Recreation Guy

The other day I was talking on the phone with a friend of mine, Susan, who is the director of an after school YMCA site. We were discussing programming, as we always do, and she mentioned that she started running a sign language program.

I took a semester of sign language in college. I really enjoyed it. I decided to take the class after I attended an American Camp Association conference or training (I can’t remember which). There was a camp there that was giving a talk on what it’s like to work at a deaf camp. It was very interesting. They had some great stories.

The camp was out in the woods, as most resident camps are, and one day all the campers and staff had just come out of the dining hall. Right outside of the dining hall was this large field that ended at the tree line leading into the woods. One of the campers spotted “IT” first and started running right towards “IT” with a big smile. A few other campers followed after they had seen it too. It was a bear. Unlike the bears that the campers imagined, like Yogi Bear, this one was wild and not to be petted. Now remember that this was a camp full of hearing impaired kids, so staff couldn’t just yell “Stop!” or “Don’t go near the bear. It’s dangerous!” One of the male campers was the first to act. Unfortunately, the campers got a good start on him. This brave counselor started running as fast as he could right towards the bear, who was stopped and looking at the campers. As the counselor got closer he noticed that there were cubs nearby. He realized that this situation had gone from bad to worse. A mother bear is extremely protective and aggressive. The counselor overtook the campers, turned around and stopped them before they got too close. Crisis averted.

I had always thought about possibly offering an after school sign language program but I only know the basics from my one semester of ASL. Knowing that Susan only knew the alphabet (well, at least most of it) in sign language I asked her if she hired someone to run the class. She informed me that it was supposed to be a contract class but the contractor backed out at the last minute. The parents were really excited about having their children learn sign language and didn’t want it to be cancelled. Susan didn’t want to cancel it either as the class was full, but didn’t really have a choice as nobody on her staff knew sign language.

As Susan started making the calls that the class was going to be cancelled the first parent she called suggested that she get DVDs that taught the kids. The parent told her about Signing Time. This is a company that sells DVDs teaching kids sign language.

Susan decided to try it out. She went to the website and found what she needed to run the class. She told me that she got a few Baby Signing Time DVDs for their Mommy and Me program and Series One for the K-2nd grade program. She just puts in the DVD and follows the instructions along with the kids. She has also created a couple of games to play after the DVD lesson. Apparently the kids and parents love it.

Susan and her staff have become interested in learning sign language as well and have started using the same DVDs to learn. I’ve added them to the advertisers on the right and will be adding a sing language program to our line up as well.

Thanks Susan for the suggestion.