Having a Ball with Colors

When your baby is able to sit upright on his or her own, you may want to begin introducing the concept of color. It’s best to start simply by using balls of different colors.

Begin by selecting two balls of complimentary colors. The balls must be the same size and material. Color should be the only difference. The color difference needs to be obvious to avoid confusing the baby.

The best complimentary color combination is a blue ball and an orange ball. A yellow ball and a purple ball would be an acceptable combination; however, do not use a red ball and a green ball. Even though red and green are complimentary colors, there is a chance that this color combination could be problematic. If your child has red-green blindness, this color combination will make the exercise unproductive and possibly stressful for the baby. (Click here for more information about red-green color blindness.)

To begin the lesson, take a blue ball and an orange ball in each hand. Present the balls to the baby. Shake the blue ball slightly to get your baby’s attention and say, "Blue ball." Then, shake the orange ball slightly and say, "Orange ball." Repeat this several times.

Continue to repeat this process a few times each day. Eventually, your baby will catch on to the color difference.

When you believe that your baby understands the concept of color difference, place the blue ball and the orange ball a few inches apart on the floor in front of your baby. Point to the balls. Ask the baby which is the blue ball. There’s at least a 50% chance that the baby will point to the blue ball. If the baby chooses correctly, clap your hands, cheer, and exclaim, "That’s right! Blue ball." If the baby chooses the orange ball, gently say, "Orange ball." Then point to the blue ball and say, "Blue ball."

To let the lesson sink in, let the baby play with the balls for as long as he or she wants. Repeat this lesson a few times each day. Eventually, your baby will be able to correctly identify the blue ball without fail.

Once the baby can consistently identify the blue ball, begin asking the baby to point to the orange ball during the lessons. Eventually, the baby will be able to consistently identify both the blue ball and orange ball.

Once you are confident that your baby fully understands the difference between the blue and orange balls, introduce a yellow ball to the set. Continue along with the process until the baby can identify all three balls. Eventually, you can add a purple ball, a red ball, and then a green ball.

Using this incremental approach, you can teach a child all six of the basic colors. More importantly, your baby will also learn the abstract concept that similar objects can be classified by differing features such as color.

Mental Globetrotting: Teach Geography to Your Toddler the Fun Way

Children can begin to recognize countries on a globe at a surprisingly young age. Exceptionally bright children can begin to pick out countries before the end of their second year. If you want to teach your child some basic geography, you will need to keep things interesting by turning the lesson into a game.

First, you will need a globe ball. This globe ball can either be the thick plastic type or the inflatable beach ball type. It does not matter. Just make sure that the globe ball you choose can handle rough play, has bright contrasting colors, and is big enough so that your child can easily see the countries. Globe balls 10”-16” in diameter should work well.

Next, interest your child in the globe ball by letting him or her play with it as any other toy. Once your child is comfortable with the globe ball, start casually pointing out a few countries to your child.

The countries you choose are very important to this process. You can maximize your child’s understanding by selecting countries that are very easy to recognize, so start with islands and large landmasses. Islands are easy to identify because they are isolated. Large landmasses are easy to identify because they appear as large blocks of color that stand out among the other countries.

Australia, being large and isolated, is usually the easiest for a child to recognize. Other countries that the child will be able to recognize easily are America, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, China, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, India, and Madagascar. It is best to start with three countries of very different shapes and locations such as Australia, America, and Madagascar.

You can begin a lesson by simply holding the globe ball in front of the child and positioning each country in your child’s direct line of sight. Point out and name Australia. Rotate the globe. Point out and name America, and so on. Repeat this five times. After this quick lesson, let your child play with the ball to let the lesson sink in. Repeat this lesson a couple of times per day at your leisure.

After several lessons, your child should begin to recognize some or all of the three countries. Test your child’s recognition by positioning Australia in his or her direct line of sight. Ask, “Where is Australia?” If your child points to Australia, cheer happily and exclaim, “That’s right. You found Australia!” Then rotate the globe to do the same thing with America and Madagascar.

Once your child can consistently identify all three countries, gradually start adding new countries to your routine.

If, when you ask your child to point to a country, he or she does not respond or points to the wrong country, do not show disappointment. Just gently point to the correct country and remind your child of the country’s name. If your child does not recognize any of the countries, you will need to repeat the previous lesson several more times. If you perceive that your child is not catching on or is not enjoying the geography game, it is best to discontinue the lessons and reattempt at a later date when you think your child might be more interested.

Now, that we have covered how to teach geography to your child, the obvious question is, “What is the advantage to a child being able to find Madagascar on a globe?” The answer is, “Almost none.” Your child will not need to know the location of Madagascar for years.

The real point of this geography game is not to teach geography. Much more importantly, this game subtly teaches some very important developmental skills. Your child will learn the valuable skill of visual differentiation. When your child memorizes countries on a globe, he or she will study the dozens of lines and curves that form the shape of each country. The ability to process and remember complex 2-D shapes is a valuable skill that can be used to identify the millions of objects that make up the real world.

This geography game also teaches your child to think in 3-D. Your child will eventually be able to understand that when he or she is looking at America, Australia is on the opposite side of the sphere. Learning to process 3-D orientation is very difficult for a small child, but it is a major developmental breakthrough that will help the child to more fully understand the complexity and depth of the surrounding world.

Little Einsteins Is the Next Logical Step

At some point, the marketing guys at Disney must have sat down and realized that their Baby Einstein audience was getting older. Hoping to capitalize on the success of the Baby Einstein line, Disney developed Little Einsteins as the next step for their aging audience of little geniuses.

Little Einsteins is a television show airing on Disney television and available on DVD. The animation is an odd but unique combination of cartoon characters and photo images. Young cartoon children, Annie, Quincy, June, and Leo travel around the world and beyond in Rocket, a red flying submarine/spacecraft. In each episode, the Little Einsteins characters go on a mission. To complete each mission, the children must decipher clues that involve music, art, geography, animals, etc.

Little Einsteins is intended for children three- to six-years old; however, unusually bright one- and two-year olds may find the show interesting.