Unanticipated Benefits of Learning the Greek Alphabet

. . . It helps with teaching English literacy. Which is quite natural since so much of our English vocabulary comes from Greek roots.

I often find myself explaining to Katherine that "in this word, the 'a' sounds like an alpha." Just now, she sounded out the word "Christmas" wherein "the 'ch' sounds like the Greek letter chi."

ASL for Babies: What Would I Do Without It?

At one-year old and counting, my son can communicate so much more to me with signs than he can with verbal cues. Put the two—signs and sounds—together in context, and he and I can communicate smoothly almost all the time. Helps reduce frustration on both ends and heads of tantrums. Love it!

Here's a great kit for starting sign with your babies: SIGN with your BABY - Baby Sign Language (ASL) Kit: Includes Book, How-to DVD, Quick Reference Guide.

It includes an instructional DVD for parents, a book with sign dictionary, and a laminated quick-reference sign sheet (which is handy to share with sitters).

I also highly, highly recommend the Signing Time DVD series for toddlers and preschoolers. My kids love it! (My husband and I don't mind them either, although we think Rachel, the hostess/teacher, becomes more confidant and polished as the series goes on.)











There are two seasons with multiple volumes per each. There is a third series, Baby Signing Time, but I don't like showing babies a lot of DVDs and I like the toddler/preschool ones better. Here's season 1, volume 1 as well as a couple package options to get you started.

Start the Greek EARLY

It's never too early to start learning the Greek alphabet.

Here's a handsome board book we use in our house starting with newborns and on up: Little Bitty Baby Learns Greek.

You can also start them on Hebrew with the parallel book in the set: Little Bitty Baby Learns Hebrew.