How colour impacts your child's psychology and personality

Colour has a remarkable impact on the personality and development of children. Green is a symbol of growth and any creative process. Red is a colour of action but can reduce analytical thinking. Red can also reminds us of all the wrong answers marked by the teachers in our notebooks.

Colours can also be culture specific. Indians wear red on their wedding day. Western brides adore the white wedding gown. White is also attached to sadness or sorrow in the Indian context.

Talking of India, it's again that time of the year when India and Indians all over the world celebrate the colourful festival of Holi. Why is Holi celebrated? Why are bright colours of 'gulal' sprinkled on one another. Why does it bring smiles on faces? Does a splash of colour make you angry or cheerful?

Could there be a connection between Basanti's chatty and boisterous personality (from the famous Hindi movie Sholay) and her loud coloured clothes?

Well, actually there is. There is enough research to indicate that colours define our moods. The association with these colours over time may even define our personality.

If a person always wears grey or dark colours, she or he will not only have a grumpy mood but over time will develop a dark personality.

In light of this, its essential that the right colours are placed around children. Bright colours will make them active and should be used around their play area; these colours can be reflected in their play clothes, colour of toys, etc.

However the same bright colours may not be relevant in the area for sleeping and resting, since the bright colours will prevent the child from resting or sleeping, so the colours here need to be light and soothing. Reflected in the colour of the room, sleeping clothes, even the colour of the pillow and sheets. A thoughtful selection of the right bedroom colour can be done by looking at the colour wheel.

Colours can be used to alter moods and to some extent the personality. If your child is feeling depressed then ask your child to wear something bright and cheerful. Soon you will see a change in his overall mood. If the choice of colour is consistent over time even the personality of the child can be modified.

Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So next time you want to feel chatty and boisterous like Hema Malini in Sholay then remember the solution may lie in the loud coloured clothes of Basanti.

Learn more on how to add the right colour to your living room or bedroom. Master the Colours of Fortune.

If you can't change the colour of the room or clothes may be you can add in a particular object of the desired colour for example painting of lush green grass in your cold steel office can add the touch of soothingness.

Was Oscar Wilde thinking of our world today—increasingly divided by caste, creed and colour—when he said, “Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied by definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”

Writing opportunities for your child

Writing is a means of communication. As soon as your child is able to write words, encourage your child to use a pencil or crayon to write or draw. It could be as simple as writing Mummy, Daddy and drawing pictures or writing the names of everyone in the family. Writing is a means of expression. It is a way for children to express their inner feelings and wishes.

DD wrote her first letter to Santa tonight while Mom wondered what she wanted from Santa. Glad to see she can write sentences now. Had to tell her to add the silent 'e' in come and remind her that Santa begins with a capital S and also the 'ea' in please. Was a good writing exercise for her, after the 23 cards she made for her friends and teachers at school for Christmas. Unfortunately didnt remember to keep a copy of it.

Thought her first card to Santa was very precious and want to keep it in my memory bank as long as possible.

It reads...(Sorry about the handwriting)...
Come Santa come,
Santa please come,
Santa I want present
From DD

Barbie,
Gold Crown (the crown must be her size) she specified and not for Barbie.
Below she has written to Mom and Dad (Does that mean Mom and Dad have to do the job???)

Learning Music

Here's some good news I would cherish all my life. Hence thought of adding it to my blog.

DD won her first trophy in violin (1st Prize) at Talent Time 2011. This is an annual event in the school's 3 branches. Children are categorized according to their level. There were about 12-14 children in Beginner level and she was amongst the youngest, i think, at 4 years. (This was her 3rd Violin Performance, first two were only talent sharing, more of exposure on stage within the music school).

She was soo excited with the trophy she didnt want to leave it for one moment, and also displayed it on the table in the restaurant later which we finally pursuaded to put away (coz others could take it). Thanks to my parents for the timely gift of the lovely dress bought from India.

Still a long way to go. Mummy is very happy and proud of her and hopes she loves her musical journey all the way.

Here is the video of her performance at Talent Time 2011

Rhu's violin performance video

Some snaps before leaving home and some during the prize distribution...

Mother's Day card

A mother's heart can only be filled with unimaginable joy when two little eyes are fixed on a piece of paper, while a little hand works hard while the head is bent down until the smile of satifaction spreads on her face. All because she wants to make her mummy happy on 'Happy Mother's Day'. Look at all the hearts she has made for her Mummy and Mummy hopes she knew that this 'ever strict' mom loves her so very very much.

Art for art's sake

Do you shop around for the best of drawing sheets and art paper for your little ones to express his/her art? Sometimes children can choose the wildest of places to sketch their hearts out.
My daughter has not only been tearing pages from notebooks to draw, besides regular drawing sheets, she loves drawing on all sorts of places and items around the house. Sometimes its the back of a visiting card, and sometimes also on her sister's hand.
Here Rhu drew on an airsick bag, probably we had kept on one of our journeys for our 'puky' little girls. Its a drawing of her little baby sister and herself. True, medium doesnt matter when art is on your mind.

