Open Your Eyes -- Contrasts are Everywhere -- Don't Waste Your Money
May 15 '00
In short: Contrasts are everywhere, and your child will find them
whether they're on a toy, on a card, or somewhere else. There's no need to buy b&w toys to supplement the amazing world around your baby.
Open Your Eyes
Most of us spend a lot of time going through life using our eyes but not really noticing what we see. Take a look around the room you are in right now. Can you find areas of light? Dark areas? Lines of contrast between them?
My guess is that you've been able to find them everywhere. So can your baby -- especially because she hasn't yet learned to ignore her surroundings. When my son, Noah was only a few days old, he easily found the greatest sources of contrast in our house: lamps (especially a certain black halogen one) and ceiling fans. These are still his favorite non-living things to look at. He would stare at these objects for a long time, learning about bright, dark, shape and change on his own.
Upon reflection, it's not surprising that the contrasts your baby enjoys are common in his environment. The very thing a baby is first interested in wouldn't be marginal, would it? No -- in fact, it may be precisely because contrasts are such an important and common aspect of our existence that babies work on mastering them first.
The point is that there's no need to buy flash cards to introduce your baby to contrasts when they're everywhere to begin with.
The Eyes Don't Have it
A handful of black and white toys have made their way to our baby Noah's toybox through baby showers and the good ol' hand-me-down method. When we give him a soft book of black and white shapes, what happens first? He grabs it. What happens next? He chews it.
In general, I've noticed that the toys he plays with aren't enjoyable because of how they look, but because of how they feel to his hands or taste in his mouth. Touch and taste seem to be higher priorities to him with these toys -- perhaps because he can see things at will, but handling and munging are more rare treats. They may be black and white, but it's that they're drooled all over that matters.
In sum
Every baby's different, and maybe there are some kids who go gaga for high-contrast flash cards. But I bet there are a lot more who follow their bliss and find contrast where it naturally lies. We already spend so much on items our babies need -- why spend more on what they've already got around them?
-James Cook
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Epinions.com ID:
jamesmcook
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Member: James Cook
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Reviews written: 167
Trusted by: 40 members
About Me:
I am a father, writer and gregarious gadabout.
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