Little Krish was in LKG back in 2017 when I met him for the first time at our Pre-school. One fine morning, his entire class was busy making a free hand art work in a plain piece of paper. The kids seemed excited as the teacher encouraged them to draw anything they liked. I could see many swiggles and swirls being casted in their sheets along with their sweet little giggles. Oh the joy in their faces! So precious!

It was time to wind up and as a pre-schooler, is there anything more fun than to show off your art work to the entire class? The kids got ready and were eager to show their drawings and explain about it to their peers and class teacher. Among the Trains, butterflies, fairies, space, robots that we saw there was this art work that captured my eyes – Little Krish had drawn a farm with bits and pieces of plants and other cute things scattered all over his sheet, we saw a huge apple coloured blue and lovely flowers coloured black. The class laughed as he explained that his apple is blue and his flowers are black. I had to step in now!

As our little krish blushed with shame and disappointment, I quietly went near him gave him a warm smile and a good job pat on his shoulders. I said “Oh what a lovely drawing Krish! Absolutely beautiful. I love your unique thoughts on using your crayons”. The early childhood educator in me had to step up too, when we are keen on teaching colours, fruits and shapes to kids I also felt the urge to let him know something more, we looked at our fruits and flowers book and observed the colours and we let the kids speak about them too.

Every child is born with infinite skills, but as their childhood journey continues it is us adults who hinder their growth in the name of correcting them, showing them what is right or what is wrong without allowing their beautiful little minds to function on its own, figure things out and learn through mistakes. Let us remember the words of the famous cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead “Children must be taught How to think and not what to think”. We at Lexicon Kids greatly celebrate the thought process of our little learners, we respect their opinions and encourage them to express themselves with confidence.

So the next time when Apples are blue and Violets are Black – Let us celebrate!

Nina Diju
Principal
Lexicon Kids Vishrantwadi