01/11/17

Design education: My First Book of Patterns

illustration

The toddler years are defined by social, intellectual and even emotional development. As the name suggests ‘to toddle’ is to unsteadily navigate your early years which makes these years, between the ages of one and three, ideal ones to encourage the child to see colours and shapes as a way of visually identifying and labelling everyday objects.

My First Book of Patterns sets out to do exactly that. Conceived by Montessori educators Bobby and June George, illustrated by Boyoun Kim and published by Phaidon, this bold and vibrant picture card book combines the familiar concepts of shapes and colour to explain the concept of patterns.

Colours and shapes imagined in different shades and sizes – in stripes, rectangles, polka dots, chevron – set out to empower the reader with the knowledge to visually identify and label everyday patterns.

With the turn of a page, a line becomes stripes and a circle become polka dots. These effortless transitions introduce children to patterns by breaking them down into parts, so the early mind of a child can understand how they are created and then identify them in real life.

The book concentrates on the ten most common patterns presented as a single element. For instance, a circle is first seen as a simple circle, then it appears as polka dots representing a combination of circles and an illustration features the pattern in a familiar scene such as a breakfast table set with polka dot napkins.

My First Book of Patterns will engage the visual and linguistic parts of the toddler’s mind. It could even unleash the early designer in your child.

My First Book of Patterns, written by Bobby and June George and illustrated by Boyoun Kim, is published by Phaidon.

Images © Phaidon.

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