The Color of Our Family

A couple of days ago, my 6 year old daughter was drawing a picture for a homeschooling project.  She drew our family -- large round circles for bodies and sticks poking out for arms and legs.  

She worked carefully for a long time.  I noticed her digging through her coloring bin for just the right crayons.  After awhile, she brought me the finished product.  

“So, tell me all about it!” I said.

She carefully explained that she’d drawn each person in our family with their proper skin color (normally she is all about blue and green and purple people).  I studied the drawing in more detail and realized she’d done exactly that.  

“I drew Dad black,” she said, “because he’s the darkest one in our family.”

“You’re right,” I replied.  “He’s the darkest one.”

“And then I drew Michael in dark brown, because he’s the next darkest one.  And I drew me in light brown, because I’m not quite as dark as Michael is.  And then I drew you in pink and tan, because you’re not really brown, but you’re kind of pink-tan.”  

I smiled and gave her a huge hug.  “You know, honey, you did an excellent job showing how different we all are!” 

I thought about her picture as she headed out to the living room to play with her brother.  I’m so glad that she feels free to express the differences she sees in our family.  I’m glad that she knows this is a safe place to work out skin colors and other things like that.  

And I feel happy that for her, having different skin colors in a family is normal and simply requires a little creativity in the crayon department.

*****

Two missing teeth on the bottom!

Happy to be $2 richer!