Colourful Play

Are you interested in finding out ways you can teach your child how to learn colours and counting in the comfort of your own home? 

We all want our children to thrive and learn as much as possible.

I found that playing and having fun interacting with my kids was and still is the best way to teach them valuable life skills. I remember when my kids were toddlers, I started teaching them colours. At the time, we had a ball pit taking up our entire lounge room space, full to the brim with coloured balls!  

I started by picking up one coloured ball and saying, “green ball” and repeated the process with all of the other colours. Repetition was the key for them to learn, so every time they would get in the ball pit and have a play, I would repeat the same process. 

The great thing was that the boys thought I was just playing with them but really, I was teaching them as well. Then I started giving them an instruction, like “get green ball” and this way I tested what they learnt. This process was repeated until I could see that they knew their colours.  

Then I went on to asking them “get daddy ALL yellow balls”, then “get daddy ALL red balls, and so on. I did this process to find out if they did know their colours because only asking for one coloured ball could have been luck that they picked the correct coloured ball. Most importantly, I gave praise for their efforts whether they got the correct coloured balls or not. I found that this made them want to learn more... 

Then I introduced counting with colours. I would say “get 2 blue balls”. When they demonstrated giving 2 blue balls consistently, I would then say, “get 3 yellow balls” and so on.  

Besides learning their colours and number counting, this activity helped with listening to following instructions as well as fine and gross motor skills of using their hands and arms to collect and give me the balls.

The best way to get your child interested in learning, like colours and counting, is to use toys and activities that they enjoy the most.  

For example, my son Jacob loves trains. When he was playing with the trains, which was all the time, I would get down to his level on the floor and start playing with him. As he had so many trains in different colours, I would pick up a train and start storytelling saying “the red train is going up the hill” as an example. Playing with the trains and storytelling the colours continued his learning of colours. 

After teaching colours, I went on to teaching other skills like up & down, over & under, front & behind, left & right, around, faster & slower, start & end and so on. I did this by role modelling the actions myself, so Jacob could see the actions of play.  Some examples to help you understand my points;

“the green train is going up the hill and down the hill”

“the blue train is going over the bridge and under the bridge”

“the black train is in front of the yellow train and behind the yellow train”

“the orange train is turning left, and the orange train is turning right” 

If your child is not interested in trains but loves colouring and drawing for example, then you could still use the same strategies I have used with the trains, like using coloured pencils/crayons/markers.  

What’s so awesome is that your child can play happily, and learn valuable life skills in a natural, playful, positive and most importantly FUN way!

Colourful play all the way!     

Sean