Christmas is a kaleidoscope of colors and supporting children to learn colors helps kids develop an important skill for kindergarten readiness and more. Attaching the correct word to each color is much, much more than matching. It is a very complex process that needs a great deal of experiences.
Children need to see many examples of all colors and gradually they sort out which ones belong together in a group. Then they attach just one name to all the examples in that group. Because each color comes in a variety of shades it’s hard to figure out which ones go together. At this time of year, how many different reds are there? Santa’s hat, Rudolph’s nose, cranberries, bricks, candy canes, cherries on cookies, and sticky tongues are all red, but not exactly the same. That goes for all of the other colors, too.
To learn colors, besides knowing the words, children also need to know how to group similar things together and how to compare objects to see if they belong or not. They need to do this over and over hundreds of times as they figure it all out. Having fun at the same time makes it easier to learn and to remember.
You and your child can check out the colors of Christmas displays, put similar colors of decorations together while trimming the tree, nibble on some red cherries and some green cherries when making cookies, look at the color of fruits and veggies in the store, and sort laundry out by colors. Little hands might want to paint some pictures with lots of color to give or send to family and friends. This one better go in the mail right away!! What are some other ways to color your child’s world?