I’m a single parent. I work and I take online classes. I want to learn and become fluent in sign language, but I am trying to figure out if it is best for me to get material from the library or take an actual class (which would be difficult with my schedule). Yet, if I learn ASL at home this may be something my daughter and I can do together.
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I am fluent in asl, I did it through classes. If you are intent on doing it at home, you can go to aslpro.com to learn signs, and it’ll be important later on to research what you can about deaf culture and signing grammar. I also did better learning signs by memorizing songs and poems in sign, that’s something that is fun but great in developing sign. Good luck.
I recommend taking a class, or classes, if you can. I think learning the language in, essentially, a vacuum, is very difficult, in addition to which it is not always obvious from diagrams just how something should be signed and it is much harder to learn ASL from pictures. Video is of course “better” than static images but definitely not ideal. Also, it’s one thing to learn the signs and another to learn the syntax, which is rather different for ASL as compared to spoken English.
I studied ASL years ago — I was never fluent but was conversant. In any event, most of it is lost to me now. And even though I “knew” it before, I have difficulty making out various signs in written material (though of course some books/diagrams are better than others).
I understand time constraints, but would still recommend taking a class to supplement any learning you did on your own. Regardless of how you learn it, you can always sign with your daughter — the difference is that if you learn it in a class environment you can be more confident that you, and your daughter, are signing properly.