Freebies from the Crib: Sign Babies

When Nancy Cadjan’s first son was born, the doctor who delivered him took one look at the little guy and said, “This baby has an attitude.” She was right. Her son had something to say and was so frustrated because he could not communicate with his mom. Nancy had been studying baby signing for many years and decided to sign with her son from that first day.

During her experience of signing with her son, Nancy realized that there were no books or printed materials designed for signing with babies. She created her own “book” in a photo album by gathering pictures of the things she and her son were signing. A friend at work saw the “book” and said, “If there is not one of those out there, you have a product and I am your first customer!”

Nancy took on the challenge and created the Sign Babies ASL Flash Cards, the first ASL-based baby signing flash cards designed for the youngest signers. Unlike every other product out on the market, Sign Babies does not require a child to read to use the cards (that seems like a big DUH, but really this was the first time). The cards are illustrated with a child-friendly drawing of the item or person that the sign refers to. The back has an easy-to-understand illustration and hint to teach the parents how to make the sign. Other ASL books use a cryptic language to describe signs (open and close the dominant O-hand) instead of saying something like “squeeze your hand like you are milking a cow.”

I love Nancy’s rule for everything she does in her business -- Everything has to be understood at 3 am. It's become her rule because most moms are up at 3 am when they realize that they want to know something or need to remember a sign. So, everything has to pass the 3 am test.

Her new book, Baby Signing 1, 2, 3 is an example of that. She divides baby signing into ages and stages so moms just need to learn the signs that are relevant at a specific age. And she literally wrote the book at 3 am after feeding her daughter (plus she negotiated the contract in the hospital after giving birth—a typical momtrepreneur thing to do).

I can't imagine doing anything that productive right after having a baby (besides taking care of the new baby of course and maybe throwing some food at the other children), but Nancy credits inspiration with the book’s great success (#1 among all ASL-based baby signing books). She says she never could have written it without prayer and inspiration since she was still recovering from her baby.

Nancy also does a weekly radio show called Babies and Moms Radio for 1 million moms who tune in on the internet or take her with them on their iPods. Nancy and her 3 "mommy" co-hosts chat about all the things moms chat about and with 17 kids among them, they're full of mom wisdom to pass along plus product reviews and lots of freebies too. You can catch it live on Fridays at 9 am MT on Grapevine Talk Radio or you can listen to the podcasts here or download them from iTunes. I downloaded a few podcasts to check out while I clean the house tomorrow.

So now on to the freebie, Nancy at Sign Babies is offering the winner of November's freebie a 6 Pack of Sign Babies ASL Flash Cards (valued at over $66). The pack inlcudes 150 signs covering everything from food to family to fun.

Jen did a great report on the study Effects of Sign Language on Hearing Children's Language Development a while back here on Tales and I know we have had repeated comments about teaching sign language to children on many other posts, so I don't think I have to sell you on how cool signing with your kids is. I caught a glimpse of the ASL magic with Pumpkin after we taught her just 3 words. I can't wait to explore it more with the next baby. And I can only imagine how helpful these flashcards would be in helping parent and child learn to communicate better. So make your comment now!!!!

How to win this Freebie:
-You have until Friday (11/9) midnight EST to enter.
-Make a comment (any comment) on the post
-Please don't post under Anonymous - use a Blogger login or the "other" category.
-Winner will be randomly picked and announced Saturday (11/10) morning.
-Please only enter (comment) once.
-Tales contributors are excluded from winning the freebies--sorry :(
-Freebies can only be shipped to US addresses.

What's with the Freebie?

If you are a momtrepreneur with a freebie to offer, let us know at:
talesfromthecrib (at) gmail (dot) com