Living Color

Many of the selections in this issue of BABYBUG mention colors. You'll notice, however, that none of them shows toddlers being asked to name their colors. That's because this is a skill that develops slowly over time. As with so much else, real experiences add up to real understanding.

Through experience and conversation, children become aware that color is an aspect of an object but not the object itself. You can help your child develop this understanding by referring to objects by both color and name. Talk about the green ball or the red truck.

Sometimes a child will realize that a certain word refers to color and makes it his handy, all-purpose color word. If you ask him the color of anything--a leaf, a strawberry, his shoe--he'll confidently assure you that it's "blue!" Don't worry; he's not color-blind. Calling everything by one color name is an indication that your child is learning that color is one way to describe an object.

As with other concepts, you can be sure that your child understands more than she can tell you with words. A two-year-old who calls everything blue will probably be able to match one red object with other red objects or a green object with other green objects. This is a great time to begin playing color-matching games. Eventually, your child will begin to attach names to the rainbow of colors in the world.

Learning color labels in the early years matters less than having fun exploring colors. Give your child lots of opportunities to experiment with crayons, colored paper, and other materials. As the artist Georgia O'Keefe put it: "I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say in any other way--things I had no words for."

Play Together

Go on a color hunt with your child:

• Show him a bright red toy.
• Together, search the pages of BABYBUG to find pictures of as many red objects as you can. If the toddler is still interested, play the game again with another color.

• Help your child act out "Paws" as you read it. As she imitates the actions, she'll be learning the concepts of in front and behind. For young children, moving and learning go hand in hand.

Have you ever seen a determined toddler try to cram a teddy bear into the driver's seat of a toy truck? Like Ned in "Boxes, Boxes," your child is probably conducting an ongoing inquiry into the concepts of size and fit.

• Encourage her understanding of these concepts by providing sturdy cartons to crawl through, sit in, and fill with toys.
• A set of smaller boxes of graduated sizes makes a fine stacking-and-nesting toy.
• Create a size game for your toddler by cutting holes of various sizes in one side of a carton. Experiment together with a collection of large and small balls to find out which holes they fit in.

Read Together

Encourage a love of reading by keeping a basket of books for your child in every room of your home.

• If books are always handy, it's easier to read to your child when you have a moment to spare.
• Stock the baskets with sturdy books so your toddler can enjoy paging through them independently when you are busy.