Chelltune, the Baby Signing Store has been recommended by Mumsjustlove.com.

Mumsjustlove find the best products, retailers and offers online for mums and their little ones.  With everything on Mumsjustlove hand-picked by their editorial team and no listings are paid for means they are really showcasing the best! Their product directory features the best products from literally 100’s of retailers and we are pleased to say the Baby Signing Store is one of them!

Anne, creator of the Calin Bleu sling shares her experience of baby signing: ‘I’m passionate about baby signing. Our children are brought up bilingual so we thought they might speak late and signing would help. We started using signs with our daughter when she was 6 months old. It took her a while to respond but when she started, the floodgates open. I realised she could understand quite complex things. We were away for the weekend when she was about 10 months old. I said to her we were getting ready to get on the plane, and signed plane. She started screaming with joy and signed ‘Home’ back to me and waived bye bye to everyone straight away. I was amazed that she had linked the concepts of plane/home/bye so quickly! I would have had no idea of what was going on in her little head if it were not for her ability to sign. She outgrew the signs when as her speech developed but we still use some signs. If we’re in a group and she does something she’s not supposed to do, I can quietly sign No or Danger in the distance and she knows to stop straight away without having to make a fuss or disrupt the group.

Now that her little brother is here, she’s started using signs again with him. She remembers them very well (the Sing and Sign DVD and a couple of books came in handy to refresh our memories!)

Our little guy is nearly 2 year old now and not really talking, his ability to sign really helps. Instead of using the standard makaton signs, he’s made up his own for his favourite words. He will sign hat (putting his hand on his head) to say that he wants to go out, his favourite activity!’

Over on Anne’s website, Calin Bleu, she is running a Father’s Day competition.  Share you stories and photos of Dads baby wearing.  The photo can be of Dads wearing any type of sling.   Three lucky winners (chosen at random) will receive a sling of their choice.

Recently we’ve been using Twitter to network with other Mums, many of whom are Mumpreneurs (or Work from Home Mums) like myself. It was on Twitter that I met Sarah from Mothers of Innovation.  She used baby signing with her daughter, this is what she had to say:

‘Book, duck, please, thank you and sorry – yes, my daughter learnt all the important words (and many more) through sign language. Even now at 2 1/2 when she is chatterbox with an alarmingly good vocabulary, sign language comes in handy.

While initially sign language helped during those frustrating months when she could not annunciate her needs, then worked wonders in developing her speech through her understanding the basics of communication, now it helps when words are just too difficult.

Sorry, for a toddler is so difficult, but the sign can help diffuse another potential tantrum or a firm ‘No’ sign from me across the playground can halt her gravity defying logic before it is too late.

Initially we went to Sing and Sign classes that were fab, and their DVD has been worn out through use – then we found TinyTalk classes closer to home, their Signing Pack was great for quick reference.

I would wholeheartedly recommend baby signing to anyone, I love way that it has paved the way for great communications – she has so much of interest to say I want to be able to chat with her about it!’

Talking Tots have published the Tots100 Index of Top 100 British Parent Blogs and Bloggers for May. Chelltune has been listed as a new entry at number 78.

The Talking Tots blog (Totsy’s Place) is well worth a read. Tracey Park and Lisa Houghton were paediatric speech and language therapists before launching Talking Tots in 2005. They have more than 30 years’ combined experience working with young children experiencing communication difficulties, and are respected experts in the field of early language development. This month they are running an online Communication Q&A where they’ll try and answer all your questions about early language and communication.

Recently Pauline who runs Childminding Help emailed me to ask if Chelltune would like to be part of her sites Birthday celebrations. On 8th May 2009 the Childminding Forum will be three years old. Throughout the day there will competitions running for members new and old to win prizes instantly.

I asked Pauline why she had set up her website, this is what she had to say:

‘Funnily enough the forum came first, followed by Childminding Help.  I set up the Forum in May 2006 because having done some searches there seemed nothing much in the way of forums for childminders. The forum started to grow and I found that most people were looking for information on how to start childminding and the registration process, so later that year I set up ChildmindingHelp.co.uk as an information website.

The forum currently has just over four thousand members.  I’ve made so many friends and learnt so much over the years. Without the Forum and the information shared by everyone, I don’t think I would have attained my ambition of being graded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted. The support and understanding is unbelievable.

I also build websites for childminders, this is great fun and I love working with them to get the sites how they want them.’

Chelltune regularly receives orders from Childminders, play schools, children’s’ centres and other childcare providers. I’ve been having a think about what we could offer as a prize for the Childminding forums Birthday celebrations. If you are a childminder then why not help me out, post a comment below telling me which product from our site you would most like to win and why. Would you like finger puppets to add to a story sack? Perhaps a book to help you learn how to sign your child’s favourite nursery rhyme? Or do you need a reward chart and stickers? Have a browse through our shop and let us know.

All members of the Childminding forum will receive an email prior to the event giving details of the prizes on offer and how to enter.

I wanted to tell you about Arabella Miller Organic t-shirts. I entered a competition a while ago on the Mumzone website, I won a Flutterbye t-shirt for my daughter.

The Arabella Miller website is worth a visit, they’ve got some lovely t-shirts and many new products to come in the next few weeks. I can’t wait to find out what flavour my baby is in August so that I can do some shopping from the new range of organic baby clothes.

I must admit that because the t-shirt is white I was reluctant to put it on my daughter; I didn’t want it to get ruined. She has worn it a few times now and I’m really impressed with the quality. The first time it was worn Anya managed to cover it in food (nothing unusual there then!). Despite being scrubbed then machine washed the t-shirt came out looking immaculate, I was surprised as many of her cheaper t-shirts from the High Street just haven’t washed well at all.

I’ve posted some pictures of her modelling the t-shirt. To keep to the Sign Language theme of the blog you’ll see her signing ‘butterfly’ in the picture above. Did you know that butterflies can only see three colours: red, green, and yellow? No? Neither did I but you’ll find lots of other interesting facts like that from Arabella Miller.