Thursday, November 17, 2011

Skin tone

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Kylie has been interested in skin tone recently. She wanted to know "why some people are peach, some people are light brown, medium brown or dark brown?"

Karen and I really got into our reply. We talked about your family of origin and which continent that family was from. We got out the globe and pointed to different continents and skin tones of people there. Mostly our explanation went way over her head.

Later that day, she asked me the same question again.

I borrowed a line from a movie and answered, "Because God loves wondrous variety." (Extra credit if you can name that movie in the comments.)

Here is some artwork that reflects how Kylie is trying to work out this question of skin tones with her art. I just love her rainbow people!

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5 comments:

brave angel said...

that quote is from robin hood prince of thieves!

Wendy and Karen said...

Brave angel, you got it!!

Cricket said...

We approached the topic a little different when our son was five. (His best friend is black.) We explained that we all have different levels of melatonin in our skin. And then we explained why melatonin is different for different areas of the globe. He got that skin tone differences are just that - skin deep. I love that he is color blind in a way that no one of my generation is.

However, I had to laugh a couple of days later when I heard him explaining to someone that his friend Mike had more lemon in his skin then they did. He remembered the concept, not so much the word.

Kerry Lynn said...

AH! I knew that was Robin Hood too. I can just hear Morgan Freeman saying it.

Kerry Lynn said...

oh, we haven't approached that subject yet. I actually love that they haven't asked because I hope that means they don't notice...you know, people are just people and we all look different.