TCKs Colour their World

(originally posted at wycliffe.ca on 2016-06-21)

One of the jobs of a parent is to teach their children vocabulary. From a young age, infants are taking in enormous amounts of information about the world about them. As they hit the toddler years they begin to express themselves with one or two words. Short sentences come next, so we find it much easier to understand them.

With school-age children vocabulary might be more difficult to define, and instead of being able to hold up a cup and show them what a cup is, you have a word like lonely which can be best understood through examples and stories. That is when parents can sit with their children in different situations and help them understand what they are experiencing and feeling. It isn't always about fixing the situation, it's about helping them understand what's going on, helping them to be able to communicate with words or other healthy forms what is inside of them.

There are a number of times I've sat with children, helping them to find the right words to express what they are feeling inside. One way to do this is using art. Five colours represent five emotions. Usually we work with coloured paper, sometimes crayons or coloured pencils are used for littler ones. After learning which colour represents which emotion, they are given the task of creating something that looks like how they feel. Having multiple colours to work with lets each child know that it is okay to feel more than one emotion at a time even if they seem like opposites. You might be surprised at what children might come up with. Teardrops of all the different colours glued onto a white paper represent angry tears, happy tears, sad tears, afraid tears, and tears of embarrassment on a background of fear. A 3d cube made up of happy yellow but filled with jaggedly ripped pieces of angry red, and sad blue; very few know what is hidden inside him, behind the smiles he feels he has to wear at all times. We can then help them find the right words to express themselves.

I recently taught this technique to a colleague of mine. As she explained this project to the parents, their five-year old grabbed some coloured pencils and paper and proceeded to draw out what he was feeling inside! All of a sudden mom and dad had a way to ask their son how he was doing with all the change going on. They were able to give him the words to explain what he drew, to explain what he felt. What a gift for all of them.

One of my roles in Wycliffe is TCK care, helping missionary kids in this life their family lives. My main goal, as I see it, is to equip parents for the challenges that are unique to raising missionary kids. It is something I look forward to doing and am grateful that in my first week in this particular role I have already been able to help a family.