We can now be found at Talking Fingers.  This new site is much easier for me to give you links, pictures, and categories for the articles. Go check it out and let me know what you think.

I am working on moving this blog to blogger.com. I will post the new address when the page is finished. I felt it would be easier to blog if all my blogs were kept together. Thank you for being patient with me as I make this transition.

Starting soon I will be writing teaching and learning tips at Isaiah's Place. Through these "Learning and Teaching Moments" I hope to share a little of what we do at home educating our deaf daughter, a teaching or learning tip, and a short review of educational material. Diane and I would love your feedback on what you find useful and what you would like to see on this page. 

I will begin posting articles and links here again. Sorry about the delay. Life has been crazy for us as we have moved many times over the past two years. We are settling in again and I am excited about getting back in the saddle again! We are expecting our 4th child this summer, so I am sure there will be another pause around July sometime. LOL

I am sooo sorry that I have not been updated this site. I do have many more reviews to add, but have not had the time to get them up. I could list a thousand excuses, but it won't do any good. I just wanted to send a note to say that I have not forgotten about Talking Fingers!

For general family catch-up information you can always find us at The Zoo I Call Home.

Also please feel free to download the above toolbar. It will give you quick links to deaf homeschooling sites and homesteading webpages. It also includes quick links directly to your email accounts (my favorite feature) and several games to play. Or listen to your favorite radio station while you work and search using the Google search bar. Lots of goodies included on one toolbar. I have even included a pop-up blocker.

Please feel free to email me with questions or if there is a specific curriculum you would like reviewed or if you would like to review a curriculum you found useful, let me know. The more information we can put out there, the better job we can do homeschooling our kids!

This past year I upgraded my cell phone and was left with my old phone. Not in good enough condition to sell, but not trash either. My husband and I decided to give it to Shelby, our deaf daughter. She is 8, almost 9, and we have been working on reading. We felt that the cell phone had two promising advantages. First, she would be able to communicate with family members that live far away.  She has a CI, but using the phone is still difficult for her and the recieving person. Now she can text message cell phones and email addresses. Second, this gave her exposure to words and motivation to read. It has been great!

I wanted to pass along this idea to others with struggling readers. We try not to use IM lingo when texting Shelby and help her formulate sentences. It is a great learning tool. It costs us about $20/month. It adds up, but well worth it! 

Doorposts

This collection of these easy to follow patterns is a wonderful addition to your deaf child’s spiritual upbringing. I really enjoy Doorpost’s illustrations and these projects are not an exception. Hands-on and visual projects are perfect for the deaf learner.

The Moses Doll kit includes directions and pattern to make a hand sized felt doll. This is a beginner level sewing project with pleasing results. Like all of Doorpost’s products, these are very economical and use easy to find materials.

The Jonah & the Big Fish kit is similar to the Moses kit but it has more pieces to assemble. This one would be very helpful for re-telling this favorite Bible story.

Another neat method of re-telling Bible stories are Doorpost’s Bible Paper Dolls. They come on sturdy card stock, ready to be colored and cut out for hours of fun. The set includes three paper dolls and outfits for Bible Characters such as Mary, Ruth, Rahab, Queen Esther, John the Baptist, Pharoah, King Solomon and more. Also includes the Armor of God! Very detailed drawings! Fabulous for recreating Bible stories.

My First Report "Focus on the World" - Hewitt Homeschooling Resources

The comes pre-punched for placement in a notebook. This makes it easy for the student to work on one report at a time, then place it in a notebook as finished. You could also add pages if the student did other projects for that country. This would make a nice "World Studies" notebook - for all you notebooking fans.

Each report follows the same outline, making it easy for the student to follow. Each report includes vacabulary words, questions to aid discussion, and world map with specific country marked. Some of the vocabulary words can be referenced to suggested companion book Window on the World. There are thirteen reports covering: The Middle East; Northeast Africa; Northwest Africa; Southern Africa; Europe and the Artic Circle; Canada and the USA; Central America; Mexico and Caribbean Islands; South America; Eastern Asia; Souteast Asia; and Australia and Oceania.

