Color Value

The boys put great value on things that are rare.

Ryan(8) has always used scarcity as an argument for a possession’s treasurability. He has boxes and boxes of rare rocks, sticks, pieces of paper, paper clips, rubber bands, rubber balls, plastic coins, pennies, coupons, voided credit cards, string, pencils and countless other items that absolutely-under-no-circumstances to be discarded.   They are all one of a kind. I threw away a paper towel roll the other day and he actually made the argument for keeping it because it was the ONLY one in the house that didn’t have any paper towels on it.   That makes it valuable!   It has obtained treasure status. The boys are very versed on what toys are rare.   What Lego minifigures were discontinued.   What DS games are difficult to find retail.   The deeper the eBay search required, the more priceless the item. Reid(6) was assigned at school his very first essay.   It was a paragraph about his favorite colors.   The writing instructions were very specific about how each sentence would be structured. I helped him follow the directions and he came up with a very nice paragraph by mommy standards.

I have two favorite colors.   My favorite colors are purple and red.   My first favorite color is purple.   I like purple because it used to be a rare color.   My second favorite color is red.   I like red because it is the color of fire.   My two favorite colors were worn by kings.

Reid read it aloud proudly.   I smiled and nodded.   Rhett(4) continued coloring and Ryan said, “Are you going to have to read that in class?” Reid: If the teacher tells me to. Ryan:   You CANNOT use purple as a favorite color if you are going to read it in front of class. Me:   RYAN!   Don’t say such a silly thing.   He can have ANY favorite color he wants. Ryan:   Mom.   In first grade purple is a GIRL color.   He can’t read that in class. Me:   RYAN!   Stop!   Everyone in Reid’s class can SEE he is a boy no matter what color is his favorite. Ryan:   His favorite color isn’t even purple! Reid:   Ryan, I chose purple because of YOU.   You said it was RARE. Rarity won out and Reid decided that he could handle any aftermath of a marginally girly color essay reading because he could teach his classmates about it’s value.