Thanks to Cheryl for Guest Posting again this week! She will be here every Thursday for the entire month of August! Are you guys ready for part two? Did you take the test last week and find out your color? I did, I am a blue! I can’t wait for you guys to find out about me when we get to blue. 
~Kelli
This week we’re going to be discussing another personality color and what it means for us as educators. The flip side of the Red personality (discussed last week) is the lovely Yellow personality. These people make up 35% of the population. And it’s a good thing that they do. They are the people who are gifted with helping others find their way in life. They have such love and compassion and are willing to sacrifice their time and energy to help others grow and fulfill their potential.
Yellow is a fitting color for this personality type. They bring warmth and unconditional love to their family and friends. Yellow is a nurturing color, which displays almost unlimited patience. This personality type is also optimistic, eager to see the bright side of people and events. They epitomize the Christian ideal of “the meek who will inherit the earth.” People are drawn to their warmth and kindness, as a moth to the flame.
I am blessed to have a Yellow child, my daughter Alaya. Although she’s mischievous, she has a great love for people and animals. She sees the world a bit differently than the rest of my family. Where I see a scary bug she sees a little lost creature looking for its mother. (She’s only six and refuses to think that any creature is an adult – they’re all looking for mommy J). She’s very loving and nurturing to animals and to each of us. She’s quick to supply a reason for someone not doing as they are told. She does this, not because she’s looking for excuses, but because she doesn’t want anyone to get into trouble. She’s wants people and things to be harmonious.
One thing about Yellow children that you should know is that they are very, very focused on pleasing you. In one sense that makes teaching them a breeze because you won’t have the power struggles that you run into with a Red or Green child. However, you as the parent and teacher must understand that they are also extremely sensitive to your words and body language. If they feel that they’ve let you down you’ll spend the rest of the day reassuring them of your love and their own ability to overcome whatever is causing them a problem.
Parenting and educating a Yellow can be challenging due to these personality quirks. In my case, I have to be very careful about how I admonish Alaya when she’s doing schoolwork (or for that matter, anything that she’s doing). She is very concerned with pleasing me, and puts a lot of needless stress herself when it comes to doing her work properly. Right now we are working on blending sounds to read unfamiliar words. If she gets it wrong too many times, she’ll start to cry. When that happens, I have to soften my voice and explain how she can correct her mistake. And then, most importantly, I have to encourage her and praise her ability to correct the error, because she has convinced herself that she’s unable to do the work. Yellows need help building up their self-esteem, so the worst thing that you can do is to scold them. They are eager to please, so take a deep breath and relax.
Yellows are highly creative and have vivid imaginations. This can pose a problem when I’m trying to teach. She can get so wrapped up in her imaginative play that she doesn’t really listen to the instructions. Or we’ll be reading a story together. She’ll ask a question and then go off into left field as she begins telling me what should happen in the story. So, it is important to make sure you have their full attention before proceeding; otherwise you’ll pull your hair out. (You can check my head for bald spots — LOL!). It’s also a good idea to include things in your teaching day that will allow this creative genie to come out and play. That way they know that they’ll have their “fantasy hour” once they’ve completed more mundane things.
There’s a Mrs. Piggle Wiggle story about a little boy that is always late. The cause of his lateness isn’t because he oversleeps. No, he’s late because his imagination takes over and he loses all sense of time and priorities. Yellows are prone to that malady. I can send Alaya upstairs to brush her teeth. On her way to the bathroom, she’ll notice a book or a stuffed animal. She’ll forget her first instruction because the item triggers something in her imagination and that’s all it takes.
So, to save myself some aggravation, we have developed code words. So, if I say “hop to it” that means don’t stop for anything short of a fire and get this done. I save this code for when we have appointments. Without this code, it can literally take her an hour to brush her teeth (not joking one little bit folks!)
Yellows can be very distracted, but that’s only because they are so sensitive to their environment. They are generally animal lovers and have great empathy for them. My daughter, for example, will sit for long periods of time just watching the birds and the squirrels. Yellows don’t need television if they have an open window to the outside world of nature.
