Word to the Color

You pick?  I’m in.  Gathering your own fresh fruit makes summer taste sweeter. This week my friend and I traveled to a local blueberry farm to collect some goodness.

We laugh about the fellow berry pickers behind us who convey the philosophy:  One for the bucket; one for the mouth. We sample too.  The branches produce berries of different shades and sweetness. My goodness, those blueberries taste like Skittles.

G doesn’t like just any blueberry.  I translate the mid-winter hand drop from the highchair into:  “No out-of–season Argentina booberries, momma”

He likes the sweet, rich in color ones.

Color!  We talk color to G.

Green corn
Brown soil
Black dog

Green tractor
….
Red combine
………

Yellow excavator

Gasp.  The farm houses all hues here.   

I haven’t seen any “aha” moments where G shows understanding of color, but we have time.

Time to build blue cans of food.  

Time to water green trees.  

A few of our favorite color books: DK's My First Colors and My First Tractor.

I call these reads our “point and label” books.  Vivid color and object names.  Simple.  

Most all children’s books create moments for you to say “Hey, look at the brown bear wearing green overalls.”  Perfect since Corduroy can be found on every page in Don Freeman's book.

Looking online I found a great Guide to Children’s Color Books with detailed reviews on reads such as:  Lemons Are Not Red, Freight Train, and Little Blue and Little Yellow. 

Eric Carle books display great color in their pages too.  Pigments so vivid, it takes immense momma-refrain not to squash my foot down on a certain book’s cover. 

Shel Silverstein writes it well in his poem Colors:

My skin is kind of sort of brownish

Pinkish yellowish white.

My eyes are greyish blueish green,

But I'm told they look orange in the night.

My hair is reddish blondish brown,

But it's silver when it's wet.

And all the colors I am inside

Have not been invented yet.

I’m guessing G’s favorite color is blue.  The silky blankie in hand affirms my hunch.  I look forward to when G can whisper the answer to this highly sought after question.  Better yet, the day when we can break open a box of fresh crayons.  I might have just made our plans for this weekend.  

What’s your favorite color?  Shout me a word!

Lauren