Color Theory Introduction For Toddler Through Middle School

Honestly, I don't too often ask kids to do too much with color theory but a friend asked and my three year old and I do actually do some, though I hadn't ever considered articulating it.... So here goes. 

Lots of books and seeing colors 

My favorite color theory books for little little kids are 

Blue Goose 

Blue Goose is for younger kids but is sooo well done. 

There is a 3rd book I'll come back and add if I can find a link. I think it's out of print but it has overlays and mixes colors 

The Little Engine That Could 

This version specifically mixes the yellow sunset with the blue train. My three year old asked why the train is green so we spent a good amount of time with this one and memorizing basic color mixing. 

Color Schemes 

If you want kids to play with a color you can pick a color scheme for them to play with. 

Primary colors - red, blue and yellow. Giving kids two to play with is a fantastic place to start 

Analogous - colors next to each other on the color wheel.

Warm or cool colors - think the sun (yellow, red, orange) or ocean (purple, blue, green)

*Note*

The color schemes can get tricky. Red paints often have yellow pigment in them so purple is hard to mix. Purples can actually be warm. But for the younger kids this isn't super important. I typically teach the standard and don't bring up the debated primarys or other such things unless I'm with older kids or doing a one-on-one

Artist Study

Study what colors artists use. 

Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers are full of warm colors and his Stary Night is mostly cool colors. 

You can cut tissue paper to match a color scheme or only include certain colors. 

But Most of The Time 

I do let kids pick their colors and we get a lot of browns. As kids get older or if they want to improve their skills, I will often tell them to stop mixing early on. 

Apple Pie 4th of July - Toddler Activity

We read this book a couple different times over the past week. 

Some words to let the little ones sound out or "squish" where they hear you say the individual phonics sounds and they put the word together are the signs and title.

I have my little one sound out the title on the covers. But also signs inside the book. Also since he has memorized the title and doesn't read it I have him pick out individual sounds or in this case the word "of" since we focused on the vowel O this week. 

RE read the book again on the 4th and the little one sorted out pom poms to create apple pie filling. 

He wanted me to put the pie in the oven and take it out after a while. 

I made to oven from a cereal box a while back specifically for some cookie making activities a while back. This box is also a tomb for Easter and I want to make a car wash front part as well. 

The bottom pie crust is a pancake from another activity. It is is felt and I used crimping shears for the crust tops. You could also cut half circles and full circles to use as pepperonis, and apple pieces in other projects. 

He may have gotten a little wild but he needs lots of full body movement and we got to practice fine motor and sorting skills putting them away.

Sensory Bin Hack

I then put the pom poms in my winter bin for Christmas and Valentine's Day. 

We didn't talk much about the main character being a Chinese immigrant but this could be a discussion as well. This conversation could pair well with I hate English for a slightly older kid 

Toddler and Elementary Devotion Book

Here's a little lovely book I found recently at the local libraries used book store for fifty centes. It is great for 3-7 year olds.

You can listen to some chapters on You Tube as well. It is available used and new online as well. 

I have not began it with the little one yet but this summer our morning Bible studies have been him picking what he wants to read from a few different books so it has made it's way into that stack. 

Baby Bible Study Ideas that Have Worked for our Wild 3 Year Old

I'm still editing this list and probably need to split it up and delete a bunch, but these conversations come up in real life right now, so here are a few of our favorites 

Evening Family Study - Every night if all home before 8:30

Psalm 

Sunday School memory verse 

Kid's Bible story

Adult Bible - short section

Prayer based kid's story 

More details 

Liturgical Reading of the Psalms - we do about 5 verses from a book we have. We don't actually recommend the book but you could start at Psalms 1 and reading the short 7 or 8 verse Psalms and splitting others up.

Church Bible Verse memory recitation - after 3 months of working on monthly Scripture that lines up with his Sunday School classes we have started having him stand up to recite his verses. Not every night.

Read a story or two from a Kids Bible - we have read through the Toddler Bible and are going through the Discovery Bible. We have made it all the way through and on the second reading. It's so fun as our 3 year old knows a lot of the stories now 

Our Bibles - Mom and dad read about a half chapter while toddler climbs on climber but listens 

Finding a Liturgy - 

We currently use the Common Prayer book but we don't really recommend it. If you have not done the call and response type of reading the highlights in here are helpful. There is a lot of personal thoughts and history but and not much Bible. But there are several hyms and the monthly block prints are beautiful. 