One way to connect their interests to schooling is to use curriculums or ideas that will encompass some kind of artwork. Charlotte Mason and Oak Meadow’s curriculum encourages nature walks, sketching and other simple, yet effective ways to mesh their passion with learning.
Be mindful, however, that if you use games to reinforce concepts, that Yellows are not very comfortable in competitive situations. They really do want everyone to win and may be so concerned with that that they don’t learn the lessons that you wanted them to learn. I’ve found cooperative play to work best – everyone is working to reunite “someone” who is lost (i.e., “the mommy A has lost her babies. Let’ try to help reunite the family” type of structure.)
Another way to reinforce lessons would be to engage in volunteer activities. For example, if your Yellow child is old enough to help out at an animal shelter, you can have them learn about how much food each animal eats. Then have them figure out how much food it would take to feed a certain amount of animals per week or month. Plant gardens and have them help you work out the details such as the types of flowers or vegetables to grow, how big should the area be, how do we protect the plants from being eaten by wild animals (I live in the country, so that’s actually a big consideration out here!)
These kinds of activities will help them build confidence and give them a sense of accomplishment because they’re helping others. And the need to be useful is very strong within each Yellow person.
Although the Yellow personality is a sweet and gentle one, they will not stand for anyone that they love to be hurt. They may not readily defend themselves, but they will take up for their siblings and others that they consider to be family. They are very protective of those they love and are quite capable of “melting” their foes just as readily as the sun. Do not make take their kindness for weakness. Their aggressive side is hidden beneath layers of kindness, understanding, fair play and gentleness, but once you’ve touched it you’ll be shocked by the level of ferocity with which they can and will attack.
When it comes to siblings, Yellows have to be taught to stand up for their rights. Living with both a Yellow and Red child I can provide you with a perfect example. Alaya wants to eat some potato chips. So, she gets the bag and sits down to eat her chips. Michael (little Red) will walk over to her and grab the bag and start eating. She will tell him that it is her bag, but six times out of ten she’ll let him have it rather than have an argument about it.
The good thing about my Yellow/Red combination is that her little brother has taught her a lot about standing up for principles and her personal rights. When Yellow and Red first starting having conflicts she’d give in 10 out of 10 times! Now the odds are beginning to even out a bit. And if you asked her why she gave him the bag of chips she’d most likely say, “I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.”
Yellow children really need to be taught how to defend their feelings and themselves from people who may try and take advantage of them. One way to do this is by reading books together that highlight a conflict between characters. Barbara Brooks Wallace has provided my little Yellow with lots of food for thought. When we read (or listen to) her books together we try to decide who is the antagonist in the book, what is this person’s motivation for certain actions, and things like that. I’ve seen her discernment grow from these little exercises. In the beginning she took the characters at face value. Now she’s looking for clues for true motivations. And her ability to figure out the mysteries is also growing stronger.
Some famous Yellow personalities include:
- Oprah Winfrey
- Mohandas Gandhi
- Princess Diana
- Mother Teresa
- Siddhartha (Buddha)
- Piglet (from Winnie the Pooh)
By the way, Yellow are also very cuddly people and give great hugs. Make sure you let your little Yellow know just how important they are to your life! The smiles and hugs you’ll get will brighten their (and yours!) day.
Part 1 of 4 can be found HERE.
About Me: My introduction to the world of personalities began about fifteen years ago when I stumbled upon a website called www.advisorteam.com. They offer a free personality test and if you pay a fee you can get your full results. Anyway, I found the descriptions of the four major personality groups fascinating. About two years ago I stumbled upon a free report that broke these four personalities into four colors: Red, Blue, Yellow and Green that has really simplified all the scientific explanations. Before you start trying to figure out what color your children are, you really need to first discover your own. Once you have your own information you’ll be able to adapt your style to fit your children better. You can take this quiz at my website Homeschoolers-Work-At-Home.com. (You’ll get your results instantly.) And it is also good to understand that each of us has each of the four colors in our personality. These articles focus on the dominant color in our daily lives.
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About Kelli