Handwriting practice

DD loves drawing and making cards for everybody. Don't be surprised if you are greeted with a post-it note with some scribble on it saying, "its a card for you" when you meet her. We made good use of this practice the other day by helping her improve her writing skills and draw while she enjoyed the same activity.
Here is the picture of the card she made. The glamorous Aunty is Shina Aunty with her two children, one a newborn. They came to our house for a playdate. Behind the card were everyone's names. Everyone got their respective stickers. There were high heel stickers for Aunty,  sunglasses for the boy and princess items for the girls.

handwriting practice

If you haven't broken your neck already trying to read what she has written, here are some pointers on how writing skills can be improved without having to break your neck trying to make them sit and write the same old alphabets:

1) Use writing as more of a fun activity for writing on cards.
2) Make loads of lists. List out the name of the people in your family, the name of her dolls/cars, his/her favourite list of things colours etc.

3) The numbers of your mobile phone.

4) Pretend play of taking orders of your breakfast/lunch/dinner.

5) Writing the body parts and sticking them on a human body chart.

6) Writing the name of his/her school etc.

Speaking of handwriting, I feel it is very important for parents to stress on correct formation of letters right from the beginning so that they dont fall into a habit of writing the letters the wrong way. A same letter can be written in various ways to form the same letter by putting the later strokes first and the starting stroke in the end. This can be a problem in the later years when you get into a habit of writing it the other way round. Hence, it is important to sit with your child while she practices her writing and not leave it on her to finish the work and just see the end product.

Until they get into the keyboard world, you can encourage them to write as much as they can. A blank page of a handwriting book sounds as much boring to me now as much it was when I was my child's age. I was always inspired by my parents' and grandparents' handwritings as a child. I loved watching the beautiful formation of letters when a postcard from my grandparents came home.

Enjoy writing with him/her. Let her see how you write. And let her fall in love with her own handwriting.

Nicknames

My daughters' nicknames are Rhu and Jia. Rhu told me that she had mentioned to her transport lady teacher that her nickname is 'Sol'. I was surprised and asked her why she said her nickname was 'Sol' since her nickname was 'Rhu'. She insisted "No, my nickname is 'Sol'". I again said, "No Rhu, your nickname is Rhu."

Who told you your nickname is 'Sol'? "You", she said. That is when it struck me, I had mentioned once that her nickname meant 'Soul'. Lol

Jia means heart in Hindi. Rhu means soul.

Immediately I took out my sketch pens and drew a heart shape and wrote her little sister's name on it "Jia". Inside the heart, I made another heart shape and wrote "Rhu" on it. She then said, "No, Mummy its all wrong. I am the big one, I will be the big heart, Jia will be the small heart (or soul)".

How would you explain 'soul' to a 4 year old?

Search

For your inner self...
For what makes you smile...
For what brings the twinkle in your eye...
For what you can give to the world...
For what you will be blessed with when you were not searching at all. 

The seed to Papercrafting!

Bits of Paper, Bits of Paper, Lying on my bed...
Yesterday my four year old daughter asked for scissors and reached for her pastel colours. I thought to myself this is going to be another cutting and scribbling exercise, like any other afternoon. And I will have to endure another no sleep afternoon. But to my surprise the cutting and scribbling suddenly turned out to be a work of mixed media. She had decided to place the cut pieces together based on her own imagination and created a cute dog. Was really surprised with the work of art. It could very well grow into the art of papercrafting. Thus bringing alive how children can see patterns even in random objects and create works of art even when there are no specific instructions. And often we as parents over do our instructions. Are you guilty of asking your child to fill the boxes, or colour within the lines. Help your child go beyond boundaries and let her colour the grass red and the sky orange. You will be amazed what young minds are capable of when they are left to explore on their own a myriad of shapeless new shapes and images...

Reading phonics

While I was busy with my 7 month old, I gave my 3.5 year old active young girl, DD a big chart paper and pencils, primarily to keep her quiet while I attended to the needs of the baby. DD as I had rightly guessed got engrossed in creating her masterpiece. After a while when I happened to see her finished work lying unnoticed on the table, I was partly surprised and also happy to see the improvement in her drawing. Her earlier drawings used to be focussed on a the face. Now, her drawings are beginning to include hands and legs and look more like a 'homo sapien'. It goes on to show the development in her observation skills.

Here is what she made. I appreciated her drawing and asked her whom she had made and she said the drawing was of her friend 'Titli'. Titli was a friend from India who had come to stay in Malaysia for a short while (returned to India now) and both had become quite pally with one another. No doubt she misses her dear friend while Mummy misses chatting with her mummy too.