In the back of the packet there is an unit study and master copies included. The unit study has ideas covering Bible/character, history/geography/social studies, reading, language, math, science/health, physical education, music, resources, world missions, field trips and art. There are reproducable maps and handwriting pages to be used for every country. These would fit great in your notebook.

The only adjustment needed for the deaf student would be a few of the unit study activities.But they give so many choices, that this shouldn't be a problem. Just skip over the ones that requiring listening and move on to the next suggestion. The reading section just includes books and poems to be read. If your student can read, then they could do this alone. But better yet, sign these stories for your student. This would be equivelant to reading aloud. Some of the suggested reading may be hard to find at a library, but just find books about the country of study to read. Most of the language activities would be great word studies for your deaf student. It is vocabulary work and emphasizes spelling and definitions. Some of the activities can be skipped without missing out on anything.

These materials are deaf friendly and look like fun! The handwriting sheets are for 1st through 2nd grade, but if your older child needs help with writing reports, the book is not written in a babyish way. I would just leave out the handwriting pages.

Click on the banner ad at the top of this page for my personal toolbar. This is so cool! From this toolbar you can search google or my blog pages. You can stay updated on new posts on my blog pages. You can check you email and be notified when new mail arrives. This is a great way to stay in touch and it is very useful. I traded this toolbar with my google toolbar! Try it out. It is awesome!

I am trying out a new forum for discussing raising and educating our deaf children. I hope this will give us an opportunity to share information and teach each other. Check it out at http://talkingfingers.freeforums.org.

The Frances Study Guide

By Valerie Bendt

This charming book uses the Frances series written by Russell Hoban to encourage the love of reading in the beginning reader. The books used are Bedtime for Frances, A Baby Sister for Frances, Bread and Jam for Frances, A Birthday for Frances, Best Friends for Frances and A Bargain for Frances. Bendt provides an overview and discussion questions for each story along with beginning reading activities. There are puzzles, game suggestions, handwriting practice, and coloring sheets provided with variety between each story. There are many questions for each story to ensure comprehension of the story. This is a great tool for the deaf student, since sometimes a deaf child tends to fill in the missing information. The goal of this book is to enjoy reading a story together and encouraging a love for reading. If this love is acquired at a young age, then your child will always have knowledge at his fingertips. I found with my daughter that a love for reading wasn’t there because she didn’t understand what the words on the page meant. I remember the first story I signed to her – The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Once she realized that the words on the pages created a fascinating story she wanted more and more. The Frances Study Guide does just that through a series of stories that teach meaningful lessons. Now the stories will need to be signed and not read aloud, but this can easily be done. I would suggest using these books up to age 9-10 without offending your deaf learner. After that the stories and activities may seem babyish. The activities are really geared at a young learner. You know your child better than anyone else, so you decide what is appropriate and what is not. While using this book with my children I did what fit into my homeschool and didn’t feel guilty about skipping some projects. We used this as a supplement to our regular curriculum, but it could easily be a nice six week study for Pre-K through 1^st grader.

Reading Stories to your Deaf Child

I have three children, but only one of them is deaf. They all love to hear a good story, but reading one book to all three at the same time has its challenges. During the day I do read books to each one individually, but on occasion they all want the same story. We usually wait until daddy comes home. Then he can read the story while I sit next to him and sign. But it is such a bummer to have to wait for dad to come home.

I came up with a solution! All you need is a tape recorder and some blank tapes. During a quiet hour, record yourself reading the books on the tape leaving pauses between pages for picture viewing. Then use them during story time. Let the player read and you can sign the story. Of course if you are zealous and want to video tape the signing, that works too. I don’t have that option available and think that the kids would much more enjoy having a live signer.

So for those of you that find it easier to sign without reading, I hope this helps. Reading and signing at the same time is not a talent I have.

Storyboard

Lively Lessons

This product serves the purpose of building a story. It organizes the student’s thoughts and helps create order to a story. It is a large, colorful, engaging, dry-erase, fold-out board that breaks up what?, who?, where?, and how?. It contains 13 steps for brainstorming, including a place to draw pictures for each part of the story. On opposite side there is a sentence builder, paragraph planner, eleven word lists for the brainstorming section, and guidance notes.

