Children and Colours : Colour Mixing Concepts

If your child has been introduced to colours and is familiar with at least red, yellow and blue, you can mix these colours and let your child discover new colours and learn about them. This is a fun colour activity even for those children who are familiar with most colours. It can be easily taught by teachers in schools as well as parents at home.

Materials Required: Non-toxic child paints (red, yellow, blue), paint brushes, palette, water, drawing sheets and newspapers.

• Spread lots of newspapers on the floor.
• Make sure you and your child wear an apron or an old dress before sitting down to paint.
• Keep the blue, red and yellow paints and some water ready. 
• Say to your child, “We’re going to mix some colours now. Shall we see what happens when we do that?”
• Remember you don’t HAVE to use paintbrushes to do this activity. You can even use your fingers! Many children find that it is more fun to use their fingers to mix colours! However, if your child does not like the idea of getting messy by using her fingers, don’t insist.
• First get your child to spread some yellow paint on the sheet. Next ask her to paint over it with a wee bit of red paint. You will get a new colour- Orange. Give her some time to observe the result. After a while, gently ask, “What do you think happened when we mixed yellow and red?” Your child may or may not tell you about what she observed. Don’t be disappointed if she does not. Learning happens irrespective of whether children talk about their observations or not. If you wish to, you can say “I just observed that by mixing red and yellow we got a new colour orange!” If your child wants to say something about it, hear her out patiently.
• Get your child to spread some yellow paint on the sheet again. Now ask her to paint over it with a wee bit of blue. You will get a new colour- Green. As before, give her some time to observe the result. After a while, gently ask, “What do you think happened when we mixed yellow and blue?” Your child may tell you about what she observed. As before, if you wish to you can say, “I just observed that by mixing yellow and blue we got a new colour green!” If your child wants to say something about it, hear her out patiently.
• Once done with this activity, leave your child free to do the activity by herself for as long as she wishes to. Let her explore mixing colours, painting and making discoveries, all of which happen when children are given the freedom to experiment. Observe her work. You may be stunned by all that she does and discovers!