Your votes are in! Here are the official top 10 Signing Time gifts for 2011:

1. Baby Signing Time Full Collection
2. All of the Signing Time Products!
3. Baby Signing Time, Vol. 1
   
4. Potty Time
5. Series 1, Vol. 7: Leah’s Farm
6. Series 1 Full Collection
7. Signing Time Board Books
8. Series 2, Vol. 2: Happy Birthday to You
9. Classroom Edition
10. Flash Cards

I love giving Baby Signing Time as a baby gift. It introduces them to the whole line of great products! – Chana Posen

I love to give Signing Time to moms in public!! When people see my daughter sign and are amazed, I tell them all about Signing Time as if I were a door to door salesman!! We keep some Signing Time DVDs in the car for long trips and I have left them as tips at restaurants, and given them away at grocery stores!! My most recent gifting was to a woman that I met at the grocery store. Both she and her husband are deaf, but have a son who hears. She had never heard of Signing Time, and she is having trouble getting her son to sign. I gave her all of our Baby Signing Time DVDs (My daughter has outgrown them.) And he is beginning to sign! It brings tears to my eyes when I hear of a child learning to sign, It’s like an angel who has gotten their wings!!! – Katie Ralston-Litmer

Leah’s Farm is the hit in our house! The music, along with the signs are just perfect for our little one. She loves Rachel! Our daughter really thinks she will meet her and loves to call her on the Potty Time app. If you don’t have Potty Time, it’s awesome! I suggest a bundle of Everyday Signs, Leah’s Farm and Potty Time. – Jennifer Pedersen

I would love to give Baby Signing Time to everyone! I’m a mom to a child with unilateral hearing loss and speech delay and Baby Signing Time and Signing Time (and now Potty Time!) have made a huge difference in my daughter’s ability to communicate, both in ASL and expressive speech. I think it would be awesome if states sent every new baby a copy of Baby Signing Time, whether they are born in a hospital, birthing center, or at home. Baby carriers and Baby Signing Time are my favorite gifts to give new parents! – Jennifer Pummell Hamner

Learning ASL through watching Signing Time Series One with my daughter has helped me to communicate better with her and her cousins. They are all toddlers. It is much easier to understand their speech when they sign while talking. The videos in Series One have also really helped increase my daughter and nephew’s vocabulary. – Julia Pitt

There is no one product that is best, just the noise I heard from my autistic son at age 5 when he said his first words when watching Signing Time. – John-Erica Belcher

I would love to give the Signing Time Classroom Edition to Primrose Elementary School in Shelburne, Ont. The kindergarten teacher is learning and teaching both her classes signs so they can communicate with their deaf classmate. – Marla Kozak

With the holidays quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to let you know which products the Two Little Hands staff likes to give as gifts and why.

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Sing & Sign

Rachel de Azevedo Coleman, Co-owner, Writer, Producer & Star When I scripted Sing & Sign I was able to give our customers a number of things they had been asking for. People often said they would like to see me sign the entire song, without the camera cutting away. I like to think that’s because I am so engaging;) but realistically I think it’s because they wanted to see everything that I was signing. I also got asked if I would ever teach ASL grammar, and the answer is yes! In Sing & Sign there is a play option where I take you step by step through each sign in the song and I tell you what I am signing and why I am signing it that way. You will learn a lot about American Sign Language and it’s structure and nuances. I give this video to everyone who loves the songs in Signing Time and everyone who asks for “more-more-more ASL!”

Kim Laing, Wholesale Account Manager

Sing and Sign is my favorite Two Little Hands product because I love the way my girls love to dance around and sign the songs. I give it to anyone who loves to sing, sign, and dance with their kids.

 

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Baby Signing Time Full Collection

Emilie de Azevedo Brown, Co-owner, Writer & Producer These are my favorite videos because my baby is watching them now and signing like crazy. If she is fussy, I can count on her cheering up when I put one on. My son Alex (one of the characters in Signing Time Series 1 and 2) says they are “magical.” When he babysits his sister and watches the videos with her, she is so engaged and happy. She is 12 months old and her favorite signs are: baby, more, milk, all done, dad, please, water, eat, cracker, all done, fish, sleep, book, and ball.

Erin Axson, Wholesale Account Manger The Baby Signing Time series is the one that we used first with my sweet baby boy when he was 4 months old. Watching him understand and sign along with the DVDs was magic. It is the best baby shower gift ever. Not only does baby get a wonderfully entertaining series, the whole family gets to learn along and understand what their baby has to say!

Katrina Dye, Administrative/Accounting Assistant I love Baby Signing Time because it’s fun and upbeat for infants/toddlers and keeps their attention. It’s fun to watch these DVDs with babies and watch how excited they get when you can understand what they want. I’ve also learned a lot from these DVDs and have fun with the songs I love giving these DVDs as baby shower gifts. I recently gave them to my sister in-law who will be having my little niece in February so it will be exciting to watch as she learns ASL.

