Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Colors!

To our great surprise (and huge pleasure) TV can now identify at least 12 colors - even if they are fleeting; changing every second. She's 20 months and has not been exposed to flash cards yet.

The world is her classroom - the environment, nature, people around, books, photos, our home, she herself and of course us - mom and dad.

Down the memory lane, I think it was when she was 10 months, when I first introduced colors consciously to her.
'Would you wear a blue dress or a yellow one?' while pointing at the dresses.
'Hey, we got a red taxi today'
'Wow, look at these colorful fruits' in the supermarket. 'A yellow banana, red apple, green apple.'

She could'nt talk much then, but she's been very expressive and could express her excitement and curiosity. She seemed to be loving the color game. And her attention and observation were now focussed on colors.

She must have been looking around and spotting colors then. 'Blue taxi, orange uncle, red flowers'. I could see the sparks in her eyes.

We even had a color rhyme;
Pink pink flowers, pink pink flowers,
where are they, where are they, pink pink flowers?
- up on the green plants.
Green green plants, Green green plants,
where are they, where are they, Green green plants?
- rising from the brown brown soil.
Brown brown soil, Brown brown soil,
where is it, where is it, Brown brown soil?
- everywhere in our colorful garden,
- under the blue blue sky!

When she was 11 months, I took her to one of those 'mums and tots' arts programs. I think, her love and curiosity for colors grew and blossomed with the 'arts class'.

Around 13 months, when she could speak a few words, blue was the first color she spotted and labled as bu (or boo). Then it was red (jed). Although she would often confuse an orange with a red or a purple with a blue, she could identify the two main colors almost flawlessly.

It was only when she was 16 months she could add the third - yellow - to her list. But at this point, it was her turn to play our 'color game'.

'Bu taxi'
'Jed dess'
'Yellow umbella' (yes, umbrella! actually that was one of her very first words - starting with ummmb - ummmla - ummmbella!)

Of course, our 'color game' was an ongoing activity.
In kitchen,
'can you pass me the yellow pepper, now the green one, now the red tomato please and the orange carrot, now how about some white onion and now the last green zucchini)'
In dressing room,
'Should I wear a green shirt or a pink one on my white pants?'
In bed room,
'Hey, it's blue bedsheet today'
With board books
and of course, in the garden, on roads, at public places.

Starting with I initiating most of the times in the beginnning (from 10 - 16 months) to TV taking charge from the last couple of months.

Yesterday, while we were sitting by the waterfront, at dusk, TV observed reflection in the water of a color changing (neon) logo from a tall building. The colors changed every second (or even faster - I did'nt care to note that much). The waters were not still - with the ripples due to wind and an ocassional passing boat. The colors were not solid (the way they are on children's board books or on taxis or even flowers/leaves). And still, our 20 month old could identify every color the moment it appeared - Red, pink, green, orange, white, purple, blue, yellow!

We were thrilled to watch her make difference between sister colors (a yellow and orange, blue and purple, red and pink) reflecting on water!






A month later

1 comment:

  1. The rhyme " pink pink flowers"is really great u should take a copywrite for it.

    ReplyDelete