Orange isn't the only color

Mitchell's favorite color is orange. I pick up orange clothing whenever I can. He always picks out orange balloons. And for the longest time, the only crayon he colored with was orange. And on top of only picking one color, he never cared much for how the picture he was coloring looked.

I have many coloring pages with just a little bit of orange scribble and orange rectangles (trucks) drawn on the back. I have coloring pages where everything is scribbled in with orange and there is no regard for the lines. Although I really didn't care if he colored in the lines or not. I just wanted Mitchell to *like* coloring because that is what kids do! They color!

Restaurant coloring books were always lost on Mitchell. Dave and I would use them to play tic-tac-toe while Mitchell played with the many cars and trucks we brought with us to the restaurant.

On his first Pre-K evaluation, his teacher said he didn't like the art center very much and rarely frequented that center. However, they cannot "force" a child to go to a center if they don't want to. I didn't push the issue. I figured if he wanted to color (with something other than orange), he eventually would.

About 2 weeks before Valentines Day, Mitchell brought home a picture of a bear...that I think is supposed to be Cupid. The bear was brown and the wings and diaper were red. He was over the moon proud of himself. He colored (mostly) inside the lines and he used something other than orange!


Over the weekend we went to Red Robin and he very intently colored the booklet he got there. He even brought it home and kept working on it. He asked me for a blue crayon and I decided to bring out the big guns...the 64-count Crayola box. I think he was speechless. He'd never seen so many color choices! He was so excited.


Today was a school holiday so he and I stayed home. He probably spent 2 hours coloring 2 different pictures. He takes so much time now concentrating on his coloring and picking the colors.



I think some of the older children at PrimeTime helped him see that there is more to life than orange and trucks.