Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Red Means Stop

IntelliGent is completely fixated on stop signs and traffic lights, right now. Every day, he leads conversations about the what the colors on the traffic light mean. These conversations usually start in this way:

"Red means stop. Green means go. Yellow means slow down." 

These statements are then followed by his latest thoughts on the subject. For a time, he was concerned because red and yellow make orange, not green. He's tried to determine why blue and purple are not found on a traffic light.

IntelliGent ready to hit the road - 21 months old

Music is a huge part of IntelliGent's life. Though he is just starting to sing along with songs, he will often request that I sign to him. As you can imagine, he loves the traffic light song (sung to the tune of The Farmer In the Dell)

Red means stop
Red means stop
When we're at the traffic light
Red means stop

verse 2 - Green means go, etc.
verse 3 - Yellow means slow, etc.

Every time IntelliGent sees the color red, even on something as innocent as a flower in a story book, the conversation starts over again. Sometimes these are the first words out of his mouth when he wakes up. 

I've even heard him talking about them in his sleep. 


It's not just traffic lights that have captured IntelliGent's attention, but stop signs as well. We count them as we take walks or drive around town. He readily identifies the octagonal shape long before we're close enough to read the word. Today, during school, he was frustrated because his octagonal shape card was black, not red. After all, octagons are red. 

With all this focus on stop signs, I shouldn't have been surprised when he started spelling the word STOP. This was immediately followed by questions what letters were in GO and SLOW.

It will be interesting to see how long this fixation lasts and what captures his attention next.

4 comments:

  1. Yes, I can see why a black rectangle would be frustrating at this stage. So glad you are enjoying the journey with a blog, this way we hear more also.

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    1. Thank you for joining us on the adventure. :)

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  2. When I was a young child in Sunday School, we sang a song that went "Stop! And let me tell you, what the Lord has done for me...." Then there was a verse that began "Go and tell the story of what the Lord has done for you..... The teacher hand large stop and go signs as props. I've not heard it since the 1960's, but it might be something you could find on the internet!

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    1. I don't have the visuals, but I am very familiar with the song. I think I'll introduce it to him tomorrow.

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