Color Blindness in Children

It is not uncommon for two-year-olds to mix up their colors. If your child is three or more, and you’ve been teaching him about colors, and he is still making mistakes, you may want to ask your pediatrician about color blindness, which affects approximately eight percent of boys, and a half a percent of girls. Most people with color blindness will only have difficulty differentiating a few colors, or even just certain shades of those colors. Few are totally color blind, where they would see the world in black and white.

Color In Your Food

As you plan your meals and snacks for the week, you may wish to add more red food choices. Some possibilities are listed on the “getting ready” page at the beginning of the lesson plan. You could serve cranberry juice and strawberries for Monday morning’s snack as you introduce the color theme to your child. You could add a beet to your potatoes when you boil them and mash them, to color them red. I don’t recommend food coloring, as artificial coloring has been linked to hyperactivity in children.

Remember, look through the lesson plans several days in advance, so you can gather any necessary materials. It may cost more when you first begin, if you don’t already have a lot of art and craft items on hand. Then once you’ve been doing the lesson plans for a while, you should have enough of a stockpile to keep your costs down. Feel free to delete any project if you can’t find the materials. You can always substitute a project from another week, or repeat one that your child especially enjoyed doing. And you can check your library first for the recommended picture books, then purchase your favorites that you may want to read again and again.

Don’t forget, have fun this week!

Great Picture Books about Colors

• Red, Green, Blue: A First Book about Colors by Alison Jay
• Butterfly Butterfly: A Book of Colors by Petr Horacek
• Planting a Rainbow: Lap-Sized Board Book by Lois Ehlert
• Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
• Red is a Dragon by Roseanne Thong
• Red are the Apples by Marc Harshman
• Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins
• Dog’s Colorful Day: A Messy Story About Colors by Emma Dodd
• I Love You the Purplest by Barbara M. Joosse

Quality Toys and Games for Red Week

• 50 Counting Bears
• Lauri Toys Shape and Color Sorter
• Melissa & Doug Sort and Snap Color Match
• Crayola Washable Tempra Set, Primary Colors
• Spill-Proof Paint Cups
• Preschool Paint Brush Assortment
• Colors Bean Bags
• Melissa & Doug Primary Lacing Beads
• Play-doh Case of Colors

Red Week Lesson Plans

Photo Credits:
Top: photo by Davichi