Saturday, February 28, 2009

I hear you knocking....

So today Charlie and I are sitting at the table, reading a story. More accurately, he's reading to me. We do this as a supplement to whatever they're teaching him in school, because he just soaks up new vocabulary words from doing this. The real challenge is not whether he can identify all the words in the sentence, but whether he understands the sentence or paragraph once he has signed it.

So one sentence in today's story used the word "knock." I have an aversion to just giving him the sign for a word he doesn't know. I prefer to have him try to figure it out, whether through telling a story using the word, or pantomiming the concept. So, I gave him the situation of arriving at a friend's house to find the door closed. You want to get in. What do you do?

"Open the door and walk in."

Okay, let's re-think this....the door is locked. How do you get someone to unlock it and let you in?

"I take out my cell phone and text my friend, saying, 'Dude, open the door.'"

I think this is one time I'm justified in just giving him the sign for the word. Duh--Charlie's friends are all deaf. Why bother knocking???

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Charley wanna Harley??

Tonight Charlie and I went to the Mid-Atlantic Motorcycle Show at Timonium. Just for yucks and giggles, neither of us could afford to buy anything.


Charlie has decided he's going to learn to ride a motorcycle. I guess that's my bad influence rubbing off on him.


But which one? There were so many to choose from. Maybe this one?



Nah, let's try this one!


Oh, wait...here's the perfect one!


Seriously, they had some pretty weird bikes there. It was fun wandering around and seeing just how much someone could mess up a perfectly simple machine.

Me, I'll stick with my plain little old Honda Rebel! Maybe when Charlie's old enough, I'll be ready to move up and he can buy it from me.