A (paint) chip off the old block

Don't blame me if you decide to repaint your bathroom . . . and don't tell your husband that I'm the one that suggested you check out some new paint colors once he is the one doing all the work! hee hee!

Here's what you need: If you do all the activities below, then you will need strips of paint colors (one of each color you want to use) and then two of each individual color. I went to Home Depot and used the Ralph Lauren square swatches and the Glidden paint samples with six colors per strip. I'm sure you can make other paint company's swatches work. Oh, and I'm pretty sure they thought I was crazy because of the wide variety (and quantity) of BRIGHT colors I was choosing! :)

Here's why you should do it: First of all, for the very young child, it will help them learn their colors. If you keep on going with all the activities, a whole new vocabulary of colors can be introduced. This will also help with visual discrimination and an awareness of the big, beautiful world around them!

Here's how you get started: After you have perused and collected the FREE samples from your local hardware/paint store, you will have to do a little bit of prep work. On all the strips, I cut off the words first because they were a bit distracting (I love my paper cutter!!) and then I cut each color apart. (I didn't touch the individual squares of colors.)

Alright, let's get started! First, put a mixed up stack at the bottom of your work area. Take the first one and put it at the top of the rug. Take the next color and if it is a match, put it beside the matching color. If it's not a match, then put it below the first color. Keep going through the stack, holding up the color to the other colors until a match is made. This is an important process because it will teach your child to have a process and order to figure out all that life presents, not just when they are matching colors (think deductive reasoning, processing, etc.)

Here's a shot of the work in progress . . .

Want to take it down a notch? (This is for the very young child) Just start with the three primary colors - blue, yellow and red. Be sure to say, "This is blue, this is yellow this is red." You can play this game with the colors once you have matched them.

A box of these colors (color box 1) is sold for $26.00!! You have yours for FREE!The next step up: Add in the secondary colors: orange, green and purple

The final step: All the colors, including some shades (pink and gray) and then brown, black and white.

A set of these materials (color box 2) in a Montessori classroom would be $55.00! Yours is FREE!And then I thought, ya know, Lawton has known his colors for a long time and had him do this activity just so I could show you guys- BUT - he needs to be exposed to the other important colors of the world! You know, olive green, sage green, lime green and forest green (my camera did not do these colors justice). We will need to revisit this a few more times before he gets it down pat! :)

And then there's rose pink, turquoise, maroon and lavender - important colors for a three year old boy to know, right? ;)

Alright - here's yet another color activity that is fun, too! Remember all the cutting from the beginning of the post? Here's where we are going to use all those colors . . .
Choose one family of colors and spread them out at the bottom of the mat.

Then choose the darkest color and put it first (it's easiest to do it darkest to lightest than the other way around). Grade them from darkest to lightest. This was Lawton's first attempt, and once he looked at them all side by side, he realized that they weren't right. (Bless his heart, he had a fever but still wanted to play while we did this)

Here's they are corrected . . .

We went through and graded all the different colors - see a shade you like for your bathroom? Ta da! The finished product!

(for storage purposes I put each color family in its own envelope. If you mix them all together, it will be a NIGHTMARE and you will never want to do this again. promise.)

Oh, and remember the strip of paint names that I cut off? You can save that to check your work and make sure you (your child) graded them correctly!

And a set of these color tablets (color box 3) for a Montessori classroom? $155.00!!! Yep, yours are FREE! (not as pretty - but it works!)

Okay - what everyone really wants to know - the winner of the cookbook is . . .

#1 (yes, really) - Andrea Manor! I used www.random.org and this was the only clip that I could figure out how to paste in here . . .

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 1 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congrats to Andrea! Just e-mail me at chadandlaurabeth(at)yahoo(dot)com and let me know how to get your awesome new cookbook to you!

Thanks for entering everyone! I will do giveaways here and there so keep checking back in!