This is great for the deaf learner because grammar/spelling is not an issue. This will help create the story without stressing over spelling and grammar. Once facts are established, move into correcting grammar and spelling. The pictures for the story are great too as the student can see their story on paper and then describe it in words. The word lists on the back of the board give the student a jumping board for describing their pictures. If creative writing is a struggle for your deaf student, then this tool may help make it a stress-free and fun experience.

Peter Parker Magnets sent me a selection of their magnet sets. First they sent me their blank magnets. The blank magnet offers the teacher to use as needed with a white side to write on. It comes with 25 blank pieces.

The second set was the sign language magnets. ASL letter was on the white front and the English letter was on the black magnet side. It came in a handy hole-punched pocket and with a guide sheet for learning the ASL alphabet.

The last set I received was the spelling magnetic kit. It also came in a hole-punched pocket for storage. The 144 pieces included vowels in red and consonants in blue. The kit came with instructions for six games ranging from very beginning reading simple blended words to playing with and building harder words. This kit could give your deaf student that extra practice playing with the English language, with the extra help of color-coded letters.

Then, to round out my magnetic experience, I received a magnetic sheet. This was a hole-punched, lap-sized magnetic sheet for using all the magnets. All could easily be stored in a binder and taken on road trips for easy practice in the back seat. This product would not be any different for the deaf than for the hearing, except that most deaf won’t need to learn the ASL alphabet. But if your young student is having a hard time connecting the signed letter to the written letter this would be fun and easy practice.

Natural Speller by Kathryn Stout

The author did such a good job describing her product that I thought I would start with that:

“Complete for teaching grades 1-8.

Including –

        Common words which are frequently misspelled

        Latin and Greek word parts and spelling words

        Word categories such as abbreviations, contractions, holidays,

homophones, measurements, and numbers.

Reference guide for grades 9-12.

Including –

        Spelling rules

        Writing rules

        Greek parts with meanings

        Latin Roots with meanings”

The first three pages include teaching tips and a guide how to study a word step by step. She includes a good list of sight words that progresses from 1^st grade through 8^th grade. Spelling and grammar skills are addressed at each grade level and the use of a dictionary is highly encouraged.

If you need direction on how to approach this subject with your deaf student, this is simple to follow, adaptable, and well organized. I wouldn’t worry about the grade level so much, but start at the beginning of the word list and work toward 8^th grade list. More time would probably be needed on explaining the difference in meanings of irregular verbs, antonyms, synonyms, etc. depending on your students’ English level. Simple definitions are included in the book.

Activities are included for general practice, dictionary skills, grammar skills, building vocabulary and writing. I don’t feel like the activities will need much adapting as all include writing it down. It is good practice using the English Language.

Spelling rules are included which is a nice guidance for those of us who speak and spell English well, but can’t explain why we do it that way! The book also includes three different letter formats, dictionary sample page, and a glossary.

I would recommend this book as a teachers manual for a dedicated regimen of spelling practice. I personally feel that lots of exposure to books would increase spelling skills without a regimented practice, but I have also learned that all students learn differently and may require more structured exposure to the English Language.

Successful Puppet Making by Valerie Bendt

This book contains animal puppet patters for farm animals, wood animals and jungle animals. She offers simple, basic instructions for creating the puppets. She even includes instructions for a puppet theater with different scenes. The suggested materials are common household items or inexpensive craft items, all easily found. These are simple enough that the child can help make them, so it would be a fun project beginning to end!

As always, she mentions many other helpful resources. Each section includes a list of books to use with your puppets and facts about each animal.

I think puppets are a great avenue for story telling with a deaf child. No voice is necessary if the story is acted out well. So if verbage is necessary for the story, I would suggest the students acting it out themselves. These puppets are all one-handed puppets so maybe you could sign with the other hand. Be creative!

Poetry All Around Me by Steven-Adele Morley

Poetry is playing with English language and the sounds it makes, which is why most deaf find poetry allusive. This book is very good at breaking poetry up into bite-size pieces, but a student would still need a strong grasp of the English language to follow through the book. I think this would be a good choice for any student ready to try poetry.

