Learning the Color Basics

Whether your child is a color whiz or just learning the ropes, it never hurts to run through the basics together. While it might seem like a daunting task, we’ve found some fun, kid friendly-ways to teach colors 101.

Start with the Primary Colors
The basic building blocks of colors are the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. While your kids might find it hard to believe, with just these three colors they can mix them together in different combinations to create every shade in the rainbow!

Mix Up Some Secondary Colors
Are your kids surprised by the primary colors? No sweat, we’ll bring it all together with a quick experiment to introduce them to the secondary colors. Grab a set of paints and make three nice big piles of red, green and blue paints arranged in a triangle. Next, get your kids to create three new colors by mixing together blue and yellow, yellow and red, and red and blue. See if your kids can identify each of the three new colors they make.

Lighten Things Up
Now that your kids have learned about different color shades, you can teach them about light and dark colors. Squeeze a bit of white and black paint onto your sheet and give your kids a nice, fresh paintbrush. Allow them to mix the new paints with the colors they’ve already created and explore a whole new world of light and dark colors.

Test What They’ve Learned
Just like school, a quick quiz is a great way to identify which skills your children have mastered and which ones they might need some extra practice on. First, see if your kids can name the three primary colors, then give them a new pile of each paint along with black and white. Then, try naming a few new colors like dark purple, or light blue and see if your kids can create them.