Book of Colors

Earlier this week I had the idea of posting Zechariah's book of colors. I made it for him when he was a baby and I'm surprised it has lasted this long. It's truly a keepsake!

I am very happy to announce that Zechariah can see all the colors of the rainbow!!! There has been some discussion over the past couple of years as to whether or not he could see all the colors. We knew he wasn't colorblind in the typical way of red/green; we had suspicion of the blue/yellow. The thing about colorblindness, it's not always hereditary. It can be caused by a head injury. If you remember, when Zech was two years old he had a very severe concussion. He couldn't walk straight, he was throwing up all over the place, and I couldn't wake him up from his sleep. It was a very scary time, and I figured if losing a couple colors were the worst thing that happened that day, we would be okay. Things could have been much worse.

Our suspicions began when we would play a color game in the car. Every day we play; it's an ongoing thing. We look for all the yellow cars, and race to be the first to yell it out. We've been doing this for a couple of years and Zechariah had never found a yellow car. His brother and sister were always winning the game, and Zech was very frustrated. He would yell out, "Yellow Car", but it almost always was red, or sometimes white. He was very confused.

At his last physical exam, he was tested on his colors. He couldn't do it. The doctor suggested we call an eye doctor and set up an appointment before he starts kindergarten. Yesterday, he was tested and passed with flying colors. He can see!

The couple days before his appointment, I brought out his old baby book of colors. We tested him on that thing for hours and hours. When he began he was very confused and by the end I was certain he just memorized it. The day of his appointment as we were driving there, I asked Zech to find me a yellow car. He spotted a bus with a yellow stripe and told me, "There's a car with a little yellow on it." I cried. I knew he was going to be okay. He likes to scare me, but in the end God always comes through and it turns out to be nothing. Zechariah means, "God has remembered."

Making the color book was so much fun. I chose a few colors for Zechariah to be, and then asked for all our family members to participate. We gathered all different color objects, different color clothes, and different colored blankets. Each person chose which color they wanted to be, and we tried to include objects that you would associate with that person. After the pictures were taken, I went through and edited some more of the color into them. I painted walls with Photoshop, and changed things to match better.

When we were done, I printed 4x6 pictures, and laminated them together, front and back. Each page would open to a different color. On one side it would read, "Zechariah is Blue" and on the opposite side would be a picture of Zechariah surrounded by blue things. When the pictures were all laminated, we simply put a coil binding on them. The book has held up really well through the years. I can attest to the fact that Zechariah really did learn his colors from the book. It worked!


























For the last page of the book I thought it would be fun to add Zech sleeping in a rainbow. I lined up several different colored construction papers all around his body. I then made them brighter in Photoshop.


This is a great keepsake for any kid. My older two wish I would have made them one when they were babies!