It includes lots of thought-provoking activities. The activities listed through page 18 would be appropriate for English or ASL poetry. Many of the brainstorming activities would also work with ASL poetry. Some of the activities could be played like a game or challenge for the student. If your student likes to challenge himself, this may be a motivator to figure it out. Many activities require the use of a dictionary and thesaurus which would give an opportunity to teach basic dictionary skills.

Rhyming is going to be a little more difficult. What hearing people hear, deaf people see. I show my daughter how the words form the same shape on my face when they rhyme. Now this obviously doesn’t mean that every word that looks similar on my lips will rhyme, but in an isolated activity it works nicely.

This book really offers many ways to manipulate the English language. This approach may make English fun for the deaf learner. Remember to work on these activities together. I wouldn’t set the student down with this book by himself. Another nice feature of the book is that it offers simple definitions of vocabulary such as rhyming, etc.

My two cents on poetry: Unless the student is required to write an original poem or study poetry for school, I would introduce them to some basic, simple English poetry and then let the student discover ASL poetry. In my humble opinion, if a deaf person doesn’t understand the reason for poetry why should they want to read it? ASL poetry is beautiful and demonstrates why we enjoy poetry. Poetry is playing with our language and a deaf person’s natural language is ASL.

Topics included are senses, rhyming, synonyms, antonyms, free verse, similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, alliteration, onomatopoeia, haiku and more.

I would recommend this book if a simple introduction to poetry is felt necessary for your student. It is inexpensive, so you won’t feel guilty about any activities you skip.

My Fables Book

This book is pretty simple. On left side of the book the fable is told and on the right side there is a box for illustrating the fable and lines for copying the moral. The lines are for a Kinder to a 2^nd grade writer. There are 35 fables included in the book. They are written simply for a beginning reader. I would say a 2^nd grade level.

Being able to illustrate is a good activity to assure comprehension. Not much else to add, but for the price it would be a good simple affordable introduction to fables and their morals. Simple reading allows good reading practice, morals allows handwriting practice, and the drawing box helps make the story come alive and increases creativity.

Making the Most of the Preschool Years

Creating Books with Children

By Valerie Bendt

What a wonderful concept! All children love to create things, but deaf children really need hands on activities to put in practice what they are learning. Creating a book gives them experience in the parts of a book (ie: title, author, front cover, etc.), how to write a story, handwriting practice, spelling practice, art (illustrations), etc.

This book is set up as a 6-week unit study. By the end of the six weeks the student will have started and completed their first real book. Each step is thoroughly explained and many examples are given.

The first week focuses on pre-writing activities. Bendt expresses the importance of reading good literature with your children. She offers a good list of classic books with detailed descriptions to help jump start the parent/teacher find the right books for his/her students. Simple alteration of signing the stories instead of reading aloud makes this easily adaptable to the deaf learner.

Bendt expresses the need for copying or dictation exercises. This activity is excellent for the deaf student. Bendt gives many ideas on what types of passages for the student to copy. Not only is this good handwriting practice, but it allows the deaf student to mimic the English language. Following the description of dictation are many examples of passages for copying.

Each section includes detailed instructions and examples. During the second week the stories are written. The third week text layout and editing is done, fourth includes illustrating the books, the fifth week entails developing the beginning and ending pages and book jacket, and the final week the books are assembled and finished. This book teaches the parent/teacher how to help the student. It includes a lot of details, examples and ideas. She suggests recording books on audio tape several times, but this could easily be adjusting by video taping stories instead. She concludes with a thorough materials list.

I highly recommend this book for the deaf learner. I give it a ☺☺☺☺.

While working with Isaiah's Place, I have begun an exciting project. I am obtaining and reviewing material that I think would be beneficial for educating a deaf student. We have had great response from publishers. Soon I will be posting reviews here on my blog. Then we will put all reviews into a spiral bound book and offer to homeschoolers, parents, deaf ed programs, and more.

Sorry it has taken so long to post, but stay tuned and I will start getting wonderful materials to you.