?
I came across the TV show Signing Time one morning while feeding my newborn daughter. Before becoming a stay-at-home mom, my job was teaching students with special needs, some of whom I used some basic sign language with. I knew I would like to try to teach my own child(ren) some signs because of the benefits even with normal hearing children. The main benefit I was hoping for was for my daughter to be able to communicate with me through signs if she wasn’t able to tell me what she needed. I didn’t want her to be frustrated and I thought this would help minimize tantrums—what mom doesn’t want that! I did some signing with my daughter before she turned one, but stopped for awhile when it seemed like she wasn’t catching on to it. We watched Signing Time together when she was around 14 months and she was extremely interested in it. We have been watching and signing ever since!

What benefits have you seen?
We have been signing with my daughter for a little over a year now.In that time I would estimate that my daughter has learned between 125-150 signs.My daughter’s spoken vocabulary continues to expand daily.I am amazed at some of the things she says!I also never imagined that my 2 ½ year old would be able to identify and sign all colors, all uppercase and lowercase letters, spell aloud and fingerspell her name and say the days of the week and months of the year in order.Additionally, she has learned many concepts through Signing Time songs that she sings throughout the day about getting dressed, washing hands, and setting the table.I could go on and on about the benefits I have seen because of my daughter watching Signing Time!

Any surprises or unexpected results?
The funniest Signing Time related experience happened after my daughter had been watching the Leah’s Farm episode a few times. My family was out eating at a buffet and my husband was serving his plate while my daughter and I were at the table. I was eating when my daughter very loudly and clearly said and signed “goat.” I started looking around having no idea why my daughter could be saying and signing “goat.” I then realized she was referring to a man she saw walking in the restaurant with a beard. It gave us a good laugh and fortunately the man did not hear her.

Your daughter is one of the children featured in an upcoming Baby Signing Time DVD. Tell us about your filming experience and why you made the trip while very pregnant with your second child.
In March I found out that Signing Time was accepting audition clips for children to participate in new episodes of Baby Signing Time.The filming was scheduled for May in Utah (we live in Texas) and I was due to have our second child in June.We decided to go ahead and send in an audition clip of my daughter anyway just for fun, thinking there would probably be a small chance she would be selected.In April we got the email:“Congratulations!Your child has been chosen to participate in new volumes of the Baby Signing Time series.”I have to say that this was a really exciting thing for my family and I think I was the most excited of all!At the same time, I knew it was possible we might not be able to make the trip because of the baby coming.We bought plane tickets one week before we were supposed to leave.I had a doctor appointment the day before we left to get permission to go, or find out if we couldn’t go.We made the trip!

The first day of filming was in a studio.Everyone there was great with our daughter!She filmed for about an hour in front of a green screen doing some signs they sent us before we left.The second day filming was outside at a local park.My husband and I even got to participate in some of the filming while pushing our daughter in a stroller.After filming the second day we did an interview for a local news station.The last day we were in Utah we had a fun get-together at the park with all the children who were taking part in the filming along with Rachel, Leah, Alex, and Hopkins, the stars of Signing Time. After lunch we were off to the airport to fly back home.

It was important to me to make the trip to film for Signing Time in Utah as a mom because my daughter has gotten so much out of this show.It makes me happy to hear her sing the songs from the show and watch her dance around the living room while doing some signs as well.She is constantly talking about Alex, Leah, Rachel, and Hopkins with so much excitement in her voice!It was also important for me to make the trip as a special education teacher because I know what a difference this show can make and has already made in the lives of children who have difficulties communicating.I don’t know what it is like for parents who struggle each day trying to find some way to communicate with their child.I do know that Signing Time has given some of these parents the miracle that they were hoping for.I only wish I would have known about the show sooner so I could have used it in my classroom when I was teaching and shared it with the families of the students I was working with.

How do you find out when the Signing Time show is broadcast on your local television station?
Unfortunately as I was preparing this post, I got some sad news.As of October 1, 2008, Signing Time will n
o longer be broadcast on public television.So, here are some other resources if you have not seen Signing Time before.

The official Signing Time website
You can order products, view some of the music videos from the episodes, print out coloring pages, or play games, plus much more!

The public library
Before we purchased any Signing Time DVD’s we checked them out from our public library.We were also able to check out Signing Time music CD’s too.

Other online resources
Type “Signing Time” in the search box to find music videos and clips from the show on these free websites:
Sign Language Tube
Totlol (this resources was featured on Freebies 4 Mom before here)
YouTube

Why are you offering a giveaway on Freebies 4 Mom?
I just want to spread the word about Signing Time to moms who may not have heard of it before. I also want to encourage moms who may have heard of it, but not looked into it further, to give it a try. It is something that has helped my daughter with her communication skills tremendously and I have heard wonderful stories of how it has helped families with children with special needs. I want all of the Freebies 4 Mom readers to know what an entertaining and educational children’s program Signing Time is, so they will tell other moms about it too.

Thank you for sharing and offering this fabulous giveaway, Lisa!

Lisa is giving away the Signing Time DVD called “Box of Crayons” to one lucky reader. Here’s the description of this 45 minute program created for ages 1 to 8 from the back of the DVD case:

“Play, sing and sign along with Signing Time while learning American Sign Language! . . . Alex, Leah, their frog Hopkins, and Signing Time’s Rachel Coleman return for a second series of charming animation, delightful songs and children signing that make any time Singing Time! In Box of Crayons you’ll learn signs for lots of colors. Rachel likes pink. Alex and Leah’s favorites are orange and purple. Of course, Hopkins loves green!”

Want to enter this giveaway for a chance to win? The email addresses that I collect for this giveaway will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner. This giveaway will close on Thursday, October 2 at midnight (CST). I’ll announce the first name of the winner in a new post the next morning and contact the winner by email. I will draw the name of one winner by using the random number generator at Random.org. If the winner does not contact me within 48 hours by email, I will draw a new winner. Please only enter this giveaway once per household. This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States who are 18 years of age or older. The winner will receive the Signing Time DVD Box of Crayons by mail.

You must complete this form to enter this giveaway. Required questions have been marked. If you can’t see this entry form, please go directly to Freebies 4 Mom. Scroll down until you see this post.
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Good luck and remember that you need to use the form to enter this giveaway. You are welcome to post comments on this post, but any comments will not be considered as entries in this giveaway. Thanks for entering and come back Friday, October 3to find out who won!

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