Colours are first introduced through verbal conversations, eg. Talking about a yellow ball or the green plant, and so on. We do not directly focus on the colour but just keep it as a part of our regular conversation with our Munchkins.

Once our Munchkin is able to match different things and understands how one things differs from the other and begins to show more interest in colours, you can introduce a simple activity such as this to him/her.

The focus of this activity is to just match and put the correct colour in it’s place. We are not trying to teach the names of the colour (it is still too early for that).

Things needs to make this DIY are:

1)1 cardboard box cover;

2)Some extra cardboard strips for the partition;

3)Coloured paper for the base (I used the primary colours Red, Blue and Yellow);

4)Pom Pom big size balls or similar in the same colours (Red, Blue and Yellow);

5)A small box / container to keep all the pom pom balls in.

What do we do? We make three equal partitions in the cardboard box cover with the strips we have. Then paste the coloured paper in each section. The pom pom balls are to be kept in the container and both go on your activity shelf.

Present the activity to your Munchkin showing them how to take one ball at a time and match it to its respective colour. After they have a hang of it, leave them to do the activity by themselves.

Age: 21-22 months (or depending on the interest shown by your Munchkin)

Purpose: Visual discrimination and introduction to colours

More colours can be added later on or even done in a different way. As mentioned, the idea is not to teach names of colours, it is to just be able to match the right colours together.

Does your Munchkin already show interest in colours?

The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round, Round and Round, Round and Round….

Does your Munckhin have a favourite rhyme? My Munchkin seems to love a lot of them and we hear and sing a lot of them all day long. In fact, I catch myself humming them even when she’s asleep sometimes!

Most important is that rhymes are only sung to her, with her and we do not play them for her on our phones, laptops, etc. We actually have a zero screen time policy for her at home. To be completely honest, we do not manage it 100% and she does watch a little bit when we are on the phone or someone else is (but this is also limited to just a few minutes). I may have mentioned this in a previous article but this is a big reason that she loves reading and it is a big part of her daily activity, also a big source for her increasing vocabulary.

So our main routine has been the same this month with a lot of shelf work repeated so we had lots of Play Dough, Blocks, Books, Matching Cards to Animals, Outdoor Activity, Riding her Bike Practical Life (help with chores done at home) and so on.

We have a construction site close to where we stay and she enjoys watching all the Construction Vehicles at work with the Bulldozer being her favourite. We took her to a spot in our compound which was close to the site and she enjoyed watched the bulldozer at work.

Did we introduce anything new this month? Yes, we actually did introduce two new activities, as below:

Threading Beads

A very good activity for hand-eye coordination. We bought this one online and recommend choosing big beads, so as to avoid any threat of choking, and also it would be easier for them to bead initially. There are many beads that come along with the pack but we initially kept the thread / string in a basket along with 3 beads each of just the primary colours – red, blue and yellow (you can even start with lesser beads if you feel necessary). I presented the activity to her the first 2-3 times she used it and then left her to work. She is still getting a hang of doing it. I try to observe her whenever she works with it to check if she would need another presentation or is moving ahead or needs a slight change. I will have to just wait and watch.

DIY Colour Sorting

By Colour Sorting, I do not meaning learning names of colours. In Montessori, we do not teach names first (on the contrary, they come last). The first step is to show the child how to pair objects of the same colour. We did a simple DIY for this (will upload complete details soon) where My Munchkin has to match the pom poms to their respective colours. She had a lot of fun doing this activity and she enjoyed doing it over and over again.

She got a complete hang of it and managed to do the activity herself in a couple of tries. I plan to add in some more colours soon.

Did I teach her the names after she paired them correctly? No! It is still early for that, we can start this in probably another 6-8 months. Yes, she does know names of a few colours but those have not been taught too her, rather picked up from reading time and regular conversations we have.

Do you enjoy making DIYs for your Munchkin? Do share some with us, would love to have some new ideas.

Did any of you try the DIY on Family Picture Cards? Well, this one is a similar concept and I made one for My Munchkin for Animals.

She is able to recognize most of the animals from the ones she has so thought this was the best time to introduce this activity to her. I made two different sets – one for farm animals and one for wild animals.

Process of this DIY is just like that of the Family Picture Cards only with an additional step.

Try to get animals that look similar to real ones rather than the animated animal figurines. Also having them in a fairly big size is a big plus. We have a small set (like you get in most stores) of most of the animals and I keep trying to look for big ones. Currently, we have the bigger sized ones in a few farm and wild animals (hoping to find more soon).  

To start this DIY, I took pictures of the animals she plays with. What you would need to do is, stick an A4 size white paper on the wall and on the table joined together like a ‘L’. I then kept each animal on this paper, made sure there was sufficient lighting and took pictures.  

Once done, I selected the best image of each animal from the ones taken and transferred it on the computer and cropped them to about 5x5 inches in size (except for the Giraffe which was longer).

Once the images were ready the process was the same like last time with two ways of making the activity:

                    1)Give the images of a photo studio or printing shop and they will print and laminate it for you.

                2)If you want to DIY the entire thing, then get the photos printed on card stock (or good quality                     paper).  You would also need to buy lamination sheets (1 sheet of A3 size would be enough for 4-6               pictures). I would recommend buying one that is at least 125 microns thick. These would be                     available with your local stationery shop.

  You guessed right – we are going to laminate them at home!

Once you have your pictures print, cut them out to the required size. Take your lamination sheet and place the images in between. Make sure you keep sufficient space between them to cut so that they do not open up.

Once this is placed, heat the iron up. Place the lamination sheet on the ironing board or a smooth surface and put a cotton cloth over it. Press down with the hot iron and slowly move the iron from one end to the other. Do this without lifting the iron to avoid bubbles from forming. You can repeat this step once more.

Let it cool a bit and then check if it has laminated from all sides. If you feel it is opening up from some part, cover that with the cloth and iron over it.

Once done, let it cool completely and then cut each image out – do keep some of the lamination plastic as a border (like it is normally seen it laminated documents).  Do round all the sharp edges with a scissor so they do not hurt your Munchkin.

I will try and upload a detailed DIY for laminating at home soon.

I had a basket ready and put in the wild animals along with the pictures and put them on My Munchkin’s work shelf. I presented the activity to her and she was off doing it herself. (If you feel your Munchkin is not ready or not interested in doing the activity you may remove it from the shelf and reintroduce it after a few days/weeks).

Age: The best time to introduce this is once they are able to recognize the animal figures and also images of animals in books.