Tag: Mom Life

Years have passed since those kindergarten days, but some things haven’t changed.

My son is grown now. He is no longer the little boy bringing me crayons or making school pictures at the kitchen table.

But he still sees some colors differently.

He knows what colors are supposed to be

One of the things that became easier as he got older was learning the names of colors.

He can see a color one way and still know what that color is called. He knows what it is “supposed to be,” even when his eyes are showing him something different.

That distinction became especially important when he was young.

The sky can still look pink

That little boy who once looked at a picture and told me the sky was pink still sees the sky differently.

He knows the sky is supposed to be blue.

But what he sees can still look different to him.

And honestly, that is something our family has learned to accept instead of argue with.

We still ask what he sees first

Our family developed a habit when he was growing up.

Instead of immediately telling him what color something was, we would ask:

“What color do you see?”

That question stuck.

We still use it today.

The grass story still makes me smile

At one point, we asked him what color the grass was before telling him what we expected him to say.

He said brown.

He still sees it as brown, but he knows grass is supposed to be green.

It is one of those things that reminds me that knowing the name of a color and actually seeing that color aren’t necessarily the same experience.

And then there was the green coffee

I drink a lot of coffee with creamer. To me, it looks brown—almost like peanut butter.

One day I asked my son to bring me my coffee.

He came back and said:

“Here is your green coffee, Ma.”

He still calls it green.

But he knows it is supposed to be brown.

Those little moments have become funny family stories now, but they also remind me how different someone’s experience of the same ordinary thing can be.

Growing up changed the way he learned

When he was in elementary school, reading the color names on crayons and markers gave him another way to work with colors.

By high school, there was less drawing and more pottery and hands-on projects. I noticed that the colors he used often seemed more muted to me.

He was still creating. He was simply doing it in a different stage of life.

He buys his own clothes now—but still calls Mom

When he was little, I bought basic-colored clothes for him so I knew things would match.

Now he’s grown and buys his own clothes.

And yet, every so often, he still calls Mom and asks if something matches.

Some things change.

Some things don’t. ❤️

What I learned from watching him grow

I used to think helping him meant teaching him to see colors the way I saw them.

Over time, I realized that wasn’t the point.

The point was helping him understand the world he was living in while respecting the way he experienced it.

That lesson became part of the reason I created A Rainbow of Shapes in 2008.

The book was never about telling a child that what they saw was wrong. It was about finding another way to learn.

The story is still part of our family

My son grew up, but the lesson stayed with me.

Sometimes the best thing a parent can do is pause before correcting a child and ask what they see.

That one question can open the door to understanding.

If you’d like to read the full story behind the book, visit the KidsWonderArt Story.

You can also visit the Shop to learn more about A Rainbow of Shapes.

Sometimes motherhood means learning to see the world from your child’s point of view.

When I first learned that my son was color deficient, I had a lot to process.

It was heartbreaking for me as his mom. I wasn’t looking for a medical lesson. I was looking for a way to help my son learn without making him feel like there was something wrong with him.

I started by listening to what he saw

Once we understood that he was seeing colors differently, some of the little moments from everyday life suddenly made sense.

His dad would ask him to bring the red hammer. He never brought it. We had thought maybe he wasn’t listening. After we understood what was happening, we looked at each other and said, “Makes sense that I never got the red hammer.”

Then there was the day my son told me, “my mom has green hair like my teacher.”

My hair was blonde. He was seeing it as green.

Those moments taught us something simple but important: before telling him what color something was supposed to be, we could ask him what he saw.

I found a simple way to help him learn colors

Once he could read, I taught him to read the names printed on his crayons and markers.

That gave him another way to learn. Even if he was seeing a color differently, he could learn what that color was called.

I also taught him shapes and encouraged him to create.

And creating helped me, too

At the time, I was trying to figure out how to help my son while dealing with my own feelings. Creating something purposeful gave me a positive place to put those feelings.

Instead of constantly thinking, “My son has this issue,” I could focus on making something that might actually help him—and other moms and children who were going through something similar.

I stopped trying to make his experience fit mine

That was probably one of the biggest things I learned.

My son wasn’t experiencing color the way I did. That didn’t mean he couldn’t learn. It meant we sometimes needed a different way to get there.

So our family started asking him what he saw before telling him what we thought he should see.

That became part of how we understood his world.

That experience became A Rainbow of Shapes

In 2008, I created A Rainbow of Shapes.

The book wasn’t created as a medical resource. It came from a mom who wanted to help her child learn colors and shapes in a way that felt positive, imaginative, and fun.

The original back-cover description says:

“An imaginative approach to help children with color deficiencies by using the primary colors of the rainbow in various shapes.”

That is the heart of the book.

Looking back, I think the bigger lesson was that helping a child doesn’t always mean finding a way to make them see things the way you do.

Sometimes it means listening first, finding another way to teach, and giving them room to learn in their own way.

Want to read the full story behind the book? Read the KidsWonderArt Story.

Looking for simple ways for children to learn through play? Visit Creativity & Learning.

What I learned as a mom when I discovered my son was color deficient.

In kindergarten, I learned that my son was color deficient.

Learning that was heartbreaking for me as his mom. I kept thinking about what this might mean for him and how I could help him learn without making him feel like there was something wrong with the way he saw the world.

I needed to find a way to help him learn

Once he could read, I found something simple that helped us: I taught him to read the names printed on his crayons and markers.

That gave him a way to learn what colors were called even when he was seeing them differently. If he was looking at a color and seeing something different from what I expected, he could read the name and learn what that color was supposed to be.

I also taught him shapes and encouraged him to learn through creating.

Then the little things started making sense

Before we understood that he was color deficient, there were moments that left us confused.

His dad is an electrician. One day he asked our son to bring him the red hammer. Our son never came back with it. We thought maybe he wasn’t listening.

After we learned about his color deficiency, we looked at each other and said, “Makes sense that I never got the red hammer.”

There was another time when my son told me, “my mom has green hair like my teacher.” My hair was blonde. He was seeing it as green.

Those moments changed the way our family thought about color. We started asking him what he saw before telling him what we expected him to see.

Creating helped me, too

There was something I didn’t expect in all of this. Creating gave me something purposeful to focus on. Instead of constantly thinking, “My son has this issue,” I could put those feelings into something positive.

I wanted to create something that could help my son and other moms and children who were dealing with color deficiency.

That idea became A Rainbow of Shapes

In 2008, I created A Rainbow of Shapes.

The book brought together colors and shapes in an imaginative, approachable way. It wasn’t meant to be a medical book. It came from a mom trying to help her child learn.

The original back-cover description says:

“An imaginative approach to help children with color deficiencies by using the primary colors of the rainbow in various shapes.”

That is still the heart of why I created it.

What I learned as a mom

My son’s color deficiency changed the way our family looked at something as ordinary as color.

More importantly, it taught me that sometimes helping a child doesn’t mean changing the way they see something. Sometimes it means finding another way to help them understand it.

That small idea from 2008 became a book—and eventually became part of the story behind KidsWonderArt.

Read the full story behind A Rainbow of Shapes: KidsWonderArt Story

Looking for a simple color activity? Visit Creativity & Learning for free activities for little learners.