Teach your children to sign I Love You
Hand Shape: “S” hands
Location: chest
Tip: like hugging yourself
Action: cross both hand over the middle of your chest
Video Transcript: Hey everyone! We have the perfect set of flash cards for Valentine’s Day. (shows the flash cards). This week’s word is “I love you”. Let me explain about his one. It’s the letter “I” for I, the letter “L” for love, and the letter “Y” for you. So when you put them all together you have “I love you”. (Shows the sign with one hand.) And it’s directional. You can wave it at someone. Or say goodbye to your child at a daycare or through the window. You can tell them “I love you”. A simpler way to do it is to say “I” demonstrates by pointing to self, then “love” (crosses hands on chest), then “you” (points).
I could sign “I love you” all day long to my children. Wouldn’t it be great if we made a conscience choice to tell our children we love them all through their day? While your children are young use the expanded version (see video blog) and when they’ve developed more hand coordination, then you can switch to the single handed sign. I especially love this sign because I can tell my kids I love them through a window or at a distance. I even sign it when we are to be quiet.
So now this brings me to a question. Do you know how to love your children? Yes, I’m being serious. Do you know that each of us has our own “love language”? Do you know that each of your children will likely need to be shown and give love differently?
Each year for Valentine’s Day, I like to retest and review the way I need to be expressing my love to each person in my family. Before this test, I use to leave my husband notes around the house only to find out he could care less. It didn’t mean much to him because it was not his love language but mine. We tend to give to others what we need. But with this test, you can provide love to match each person. You can take the test at http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile/children/ and get the book here http://www.5lovelanguages.com/resource/the-five-love-languages-of-children/
To give you an overview, here is the list and examples of how I incorporate love to my family. Since I was a homeschool mom, I’ve included ideas for both school and home. Comment on our blog to tell us about your journey showing your children love through their love language.
5 Love Languages with examples
There are five ways we give and show love: physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, and gifts.
1- Physical Touch
School: sit close, pat on the back, high fives
Home: hugs, kisses, hold hands, sit on lap, back rub, hug after discipline
2- Words of Affirmation
School: verbal and written affirmation, keep something they made, give a nickname, stamp work
Home: surprise notes, brag, encouragement jar, compliments, say “I love you” often
3- Quality Time
School: undivided attention, active listening, play, sing, draw and laugh together
Home: dates, eye contact, family activities, do things together, hang in same room
4- Acts of Service
School: repair favorite things if broke, assist when frustrated, help with cleaning
Home: surprises, do little things, do kind acts for others together, fix things
5- Gifts
School: give stickers, art, a pencil, materials, a treat
Home: gift bag, personalized items, small treats, flower, song, letter
I challenge us all to daily loving our children in their love language and as always sign language “I love you” is accepted always.
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