To appreciate her effort I put it up on her room door and was watching it when an idea struck me. I brought out my set of empty stickers, called DD. I kept pointing at each and every element in her drawing and together we spelled out the name of the parts and wrote them letter by letter and stuck them to the chart paper. It was something very involving and fun for DD while she brushed up on her phonic skills....unknowingly.

Super creative waste recycling ideas

1. A dollhouse for DD with all the present boxes and cardboard boxes. It had side doors, an open roof and an attic too.

Family Portraits

While I cooked in the kitchen, DD brought out her favorite doodle set gifted by her Uncle who stays in USA and told me that she wanted to draw the baby. The curious 'me', immediately dropped the ladle to catch a glimpse of our 'to-be-born' baby and this is what she drew.

Then, Mummy said, "Now can you draw Mummy and the baby?"

She said, "No, first I will draw Baba (Daddy)".

Mummy said, "Ok, you draw Baba first". Here's how Baba looks like.

Then, Mummy said, "How about drawing Mumma now?" (hoping to see a fat-fat preggy me)

"No. Now I will draw ME."

"Ok!," said Mummy. "It's my turn now".

"Ok!" She said....

....and this is how Mummy looks like...

Poor Mummy!!! Cheeky Monkey!

At Peace with Pastels!

Daddy's again having his spurt of creativity. This time its with pastel colours. Daddy just loves immersing himself in his world of solitude on some of those wonderful weekends bringing 'life' to blank paper. Ruhani too loves these times with Daddy trying her hand (with pastel rubbed all over her hands, dress and also on paper).

Here are some of Ruhani and Daddy's creations. While the duo are at work, the 'heavily preggy Mommy' (who else but me) relaxes on the sofa. The music in the background fills the air. The heart fills with pride. The hours pass and the seldom found 'silence' in the house is again lost in oblivion. Enjoy the pictures of Ruhani followed by her Daddy.

Imagination

An artist uses his imagination to paint vivid pictures with his or her brush strokes. An author sketches the same out in words. When you read a book you are transported in an era where the author has decided to take you whether it is the dinosaur age, the modern times on Earth or on the Maritian land.

Nowadays children are too busy going from class to class trying to acquire various qualities that will boost their persona. Most parents forget that a child needs to play to be creative. Let your child play as much as they can.
 
Take your brain on a rollercoaster ride.

 DD's latest fascination has been aligning up shoes and socks to make a rollercoaster. She had recently seen the rollercoaster at Times Square. Since then, shoes and socks are taken out often inviting Mummy and Baba to sit in her rollercoaster. Anyone interested in a rollercoaster ride, just jump in.

A free mind loves to indulge in creativity. Watch your child as he merrily spins his own pretend games and plays to let his or her imagination soar.  

Honesty is the best policy

Its not uncommon for parents to commit mistakes. And when they do, its quite amusing when your little one points it out to you on your face. Our daughter had been reprimanded a few times for having tried out her drawing skills on this very wall.

The other day, daddy tried throwing an object on the wall which said it had vanishing ink, but the ink didnt vanish and left a mark on the wall...to the greatest annoyance of Mummy.



DD (already knows the answer coz she has asked it several times now): Mumma, Who did that?
Mumma: Baba did it.
DD (shaking her head in disapproval) : Oh Baba! He is very very naughty. (lol)
Mumma (pondering later): A mistake is a mistake is a mistake. Its better to admit it truthfully if I want her to be truthful too later.

Painting personalized cards

Occasions like birthdays are the best time for children to shower their love. What better to say it with when one can use one's own hard work and creativity to make something that is truly their own.

The world's most exciting achievement for my daughter is having a 'Birthday' - Cutting the cake, blowing the candles, getting birthday cards and recieving presents, something we adults also enjoy. DD hums the popular birthday song on Playhouse Disney Channel about Birthdays being 'special' with birthday parties, birthday cakes. "We love birthdays. Have a happy special, wonderful, magical Playhouse Disney Birthday".

Goes without saying that Baba's darling wanted to make Baba's Birthday 'special' too.

She insisted that we buy a cake and birthday card for Papa. So, I bought a cake while hubby was in office and a card from my side. She of course blew one side of the candles before Baba could blow them out.

As for the card, we decided to make it at home. I sat the earlier evening to help her make a birthday card for Papa.

She loves playing with watercolours. So, she readily agreed when I asked her if she wanted to paint a card for Baba. I decided to keep the water away so she doesnt destroy her painting by flooding it with water. She enjoyed opening the tubes, dabbling some paint on to the brush and putting it on paper. She would not let me touch her brush though. So, I let her do whatever she wanted on it. I asked her to make a 'sun' in the beginning but it turned out, she wanted to make 'Baba'.

