One of my favorite song is "Color Esperanza" by Diego Torres (The color of hope).
This song means a lot to me because I came to the USA in pursuing
my master's degree with the hope for a better future. Six years later,
I am living in this wonderful country with my husband and my
child who is the color of hope, for every milestones he accomplishes
and for every challenge he surpasses.
Color Esperanza by Diego Torres
"In 2003, the song was performed specially by Torres for the
Colors means a lot in my life because the graphic art is one of my best skills since I remember. Now, I welcome my son to my world by teaching him about colors. I introduced colors to Tommy when he was about 15-month old for strengthening Tommy's attention span. Tommy and I used to drop stacking cups and foam letters grouped by color in the bathtub (A color per week). While we dropped the cups, I labeled the color in English and Spanish.
I bought a set of flash cards and it comes with color cards. Then, I started to show the cards to Tommy and telling him: pick the green, pick the yellow. He did pick the correct color every time I asked. It made realize how capable my son is, but Tommy was 16.5 month old; so, I decided to work on this activity when he was older. Our Speech therapist, at that time, was witness of this and she was very impressed.
According to the article 'Why Colors and Shapes Matter' by Ellen Booth Church, Color is one of the first ways your preschooler makes distinctions among things she sees; color words are some of the first words she uses to describe these things. You have probably heard the pride in your child's voice as she names the colors of the balloons at the store checkout, or her delight when she realizes that a banana and pear are different shades of yellow... But there is much more to your child's understanding of color than "knowing his colors." While it is important for him to know the names of the colors, it is just as important for him to know what to do with them. You can help by inviting him to notice many shades, hues, and tints. Make up names for these colors together, such as lemon yellow or apple red. You will be helping him use color as a means for creative thinking and language.
Tommy is in the age appropriate to work on sorting, matching and recognition of colors. As a mommy-teacher, I have found easier to teach the primary colors first in the following order: yellow, green, red and blue. Now that my son is older, I am introducing two colors at a time, but they should contrast because it is easier for the child to notice the deference between them. For example: I am teaching the colors black and white to Tommy, the contrast between those two colors is very noticeable. If we are going to use the primary colors, I always use yellow as the contrasting color of the color I am working on.
His developmental Therapist introduced sorting by color to Tommy when he was about 23 month. He began to sort by color with me when he turned 24 month. We have toys we use for sorting by color, which also are for developing eye-hand coordination. And, we recently retake the activity of colors with flash cards and Tommy likes to match by color with the flash cards.
Tommy seems to have aptitude of graphic artist (ha, ha, ha, like mommy). I think is a great skill to develop in any child because it is a long lasting skill that can be pursued any where in the world and they can do it for leaving.
Enjoy the video of Tommy working with colors.
A Fragment of the song "Color Esperanza"
Translation:
“...Knowing that is possible, desiring that can be
Removing the fears, taking them off
Painting the face with the color of hope
Tempting to the future with the heart
It's better to be lost than never to embark
It's better to attempt to stop trying
Even although, you see that the beginning is not easy
The impossible can be achieved
The sadness will go on some day
and thus will be, life changes and will change
You'll feel that your soul flies
for singing one more time..."
1 comment:
you are such a good teacher! i wish you lived close to us. but i'm glad you write these exercises down and show video. this is just what i needed. last week i started to realize that i need to kick it up a notch and challenge maya a lot more.
so proud of you tommy!!!! you are soooo smart!
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