Class Review--My Smart Hands Baby Sign Language Level 1

Baby Class Review

Class Name: My Smart Hands Sign Language, level 1

Date Attended: Fall 2009

Location of Class: Becoming Centre

Guest Blogger Name: Roe


Place an X beside the one that best describes your feelings

The course:
Met my Expectations X
Exceeded my Expectations
Did not meet my Expectations

The course:
Was good value for my money X
Was not good value for my money

The times/locations of the course were:
Convenient X
Inconvenient

The course offered:
Excellent course materials X
No course materials
Adequate course materials
N/A for this type of course

The Instructor was:
Exceptional
Good X
Fair
Terrible

Would you recommend this course:
Yes X
No

Comments

The first couple of sessions I found a little rough (I know… I have a degree but apparently Baby Sign Language was rough—don’t get me started) because I was tired and unable to learn the alphabet. The classroom with the babies is not a conducive environment to learn the alphabet—my baby sometimes needed to nurse or was fussy and so it is hard to focus for longer that a couple of minutes. But the alphabet eventually came to me and things got a lot better. I would like to emphasize however that I picked up pretty quickly on the actual signs and found the course excellent for learning the signs that were relevant to our every day activities. Obviously, these are the more important signs for a baby anyway—they are not going to spell their name just yet. So the one negative was this early emphasis on spelling.

I found the last 3 classes to be the most fun (maybe because we knew more signs). We sang more songs and did some signs to nursery rhymes. These are the things you can really take home.

Course materials were excellent—a book with the weekly lessons and a CD with songs. On the last day the babies received a certificate and a class picture was taken (nice touch). (I find that certificates and class pictures really add to the experience and make me think favourably on the class.)

I think baby sign language is fascinating and going to a class definitely gave me a good base to build on. I would like to take level 2.

There are many instructors and locations across Toronto for My Smart Hands. Their website also has interesting stuff--including a dictionary.

www.mysmarthands.com