Signing Time Christmas Collection (DVD Edition)

<p>I bought this for Christmas for my (hearing) daughter to add to her extensive Signing Time collection. She just turned two in Nov., and her signing vocabulary (and ours) has grown tremendously. I am so proud of her ability to communicate verbally or solely by signing. She teaches her friends and teachers in daycare and they have all adapted to her way of communicating. I especially enjoyed this DVD because it incorporated the true meaning of Christmas! It was great to see the kids all grown up! Thank you Rachel, Alex, & Leah!</p>

<p>We were very impressed with the Christmas collection! We especially loved the section that taught the Bible story of what Christmas is all about! Lot's of wonderful signs about Christ, Mary, angels, etc. Finally! Great job keeping Christ in Christmas! Blessings to ya'll!</p>

<p>We've used Signing Time for the past five years for all our (hearing) children and it has helped them tremendously in communicating before they were verbal. They've also enjoyed learning the signs and teaching it to siblings even after they could speak clearly. We all enjoy the new addition to the collection. There's a LOT of new material here. The first DVD contains the main program, with the usual method of presenting new signs: Rachel demonstrates the sign, other children demonstrate the sign, and it is put into context with a song. As with most Signing Time songs, I wasn't really taken with them immediately, but after a listen or two, they grew on me and I think they work very well, particularly the Follow the Star song for the Nativity signs. In an effort to offer something to everyone, this DVD offers the option to play the general holiday signs (e.g., tree, ornament, decorate, holiday, presents) with or without Santa Claus-related signs (e.g., Santa, sleigh, reindeer), and with or without Nativity-related signs (e.g., Mary, Joseph, Jesus, manger, shepherd, wise men). (If you don't do Santa OR the Nativity, this probably isn't for you!) If you include the Nativity option (or play all), after the main program is "Glory!", a sung-and-signed version of the entire Nativity story. The music for this, sung by Rachel and a children's choir, and acted out by children in a Nativity play, is excellent and will keep you humming throughout the season.</p><p>The second DVD contains just the songs, including a few Christmas carols like Away in a Manger and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, with the option to either see Rachel demonstrate all the signs and then sing-and-sign the songs, or play through the sing-and-sign versions.</p><p>The music CD contains all the new songs from the DVD, the Christmas carols from the second DVD, and the Glory narrative, with Rachel's versions and the sing-along versions. With so much material, this runs to over an hour. We've added it to our rotation of Christmas CDs and will definitely bring this out in the future. Seeing my one-year-old sign "Christmas tree," "candle," "Mary," and "baby Jesus" this year was wonderful. Wait for a sale, but if can get it for less than the list price, this collection is a great value!</p>

<p>I haven't actually checked this out yet. I ordered it this week * and sent it off to my sweet Julia who had her first experience with Signing Time titles at the tender age of 6 months, having borrowed a DVD fro their local library. From thence it was on her parents wish list for her first Christmas. We bought her first bundle online and had the pleasure of watching her enjoyment when we watched her talk to us in signs! So fun!! She would ask for certain ones at certain times, and sign "Signing Time" please when she wanted to sit and practice. She is being raised bilingual and signing. It's quite a sight when she asks for more milk by signing, and if noone seems to be paying attention, she'll sign "More milk, please!", increasingly emphatically, and speaks when all else fails, in Spanish, "Mas lache, por favore!! As educator grandparents, we've found our presents from Signing Time a wonderful investment! We firmly believe that signing has enhanced her learning exponentially. She is an almost 3 year old, poised, confident, gentle, sweet, bundle of joie de vivre in no small part due to the time her parents have spent with her learning and signing***</p>

<p>My little downs guy loves this video! A great addition to all the other videos Alex and Leah star in.
Thanks for giving my son a voice.</p>