This week has been one of those weeks where life has just felt so busy! And I have to admit that I didn’t dedicate as much time to my ASL

major learning project as I had hoped. Even though I seem to keep losing my streak on the ASL Pocket Sign App, I’m still happy to say that I am currently at Level 32 and am continuing to practice when I can. The focus of my lesson these past couple of days was on food signs, which has been a fun and practical topic to learn (many of which I hope and plan to use in my final project)! It has been neat learning words that I can use at home with our daughter, Blakely, especially during our meal times. The app has been nice as it teaches me new signs for everyday words, while also showing me a relevant associated picture, and then is similar to a gradual release of responsibility by then giving me three options of words to choose from earlier, then eventually fill in the blank phrases of words and signs that I should already know from earlier lessons (see example to the right). And on a side note- I am very impressed with how much I have been using the signs that I have been learning throughout these past few weeks to sign on a daily basis to Blakely (progress is slowly, but surely being made)!

Additionally, I have also continued to use babysignlanguage.com, one of which has definitely been one my favorite learning tools lately! I still just really love how you can click on any word and see not just how to sign it, but also a short explanation, a demonstration video, and even useful and free downloadable flashcards. I have been using and saving several flashcards from this website to use for my Canva slideshow project that I am turning into a video for Blakely. I feel as though the flashcards make an awesome visual addition to many of the slides and will help with connecting the signs to their meanings.

Our now 9-month old daughter is a very happy and active girl, but whenever she does get upset for whatever reason, she LOVES Ms. Rachel so we will show her one of her videos if we ever need that saving grace. But my wife and I do not mind as we at least like that she used to be a teacher before she got so famous and her videos are quite educational and do teach babies and toddlers important skills and concepts. That being said, Ms. Rachel often used baby sign language in many of her videos and the other day my wife and I played the following video for Blakely. It was a win as she was happy because she got her Ms. Rachel and I got to reinforce and do these basic baby signs for Blakely which was perfect as I am contributing to and learning more signs for my major learning project.

Honestly, I am quite disappointed with how short this blog post of mine is this week and my overall productivity with my major learning project, however this has also been fuel for me to continue learning and to do more for this project come next week’s update! And besides, I am aware that some weeks are full of so much progress, while others are slower. My goal for next week is to check out some new and refreshing videos, apps, websites and other platforms, as well as to add a few more slides for my ASL Canva final project.

Slow progress is still progress, and I am still proud of the learning that is happening, one sign at a time!