To establish color recognition in your preschooler , always begin from the basics - primary colors - and work your up.  The trick is to move up one step at a time, rather than having her understand and recognize many different colors in a single session.

If your preschooler is familiar with the three primary colors, use this activity to establish these colors before moving on to the other colors.  Cut out pairs of colored paper in red, blue and yellow, and ask her to match these.  Ask her to name each color.

If she can do this easily, introduce her to secondary colors with these color recognition activities for preschoolers.  Next, cut up pairs of colored paper again, but this time include green, purple, orange, pink, black, white, brown and gray, besides the primary colors.  Ask her to match the pairs.  Tell her the names of each color.

Once all these colors have been firmly established, and she can name colors without much prompting, place all the colored papers in random order, and tell her to arrange from the lightest to the darkest shade.  An older preschooler might find this last activity easier to do than a three year old.

Tip: Introduce color recognition activities into every day life - while in the kitchen, during dinnertime, at the supermarket, at the traffic signal, while dressing up etc, during story time etc.

Have fun!

This weekend activity works best if you dress your child up in a colorful outfit.

Say -If you’re wearing blue, clap your hands.

If you’re wearing red, hop twice.

If you’re wearing green, turn around and touch the ground.

And so on.

What this teaches her:

She learns to build on her color recognition skills , and practises listening carefully to instructions.

Have fun!

Color recognition activities can start as early as age two, although it ultimately depends on your child.

Many kids tend to find primary colors more difficult to grasp, because the concept of things having different colors is not an easy one to understand. Don’t mix up all the colors in your enthusiasm – start with the three primary colors. Kids find it easier to understand when you can show them each color in the form of an object, rather than trying to point out colors on a chart.

Take a number of objects of the same color in a basket – toy cars, caps, building blocks. These should all be in solid red, blue or yellow. Let’s start with the color red.

Ask your child to hand you things one at a time:

Can you hand me the red car, please?

Next, ask him for the red cap.

Stress the word red always.

Do this for each object in the basket.

Once he’s been able to establish red, move on to yellow and blue.

When he becomes fairly comfortable with these three colors individually, begin mixing them up in a basket.

Can you hand me the red car and the yellow bowl please?

The yellow block and the blue truck?

This won’t happen overnight, but once the primary colors are firmly established, it’s easy and fun to begin experimenting with secondary colors.

Keep smiling!