When faced with the inordinate amount of DVDs to choose from for your
kids to watch, it can be a pretty daunting selection. Here is where
Signing Time comes into play.

This is an educational DVD series that is actually pretty fun. I tested Volume 6, “My Favorite
Things”. This volume teaches hand sign language to kids for simple words: colors,
fruits and vegetables, and activities. (Red, Yellow, Blue, Carrot, Corn
etc)

The intro song is pretty memorable and catchy – I actually liked it and it wasn’t haunting me later the way Bob the Builder can pop into your head (in fairness Bob has had a few years to get into my head – I watched this only once)

The host is entertaining and has good presence. She kept both my 2-year-old daughter and my 8-month-old daughter captivated. My 8 month old will watch the cat run through the room and anything else that moves so she is a bit young as a test subject (the DVD is for ages 1-8) but my 2 year old seemed to like it. She sat through most of the 30 minutes, which is impressive.

I don’t think she really understood the hands correlated to the word you were saying. She has a pretty good vocabulary (500+ words) and knew all of the word choices as they are pretty basic, but the signs can be tricky. Ask a 2 year old to hold up her fingers to show her age and you are likely to get all five. I worked with her a bit to show the signs and teach her – some are easier than others.

I think the thing to take away here is that this DVD is educational and captivated her for almost a full 30 minutes. Where I think this is great is if you are trying to get dinner ready and having pangs of guilt popping in a Wiggles DVD while you chop carrots – this is actually teaching while it entertains. So guilt be gone. That said my guilt level is not that high so I might just be chopping carrots to a Wiggles groove. Variety is the spice of life. I would buy it and mix it in with the Wiggles and Elmo.

You can buy Signing Time! DVDs and CDs through Sophia's Tiny Hands. They retail starting at $14.99 and up.