It’s the age when discovery runs wild, differences are noticed, and repeated…
My son has been talking about colors a lot lately. He has noticed that we are not all the same color in our family. This has prompted him to ask questions that I don’t feel comfortable explaining to a four year old child. He says things like “I’m peach, you’re brown. Mommy, you need to be peach like me and daddy.” or “Why are you brown and I’m peach?”. Thankfully, God granted me the perfect opportunity to teach my son what it really means to be people of different colors.
“Mommy, I’m hungry. May I please have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?”
“Sure baby, give me a second”. I walked into the kitchen, still perplexed as to what I was going to do about his obsession with color. When I looked to see what I had by way of bread, I had wheat and white bread. The idea struck like a ton of bricks. I made two sandwiches exactly the same, save the color of the bread, and placed them in front of my son on the table.
Can you guess what we talked about after that?
4 Comments
Nice job Mom!
and that is a beautiful pic of the three of you too!
That was a great way to illustrate the point. I’ll have to remember that the next time one of my kids ask the question.
Have a great day!
JoAnn
Ah, the sandwich of social justice and cultural education!
Good job acting on that teaching moment. It really is beautiful, in a way, how for him it really is just visual, just a color, it has no meaning for him beyond pigment, and with you there to guide him, it need never be anything more than that.
Awww I’m going to steal your idea one day. I think it’s a great idea.