Parra the Parrot

Parra is a cheerful little parrot with bright, soft feathers and a very special gift: Parra loves to say where. Not just “there” - Parra says the real place-words. Top. Bottom. Corner. Beside. Above. Parra lives on Tila’s quilt, and Parra’s happy job is to name where each patch sits.

The quilt has four corners and lots of patches, and sometimes a little friend cannot find the right spot. They point everywhere at once - “here? here? here?” - and get in a muddle. That is when Parra flutters down, because Parra has one gentle idea, and it is this: “Say WHERE, and your finger will know just where to go.”

So when Tila needs a patch in the top-left corner, Parra sings it out clear: “Top… left… corner!” And suddenly the muddle melts away. The child’s eyes go up, and left, to the corner - and there is the spot. When you name the place, your finger knows.

Parra never just flaps and rushes. Parra says the word slowly, so the place becomes clear: “Bottom… right.” “Up… top.” “This… corner.” Each place-word is like a little map made of sound. Say it, and the way opens.

That is Parra’s whole gentle teaching.

Say where - top, bottom, corner, beside - and your finger finds the place.

If a patch is lost, Parra never says “hurry.” Parra says the place. “Top-left corner,” Parra repeats, warm and calm, until the child’s finger lands right where the word points. Then Parra does a happy little wing-flap: “Yes! That’s the place!”

A grown-up can play too! You can be Parra. Hide a little toy, then tell your child where with real place-words: “It’s in the TOP corner.” “It’s BESIDE the cushion.” “Look at the BOTTOM.” Watch how the words guide the finger. Then swap - let your child hide a toy and tell you the place. Point at a big square drawn on paper and name its parts together: “top-left corner… bottom-right corner… this side… that side.”

That is naming where. Every patch sits somewhere - a top, a bottom, a corner, a side. When you say the place out loud, your eyes and your finger know exactly where to go.

When the word lands and the finger finds the spot and the patch slips home, Parra feels a warm, bright chirp of gladness - the happy click of a word and a place fitting together perfectly. Parra puffs its little chest. “There,” Parra sings. “You named it, and you found it. Words show the way.”

And Parra flutters from corner to corner of the finished quilt, naming each snug place, glad that every patch has a where - and a name to find it by.