rachel hosts the show herself, with her daughter leah and nephew alex also starring to help teach signs. in my first signs, rachel was not going to be in the videos, but she was added to show the signs because alex and leah (who were 3 and 4 then) could not sign clearly enough all the time to teach viewers the signs. in the earlier episodes, rachel did not want to sing and sign at the same time since it causes some problems for those who want true american sign language, but customers responded, wanting more songs and wanting to learn signs from them. so, already being a musician, rachel wrote more songs. rachel sings a lot of songs during each episode, signing the words at the same time. during the episode, rachel shows many signs from a certain topic (schools, daytime activities, etc.) and then has leah and alex sign—they sign first now—alongside with many other children of different backgrounds. after that, the words are emphasized with song.