This is an article “Teaching Children About Colors” by Marc Primo Warren
Children grasp the essence of colors during their preschool years. Their appreciation builds with every crayon they pick up with their hand and every shade they apply on their coloring books. Once a child learns how to appreciate color, a new milestone in his cognitive process is achieved and sets up the stage for bigger developments in life.
As adults, we take advantage of how we see color and sometimes forget how much value they bring to our lives. We forget how we first encounter cartoons on television with dropped jaws and marvel at how these bursts of visual delight are even possible. For most parents, having children and the chance to teach them about color re-acquaints them with that kind of awe. A few even discover new insights about color that they never noticed before.
Here are some tips you can try out when teaching the young ones about the magic of color.
Give them information they can use
To understand the concept of color, children first need to take in more information that they can associate with every hue. For example, telling them about the sky and how it is light blue helps them understand how the color is usually used to signify cool and calm in other things. Children need verbal skills to take in information about color and what they represent.
Once a child begins to grasp the concept of color, teaching them more about it becomes easier as they learn to like different shades and use them in their own activities. This is because the young ones have an innate attitude of trying to understand everything that surrounds them. Soon, they begin to recognize and associate things, and color plays a big hand in this process.
Use books with images
Children’s books continue to sell millions of copies because of how it combines nicely drawn images with compelling storylines. Just this year, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon reached the top of the bestseller list with his Christmas children’s book 5 More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas.
However, this does not mean that anyone can just write a children’s book and make a killing out of selling them. Fallon has released three children’s books already and has already consulted multiple experts prior to releasing his bestseller. In short, not all children’s books can really do the job just because they have colored images and a storyline.
Try to screen books according to what age they are most suitable for and scan the images so you can discuss color more with your child. The Happy Baby series is one such book that will tickle your baby’s curiosity about color with their soft page textures and clear and simple images. Go with books that apply solid and flat colors if they are yet to go to school, then gradually teach them patterns so they can review and draw distinctions between intermixing shades.
Play games with color
Another worthwhile way to teach your little ones about color is by playing games such as Candyland with them. This colorful board game appeals to their sights as they associate its bright colors with sweet candy, while also helping develop their cognitive, counting, and color matching skills.
Playing colorful board games with your kids also helps them learn how to socialize more and appreciate how color takes a part in all the interaction. There are hundreds of color-matching games you can shop online which can also help children sharpen their memory skills.
Teaching children how to appreciate and know more about color is fun, but it will also take some time and effort if you want to really share its value with your kids. Since it is very much part of their everyday lives, there are many opportunities you can take to show them how colors create life’s extremes—from the joys of seeing a yellow sunflower in full bloom to the ominous feeling a grey rain cloud can bring. The trick is to always enjoy the process so your kids will too, and to always remember that color is mostly used to bring out the real beauty around us.
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