Color Boot Camp

One of my main focus for Dumpling to learn this summer is for him to master identifying colors. He knows all the names of the colors BUT he has trouble matching the name to the correct color. 


Each time I ask him a color of a certain object, his immediate answer is "Red" (so when I point to an apple, he always gets it right!) or sometimes he just enumerates all the colors till he gets it right...so, I really needed to take his color learning to a higher level!


Here are some of the tools I use for Kian's Color Boot Camp:


This is our favorite color book which I bought from Amazon.

Sturdy board book to withstand kooky toddler hands!
Its small size is perfect to bring everywhere!

This is my favorite part of the book:
Side-by-side comparison of the different colors!

Here are Kian's favorite videos on colors which I have both on the iPad and iPhone.

The Rainbow Song sang by that famous purple dino 

(yeah, you know who I'm talking about)

What I like about this video is that they show the actual colors in full screen for easier word-color association. 

Performed by one of my favorite bands, OK Go!

They partnered with Sesame Street to make color learning just plain cool 

(it's a great way to develop his taste in music, too!)

It's also nice how they teach kids how you can mix colors to make new ones!

Super cute how the little guy sings along to these videos. I even sometimes catch myself singing these songs out of nowhere, too!

I was also able to find a cool game called Color Monster (available for both iPad and iPhone). The hungry monster asks for a certain color and Kian has to choose from the different colored fruits and vegetables below and feed it to the Color Monster. Around 95% of the time he gets it right!

Just a caution: this hungry monster can be a bit rude. If you feed him the wrong color, one of the things he'll say is, "Disgusting!" So, if you are quite sensitive to that word, you may want to go with another game. 

Of course, coloring (as the name suggests!) is also a great way to teach kids about colors! I alternate the use of both crayons and watercolor (though the latter can be a bit messy!). Every time he reaches for a new crayon, I ask him to identify the color. Or sometimes, I ask him to color the object "blue" and he needs to find the right color from the box.

For little hands, I would recommend Crayola's Jumbo Crayons. 

The regular-sized ones didn't last a day because dumpling pressed too hard.

And here is Kian hard at work learning the color GREEN!

I allow him to color outside the lines! 

Of course, we use EVERY opportunity to practice his colors. Even as simple as just asking him what color of jammies he is wearing or pointing out objects while we are in the car and asking him to identify the color! He has shown a LOT of improvement since I started this color boot camp. It's still not perfect but we are getting there :)