Color Activities for Preschoolers

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited and simultaneously shocked I am that it's now October and fall is officially upon us. Summer flew by in the blink of an eye and back-to-school came and went with zero tears shed and a newfound sense of determination and motivation expressed by both wildlings. Over the summer I purposely took a major step back from the blog and my online world for a few months in order to reconnect with those that matter most and make sure my time with them wasn't dominated by a phone in my hands or a camera in their face. I can't even tell you how many times over the last few months I wish I had my camera in my hands to document something, but because I didn't I actually had the chance to be in the moment and submerge right into the middle of something truly spectacular. While Ryan's work travel schedule has been hard on us all, it's also given me an incredible opportunity to spend a lot of quality one-on-one time with the kids and a chance to bond in some amazing and unexpected ways.

However, I can't say that it's always easy. I think all moms (whether working outside the house or staying home with the kids) know that those evening hours (post afternoon-nap snack through dinner,  then bath time and bedtime) can be excruciating. I don't know what it is about 4:30 p.m. that turns my children into psychotic maniacs, which continues through the night until they pass out. Ryan and I sometimes call this time the "penalty kill." If you're a hockey fan, you get it. If I don't give the kids something to do, they just destroy the house or hurt each other. So lately I've been trying to come up with some fun activities that we can all do together to entertain them, while also trying to be a tiny bit educational. Our latest projects have been all about...

COLOR!

Painting
While Mac has mastered his basic colors, Mim is still working on hers. She's pretty much figured all the colors out, but still confuses yellow and red occasionally. We've been working with her on this by using color books and playing a lot of "I spy" and color matching games. Mac is working on painting rainbows, making camouflage and working on his color combinations, figuring out what colors you get when you mix them together. Yellow and blue make green, red and yellow make orange, etc. So lately he's been doing a lot of painting, both at school and at home. I swear he's brought home no fewer than 175 scrolls of paintings from school over the last month and I've been giving them out to friends and family by the truckload. And still he asks all the time if we can paint at home, which I have a hard time saying no to.  So, after school/work we snack and paint (and mommy has wine). I try to coach Mim on her colors while she paints, but she'd much rather paint herself than the paper. Mac's been working on painting rainbows and mixing colors to get the perfect shade of purple or brown or green. 

Color Hunt
This past weekend we mixed things up a bit and instead of just painting, we did a neighborhood Color Hunt...similar to a scavenger hunt, but the kids have to find something in the neighborhood of each color of the rainbow. Like me, Mac loves lists, so I put together a really simple little printable that we could carry around and use to track each item we found that coordinates to a color on our list. I cut a couple swatches of construction paper in each color that they could also use to match colors and then let them go on our street to find something of each color.

(Click HERE for the free printable and downloadable PDF)

I gave Mac the color swatches and watched as he made his way through the neighborhood looking for things that coordinated with his colors. It was fun watching him think through his choices and get really excited when he found a match. He even posed for a few photos for me, which NEVER happens. I mean, he didn't look at the camera or smile or anything shocking like that, but he also didn't scream "NO!" and run away, so I'll call that a win. Mac did a great job (even without bribery!) and within 30 minutes he found something for every color! I thought he'd get bored with the game really quickly, but he loved it and even asked if we could play it again the next day (which we did, but on another street). This one was a big hit.

I also find that the kids tend to do better with concentration and meltdowns if they have a small snack right after nap. Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers are one of our favorite snacks and I thought the colored Goldfish were a really fun option when focusing on teaching and playing with colors. The kids love them and I have a hard time myself keeping my hand out of their Goldfish bowl. 

Goldfish is also hosting a great giveaway right now where you could win $1000 for sharing a photo of a moment when Goldfish crackers added smiles to your life. Share your picture on Twitter or Instagram with the tag #goldfishtalespromotion for a chance to win! For full rules, click HERE.

And if you're feeling crafty, this month's theme is "Spooky!" - so make sure to share your haunted background, artwork or video featuring your fun little goldfish to win. Check out this gallery of awesome ideas to get some inspiration!

What are your kids' favorite COLOR related activities?