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Vol. 6 DVD: My Favorite Things

Mike Lyman, VP of Business Development My favorite video is the My Favorite Things DVD. I love that volume because for years my daughter, Madalynn, would sing and sign the colors of the rainbow song to me before going to bed. She loved that song and performed it at her school in kindergarten. Additionally, my wife taught that song to my daughter’s 1st grade class and we had a blast with it! That song and video will always be special for me! I would give this video to any child going into preschool or kindergarten because it talks about all their favorite things and colors. Perfect for kids venturing out into school for the first time!

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Preschool and Childcare Program

Gwen Cox, Signing Time Academy Director My favorite product to give as a gift is the Preschool and Childcare Program because it meets the needs of Childcare Centers, Preschools, and Homeschools everywhere in an easy to follow method of teaching. If I had the time, I would show it to every location in the world that caters to the educational needs of children. It is a gift that is affordable and the benefits of using it are long term. (Can you tell I love it?)

 

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Signing Time Vol. 4-6 Gift Set

Rose Turnbow, Office Manger I love all three DVDs and the music in this set. Vol. 4 Family, Feelings & Fun teaches about the family and helps children express their feelings. Vol. 5 ABC Signs is TOTAL fun. Rachel signs at an amazing speed – take the challenge to keep up with her. Not only do you learn the entire alphabet, but also the signs for how to count to 10, AND for each letter, you learn two additional signs that go along with the letter. However, I do have to say my favorite of all three is Vol. 6 My Favorite Things. The Rainbow Song is the best! In this DVD you learn colors, food, and movement – so practical for signing everyday. I love to give them to my grandchildren. What fun we have watching Signing Time, practicing together, and communicating before words can be said. We enjoy playing the CDs in the car and singing and signing along.

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Story Time

LeeAnn Mason, Administrative Assistant My personal favorite product to use for a gift is Story Time, I enjoy the original stories as well as the word going across the screen so the child can read along with Rachel. This is the perfect gift for teachers, family members, and friends.

The Lyman family with Rachel

Signing Time Staff Spotlight

Meet Mike Lyman, the Vice President of Business Development for Two Little Hands Productions.

Mike’s background is in teaching, training and marketing, and he is the driving force behind product development, marketing, and business development for  Signing Time. He recently returned from Sydney, Australia, where he spoke at the Online Retailer and Expo Conference.

Mike is married to his sweetheart, Carrie, and together they have five children – all girls.

In the summertime, Mike commutes to the office on a motorcycle. One morning before work, he found that his tires had been colored a bright shade of sidewalk-chalk pink!

Mike and Carrie’s youngest daughter is learning to sign! See a video of Quincee showing off her latest signs.

Rachel Coleman, Brown Bear, How I Love Thee VIP Story Time in Burbank, CA - March 26th

Click here to see Rachel’s complete Photo Album. Or click on the individual photo to see the complete photo album for that event. Continue Reading »

This guest blog post is from LeeAnn. She’s the one who creates those cute Signing Time “Hand-y Crafts” every month. She sends out the Sign of the Week email and Signing Time newsletter, and she answers the questions parents ask us on our Facebook page. This is a question she gets a lot, so we asked her to share her answer here.

Many parents wonder what to do after their child has learned all the signs in the Baby Signing Time series. For me, that answer is easy.

With my oldest daughter, we started with Signing Time Volumes 1-3 because that is all that was available! We waited for each new volume and introduced them to her as quickly as they were released. Volumes 4-6 were released shortly after my second daughter was born. Then in 2005, I was lucky enough to start working for Two Little Hands Productions. I ran a signing playgroup that got invited to be part of the filming of Volumes 7-9, so those quickly became my daughters’ favorites because they knew the kids in the DVDs!

A few years later, we were blessed with a son. With him, we started with Baby Signing Time. However, we also show him Signing Time, Practice Time and Story Time videos. He is 2 1/2 now and asks for the DVDs by name. His current favorites are Baby Signing Time Vol. 4: Let’s Be Friends, Signing Time Vol. 9: Zoo Train,  and Signing Time Vol. 5: ABC Signs. It is so fun to watch him sign his ABCs. Last week he was signing them in his sleep, but by the time I got the video camera out and set up, he was awake.

So when parents ask me what DVD to buy after Baby Signing Time, my answer is “any of them!” My family started out using the series sequentially, but we’ve experienced just as much fun using all of the  Baby Signing Time, Signing Time, Practice Time and Story Time videos at once, in no particular order.

So now that you know what my experience is, let me share with you what others do. Many parents move from Baby Signing Time right into the Signing Time Volumes 1-3, which have most of the same signs that are featured in the Baby Signing Time series, but are an excellent sign review. Some parents skip those videos and jump in at Vol. 4: Family, Feelings and Fun. No matter where you start, you’ll enjoy Series 1, which ends with Vol. 13: Welcome to School. From there you can introduce Sing & Sign, Practice Time, Story Time and Signing Time Series Two.

There is no wrong way to keep teaching your children ASL vocabulary. The most important part is sharing that time with your child and learning new ways to communicate.

Watch the clip of Sam signing along as he watches Volume 9 Zoo Train.

Say hello to LeeAnn at the Signing Time Facebook page!