Why Learning Through Play Worked for My Son

Sometimes the best way to help a child learn is to stop making learning feel like work.

When my sons were little, I learned pretty quickly that children don’t all learn the same way.

With my son who was color deficient, I had an especially personal reason to think about how learning could work differently. I wanted to help him without making him feel like something was wrong with him.

I didn’t want learning to become another source of frustration

Once he could read, I taught him to read the color names printed on his crayons and markers. If he saw a color differently, he could still learn what that color was called.

But I didn’t want colors to become something he simply had to memorize.

I wanted him to have a chance to look, explore, make choices, and create.

Shapes gave us another way in

I also taught him shapes.

Shapes were something he could recognize, draw, combine, and turn into something of his own. That made learning feel less like sitting down to get an answer right and more like figuring something out.

And once creativity entered the picture, something changed for me, too.

Creating helped me as much as it helped him

Learning that my son was color deficient had been heartbreaking for me as his mom.

Creating something purposeful gave me a positive place to put those feelings. Instead of constantly thinking, “My son has this issue,” I could think about what I could create to help him.

That shift mattered.

Play gave us room to learn

Through play, learning didn’t have to happen in one particular order.

We could:

• notice colors in everyday life
• match colors and objects
• practice shapes
• draw and create
• ask questions
• try again when something didn’t work

There was no need for every activity to feel like a test.

That idea stayed with me

In 2008, my experience with my son inspired me to create A Rainbow of Shapes.

The book brought together colors, shapes, creativity, and play because those were the kinds of things I wanted learning to feel like.

The exact idea on the back of the book still says it best:

“An imaginative approach to help children with color deficiencies by using the primary colors of the rainbow in various shapes.”

The book wasn’t meant to be a medical resource. It came from a mom trying to find a creative way to help her child learn.

You don’t need a perfect activity

If you’re teaching a preschooler colors or shapes, start with what you already have.

A box of crayons. A few toys. Things around the house. A walk outside.

Ask questions. Let your child look. Let them tell you what they notice. Let them make something.

Sometimes a five-minute game can teach more than we expect.

You can try the FREE 5-Minute Color Hunt for a simple way to turn color learning into play.

What I learned as a mom

I started out wanting to help my son learn colors.

What I learned along the way was bigger: children don’t need every learning moment to look like school.

Sometimes they need room to discover.

Sometimes they need another way in.

And sometimes, they just need permission to play.

That’s still at the heart of what I want KidsWonderArt to encourage: discover, imagine, learn, and create.

Explore more simple activities in Creativity & Learning, or read the story behind A Rainbow of Shapes.