We are planning to switch to Be Thou My Vision in a couple years or when we feel like #BabyBoyFollum can sit through a bit more. Maybe more appropriate for age 5. 

The introduction in this book explains the structure of Liturgy and how they chose what text for each section and frequency of repetition. A benefit of Liturgy is structure for contemplation, repetition for memorization, sand variation to avoid boredom.

We also use a Catechism. Currently we are working through the New City Catechism, and the two questions our church does through the Gospel Project. but Be Thou My Vision has two famous older Catechisms as a part of the liturgy. They are the Heidelberg and Westminster from the 15 and 16 hundreds. 

We do a catechism question each week, and will work on the question and Bible verse for a month. 

Nap Time Bible Study 

After he picks a book or story from a Treasury I'll read a couple chapters from I Am. 

Since he is transitioning out of naps, I kinda just read a couple until he falls asleep or it's clear he isn't going to nap and will be quiet time instead 

We didn't do a nap time Bible reading until recently. 

Morning Bible Study - daily when we do school. Monday - Friday 

We do a variety of different morning Bible Studies from this list. 

I will often pick one story per week, and 3 total per month 

- Currently we are reading through the New Testament of the Action Bible which is literally NO PREP!! But it's a little complex for age 3. I do let him pick between the Action Bible and some kids stories 

- 8 months - 

1 year old ABC Jesus Loves Me Interactive Bible Studies. We did one a week for around 30 weeks with some breaks. But there's so much for free.

- ? - We read Genesis in the Action Bible and he followed the people incredibly well. But to avoid burn out with the more complex Bible. He went through a period of "resting" when he dropped his morning naps and would sit on a lap being read to for 15-45min

- ? - Sometime in here we attempted to do scripture memory inspired by Charlotte Mason Morning Time. It never really stuck. 

- 2 years - We repeated the same stories skipping Genesis and adding in some and in the order of their 3 year old curriculum. 

- 3 Years - We followed seasons and the church year for some time using the True Way Kids studies doing one story for a week and about 3 stories a month. I'll share my monthly themes in a future post but Old Testament in Fall, Fruits of the Spirit in November, Advent in December, Life of Jesus until Lent, and then Holy Week through Lent, and Sin, Death, Resurrection sequence inspired by Young Life over Holy week. 

- 3.5 Years - Now we are doing the Life of Jesus. Currently he is choosing the Action Bible but I have children's Parable stories as an option every morning.

Bible Studies with Friends 

CEF - We have only done a couple but we host an annual Backyard VBS through Children Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) which has been so fun

Sensory bin or activity set up while kids play and answer questions. Our favorite was a Baby Moses water activity. We also have done flame sensory bins for Pentecost. And an Easter themed bin as well.

VBS - Our son attended a day at my parent's church for Vacation Bible School. He was able to pet sheep and learn about shepherds. We read the parable of the lost sheep that week at home. 

Weekly Family Traditions 

Eating out - Ok this one is not particularly easy but we have developed the habit of asking our waiter or waitress their prayer requests to pray with them when our food comes. The little guy has starting asking their requests and asking if waitresses know Jesus. He as also asked people outside restaurants and people at the table next to us. 

Sunday School - Our church does Sunday School and is very intentional about the curriculum. Attending church, church worship, and praying for friends are all things that could happen on a specific day or driving to or from a weekly event.

Book recommendations 

The Children's Discovery Bible is older but it has been a great fit. It doesn't add a bunch of fluff or try to make any specific post and just shares the stories. A couple of them are written in a bit of a funny way (as poems that seem a bit random) but otherwise it has been spot on. 

I AM the little one has LOVED this storybook Bible. And it's been fun for me to learn and focus on the names. We have only had this one for a couple months and are almost done with the second time through. The summaries between stories and the explanations are fantastic as we work on understanding the entire Biblical narrative. 

The Ology, The Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed books are ones I'm considering adding into the regular study but we do not own them. I have watched flip throughs of them and they seem fantastic!

Others 

The Toddler Bible 

This Bible has fantastic activity ideas. Activities have been a great resource for me to prepare for my husband to do with the little guy as they get ready for bed. 

We have a different one in the Times of Jesus series. I really like it but it doesn't have as much content as would be nice. But the flaps are great and we do use it to understand context better.

Pre-Natal Tips for My Bestie!