An Apple a Day: Colouring Fun
This is a colouring book with a tale of its own linking several nursery rhymes into the story of Red Riding Hood. In this way, it becomes an educational tool with a few first aid tips, as well as ideas on how to stay healthy. In addition to colouring, there is a maths activity (with genuine stamps), a geography activity (when the ambulance travels to the hospital) and a crossword. It’s a very straight-forward and fun way of teaching a few life skills as you guide your child through it, remembering that colouring in and of itself is a therapeutic activity.
In the centrefold of the colouring book, I’ve designed features a maths activity. There is a series of stamps which are arranged in multiples, which the child can count and fill the gaps (as illustrated). Not only is it fun for the child to see and feel the stamps, but perhaps he/she might turn into philatelists themselves! This page displays far more than the multiples required for a basic maths understanding. If you look at the text, there’s a reference to Red Riding Hood who got lost because she was picking flowers for Grandma. The inference is that when someone goes to hospital or is sick, it’s customary to bring that person flowers to cheer him/her up. In this case proteas, with the King Protea (Protea cynaroides) as main feature because it’s South Africa’s National Flower. It’s right in the centre of South Africa’s coat of arms and is “an emblem of the beauty of South Africa and the flowering of our potential as a nation in pursuit of the African Renaissance”. In addition it’s interesting to note that a protea symbolises change and transformation across cultures. As for the stamps themselves, this is South Africa’s Third Definitive issue (1977), as opposed to “Commemorative”, to commemorate a specific occurrence or date. It consists of 21 stamps, including coil stamps, and is ideal because of the number of values I have access to. I’ve placed some stamps from the previous Definitive issue (1974) as well as a few Commemorative stamps here to fill the gaps that are repetitive or to aid counting.
The colouring book has a medical theme, which is why the 20 February 1986 “Donate Blood”- set is ideal for these spaces. The 12c stamp displays people donating blood, the 30c one an accident victim. The 20c and 25c stamps are a bit more difficult to get hold of, but display a baby receiving blood and an operation in progress respectively.
The following page in the book is a “Did you know?” … the first heart transplant operation took place right here in South Africa, with the 1969 2½ stamp commemorating it. Here the reader can see what Dr Barnard looked like and also learn that not all patients survive their stay in hospital since the first heart transplant patient, Louis Washkansky, did not survive (an introduction to the following page displaying Snow White in her coffin). The main purpose of this page is for the child to draw his/her feelings because we’re not only looking at their physical heart, but at heart sore (or emotions, be they happy or sad) as well. In this way, the book becomes a comprehensive teaching tool, covering far more than the mere activity of colouring in.
SPELLING CROSSWAYS
Since creating this colouring book I decided it might be a good idea for it to have a crossword as well. You see, the book includes a geography activity where the reader needs to help the ambulance take its patients to a hospital. Pietermaritzburg is the ideal city for this – not only does it have a church in Church Street and a McDonalds in Burger Street, but there’s a Medi-Clinic/Hospital in Payn Street. This is exactly where the problem arose: You don’t spell “pain” that way – what better way to solve the problem than to put it into a crossword where its spelling needs to be correct? The crossword does more than this. Any teacher will tell you that if you want to teach so that your learners remember, you have to repeat yourself. This crossword does just that: It reiterates all the concepts taught in the book and adds a few more, e.g. “This wise bird lived in an oak; the more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard. Who is this wise old bird?”(another nursery rhyme).
Since working on this project I’ve been shocked to discover how many children don’t know nursery rhymes! As a matter of fact, I’ve had an adult approach me not knowing what an “apple a day” keeps away. These elementary stepping stones of our childhood should not get lost and perhaps this book is a way of keeping them alive: Starting with Humpty Dumpty, moving on to Miss Muffet, Jack and Jill and encompassing fairy tales such as Red Riding Hood, Goldie Locks and Snow White.
KNOW WHITE: SNOW WHITE
Snow White is a story about looks, looking and being looked at, a glittery tale of a window, a snowfall, a mirror, and a coffin made of glass. The females in it are a good mother who looks out the window at a fresh snowfall, a bad mother who looks only at her own reflection in the mirror, and a daughter who lies still as death and is looked at. Clearly I didn’t place a picture of the coffined Snow White into the colouring book, because of all the myths associated with it. I did it in order for children to understand that not all those who go to hospital end up coming out of there jumping for joy, Humpty Dumpty and Louis Washkansky being the other examples that appear in the book. In an effort to help grieving children, I wanted to show them that this too is part of life and that you can colour it to help you feel better – better still – write about it, draw it (as I encourage on the previous page when I ask what their hearts look like).
The beauty of any fairy tale is that it says things the way they are: There are ugly trolls and grotesque giants, people bleed and they die, but there’s also life and magic. And so, rather than hiding these aspects of life, let’s talk about them and allow children to express their feelings … as Joan Gould states in the book mentioned above, when Snow White opens her eyes she asks, “Heavens, where am I?” (pp. 37), (and I quote) … which is what all of us want to know when carried beyond ourselves by a transforming experience.