As a mum of three, a former primary school teacher and now the owner and manager of what2buy4kids.co.uk, I am always thinking about ways to make learning fun and how we can teach our children new skills as they grow. Lately I have been interested in how children learn colours, and how we can best teach them this fundamental skill.
Learning to recognise colours is one of the first skills we teach our children. Many of us assume that children learn colours the same way they learn language. But learning colours needs a different approach than only word repetition. Through my own research, I learned that colour is a difficult concept to grasp at first because it is not something babies can smell, touch or taste. And then once they grasp the concept, children will be able to point out the right colour long before they can say its name. It’s a long process but it can be made fun for all.
One thing we all know is that children learn best when having fun, so I thought I’d share a way I taught my own children their colours and the fun we had along the way.
When the children were about 18 months old, I started pointing out objects and their colour. I would introduce one colour at a time. So, using blue as an example, I would point out everyday objects that were blue. I’d be sure to mention some things they could touch (like a blue toy car) and some things they couldn’t (like the blue sky). This introduced them to the abstract nature of colour.
With the concept of learning one colour at a time introduced, we then started playing the “Colour of the Week” game. Each week I would choose a colour and would highlight that colour in all our daily activities and fun.
Here’s how you can play (using the colour blue as an example):
- In the morning declare that this is the day of the colour blue. Show lots of examples of blue things around baby’s room. Be sure to point out different shades of blue too.
- Get baby dressed in blue clothes (a top or socks, for example). Join in with the fun by wearing blue yourself!
- At mealtimes, eat blueberries, use a blue plastic spoon or drink from a blue cup.
- At playtime, play with blue toys. Maybe the blue toy cars will have a traffic jam, or the blue soft toys will play together. Get your child to actively play with the blue coloured things and give instructions like “hide the blue dinosaur”, “leave the blue toys standing up”, “put the blue block on top of the tower”.
- If your child likes treasure hunts, hide blue things (like toys or even clothes pegs or towels) around the house and set up a hunt and find them together. Give lots of clues and lots of encouragement when the treasures are found!
- When you’re out and about, point out the blue things you see. Maybe there are blue flowers, blue cars, blue doors (and hopefully a blue sky) to admire.
- At activity time, make blue playdough with simple blue food colouring. Try blue baking by adding blue food colouring to icing or even to your cake mix! Paint a blue picture. Top top: When using paint, start with white and then add different amounts of blue to show that blue comes in lots of different shades.
- If you like gardening, think about getting blue gardening tools or plant a blue flower in a blue pot.
- At bath time, put a blue bath-bomb or blue soap in the water. Use a bath toy that encourages baby to fish for the blue bath toys or make up a game with the blue objects.
- Sing songs with the word blue in it, (try changing Ba Ba Black Sheep to Ba Ba Blue Sheep) and encourage lots of chat about the colour blue. Don’t forget to dry off with a blue towel!
- At bedtime, point out the blue pictures in the storybook or even make up a story featuring the colour blue. Talk about all the fun you had with the colour blue and make plans for the next day with even more blue fun.
Continue this blue game for a week and then the following week introduce a new colour. Perhaps next week will be the RED week! Use the same tips above, just substitute in red things.
Before you know it, your little one will be pointing out all the colours you’ve talked about and will have a much better understanding of the concept of colour. And you will have had fun bonding time and the satisfaction of knowing that you were a huge part of baby’s first learning milestone!
Lisa is the managing director of what2buy4kids. Lisa’s wish is to make your job of finding a gift for the children in your life easier, or help you to take some of the time and frustration out of the search for that special gift for kids.