And wasn't Baba pleased? Sure he was.

That's 'Baba' and 'DD' enjoying their dinner date together to celebrate the happy and special day.

How to make a Pirate Hat

Ahoy there! Recently we were invited to a pirate themed birthday party where DD had to wear a pirate dress.

Here is a pirate hat that I made for my daughter. Its quite simple to make.

1. All you have to do is grab 3 sheets of newspaper (two sided- no half sheets) for making a sturdy hat.
2. Spread it out infront of you sideways.
3. If you fold on the front at the middle from both sides (leave a little bit of space in the middle), 4. Take the first 3 sheets, fold them up and crease it. Do the same on the back side of the hat.
5. Measure your child's head size and staple it on both sides of the head so that it fits nicely on the head. Now the base of the hat is done.
6. You may use black construction paper or paint to colour the hat. I painted the hat black and sketched a skull on it to give it the pirate hat look.
7. I also added ribbons to the hat so that it could be fastened on her neck.

There you go, Mates! Your hat is done.

Dabbling with water colours...

Isn't it fun to pick up a paint brush and a box of water colours a jar of water and see your child pour his/her creative juices on paper. When letting your toddler enjoy watercolours, remember that 'Play' should be the keyword.

Let the flow of the brush, the dabbling of paint and water take its course on paper. Once they are done, you can pose a question, "I wonder what this looks like?"

These are some of the paintings that my two and half year old daughter created with her dad's participation over a period of two weekends and also the original titles of the paintings as she thought it depicted.

Title: A House in the Clouds


Title: The hiding sun


Title: A rose

Title: The Green Jungle

Title: 'Ellie' - The Elephant

Some of these paintings have been slightly modified to give it some shape to make it more meaningful for her. She is beginning to understand how a blend of colours can bring out a beautiful picture.

It is important to encourage them to enjoy the watercolours and 'discover' what they made instead of teaching them various techniques of handling the colours.

Your child has a lot of potential

Discover it. There was a 'Mommy and Me Weekend' held at Bangsar Village a while back where my daughter's School Principal requested me to take her to show her development on her 'Reading abilities'. Frankly, I was quite sceptical whether she would be able to say or read anything on the stage but her Principal sounded quite confident about her.
It teaches not to underestimate the potential of kids. Also, it fills my heart with love and pride. Her Principal was so happy that she took her to a cartoonist who immediately sketched out her caricature and also another girl who made a painting on her hand. My daughter was overjoyed.

An Artsee p'Art'y

What do you expect FOUR friends to do, that too 'women' (two married with no kids, one with a baby, the other with a toddler) when they come together on a lazy afternoon. No, they dont gossip about the latest scandal in town, they dont bitch about their friends and colleagues, or talk about how frustrating it could get at times with kids, or how respective hubbies haven't been taking their responsibilities seriously or how the maid spends hours chatting to her boyfriend on her phone.

They grab pieces of paper and create what may be called 'Art'. That is how it was on 13th May when my friends came over for a different sort of party. It was an 'Artsee' Party. Some even came armed with their own tools and paper and invoked Goddess Saraswati before they began (atleast that's my interpretation). That's my talented friend Vedanti all set for the show. (I've skipped uploading your drawing as per your request, but i think it was done beautifully and is worth sharing.)

It was heartwarming to see our new & busy mommy also pitch in to let out her creative spirit. Three Cheers to Mommy Sneha for being such a sport. She drew like a pro, just picked up the pencil and started sketching and was done in no time, while all of us still unsure what to draw watched with our eyeballs popping out. Talking of eyeballs, the one with the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen, Mouli drew her most favourite subject, 'the eyes'. She is not only a talented singer, a successful dancer, but also an artist, a 'truly creative' person amongst us. I was amazed at her drawing of the eyes.

Her art which she termed 'unfinished' had such magnetic charm I could just sit and admire it for hours.

I also could not resist myself from picking up the pencils and letting my heart out. Although I completed this the morning after when my daughter left for school.

Do you know that the age group of this fun afternoon party started from age two.

Yes, that's my daughter sitting with all of us, pouring all her creative juices on paper, (doing more of scribbling than drawing). She wanted everyone's approval after she made a stroke on paper. So, she was becoming more of a nuisance than anything else. She soon lost interest like all two year olds (with very low attention span) and ran off to play with her blocks.

Everything else beside the flower on the picture below is her masterpiece. :D

She had drawn daddy for the 'nth' time on her doodle set too. I am soo jealous.

We would have also invited our youngest and cutest friend, six month old 'Aarav', Sneha's son to join his artee elders. Anyway, next time Aarav! He instead chose to give us a different talent show altogether. Isn't he simply adorable?

Thanks everyone for coming over and being such a sport for the memorable party! It was indeed fun.