Christopher and the color Red

Christopher loves the color RED. In fact, all of our pens and markers are used up because Christopher wants to write and draw with only Red.

Knowing this about Christopher, I did not want to let this interest pass up without doing something about it.

I have been brainstorming on ideas on what I could do for him. I finally found an idea that worked and I am so excited to share it.

One day while we were driving, Christopher, Andrew and I began to play the game of "What things are red?" Each of us came up with many items and because it had to do with Red, Christopher wanted to play the whole way to our destination. In the conversation, I asked Christopher if he would want to learn more about apples or strawberries since they are red. With excitement in his voice, he exclaimed "Yes!" I then knew it was time for a trip to the library.

At the library, Christopher chose to pick out some non-fiction books on apples. I knew he was interested because on the way home, he was reading them out loud. However, that interest decreased a bit and I knew it was time for some mommy and Christopher time.

For our Mommy and Christopher time, we started reading one of the books together. One of the pages started talking about where most of the apples in the United States are grown. I asked Christopher if he would like to see where those places were on a his map. He replied that he would and so we got out a map that can be written on.

As he read where those places were, I asked him if he would want to draw an apple on those states. With his red marker, he started drawing an apple on each state that was mentioned in the book. It was fun to see him stop and make sure that all the states were included.



After Christopher was done with this part, he told me he wanted to get out his wooden map puzzle and find the same states on the map. It was exciting for me to see him lead the learning. This also makes me excited.















In the end , Christopher wanted to do his whole puzzle and so I let him. We did not finish reading the book but it did not matter because he learned something new about geography and literacy and some what art. Another learning moment came as well when he told me he knew exactly where the state of Washington was because he recognized the shape. He spent the next 30 minutes just playing with his map puzzle. Yay!