Shades of Blue

There's a sweet fair-skinned kindergarten boy at our school, one I check on each morning. His goal is to use self-control when he's angry. Each day, his teacher gives him a 1-10 score based on how well he controlled his emotions the previous day, and the child colors in the corresponding number of boxes on a vertical bar graph. For instance, if he did really well and earned a score of 8, he'd color 8 boxes stacked on top of each other. We call this a rainbow chart because each day's stripe is usually a different color, and the page ends up looking pretty and bright like a rainbow. Well one day last week, I mentioned to the little boy that his chart had all blue stripes, differing SHADES of blue, but all blue nonetheless. It was really kind of peaceful looking! I pointed out that my favorite was the blue-green stripe because it reminded me of the Caribbean Sea. At the time I made this comment, my friend was in the process of coloring that day's stripe. He said, "I think I like THIS blue the best." Reading the label, we discovered that he had chosen plain old blue, which was the color of faded denim. Although the boy had already begun coloring his chart, he stopped, put his crayon down, and held up the ziplock bag of crayons. Running his hands through the bag, he picked up each blue he found to see if it appeared to be blue-green. There were several shades of blue in the bag...blue violet, cerulean, and sky blue, to name a few. Poring through the bag's contents, the child was intent on finding that elusive blue-green crayon. Several times, because he couldn't read some of the labels, he made a mark on the back of the chart to check out the hue. Although I was in a hurry and had lots of children to see in a short amount of time, I sensed that it was important for me to be patient and wait. Finally, the child and I discovered that my elusive blue-green crayon actually looked black until it was used, and then the vibrant color became evident. With a relieved grin, my kindergarten friend proceeded to color over the blue he'd started with and to make that day's stripe my favorite blue-green. Since this little boy wanted to honor me by choosing the color I liked best, I know that the extra time I spent with him that morning was worthwhile, and my heart was warmed by his affection.