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  • The Candy Man: A Mom’s Halloween Survival Story

    Ahhh, Halloween!

    The costumes, the decorations, the excitement of trick-or-treating, and, of course, enough candy to keep every dentist in town employed for the next ten years.

    I love Halloween. I love decorating the house, watching the kids decide what they want to be, and seeing all those little ghosts, witches, and superheroes running around the neighborhood.

    But there’s just one little problem.

    THE CANDY!

    I don’t know about your house, but in ours, we needed two enormous bowls just to hold everything my boys collected on Halloween night.

    And here’s where things got interesting.

    I have two sons who couldn’t be more different when it comes to candy.

    My oldest? He couldn’t care less. Seriously, the kid doesn’t like candy.

    I know. What child doesn’t like candy? Apparently, mine.

    My youngest, on the other hand, would happily eat his entire Halloween collection in one day if we let him.

    Breakfast? Chocolate.

    Lunch? Lollipops.

    Dinner? A nice assortment of gummy worms with a side of candy corn.

    A perfectly balanced diet, according to a six-year-old.

    Now, as the responsible mother in the house, I had to figure out what to do with all this candy before my youngest turned into one giant sugar cube.

    My first solution was simple. We’d keep some candy, and whatever the boys didn’t want could go to Grandma and Grandpa.

    Sounds reasonable, right?

    Well, apparently, I had just committed the greatest injustice in childhood history.

    My youngest was absolutely horrified that I would even THINK about giving away HIS candy.

    Never mind that we had enough to last until Easter.

    It was HIS candy.

    Every. Single. Piece.

    And he wasn’t about to let Mom and Dad get their hands on it.

    So what did my little genius do?

    He hid his candy under his pillow!

    Yes, you read that correctly.

    Under. His. Pillow.

    Apparently, he figured that if he slept on top of it, nobody could take it away.

    I mean, you have to admire the planning. The child was six years old and already had his own security system.

    Forget hiding money under the mattress. My son was protecting his chocolate!

    Well, the next morning, Mom and Dad had a little story to tell.

    And that’s how the Candy Man was born.

    You see, everyone knows about the Tooth Fairy. You put your tooth under your pillow, go to sleep, and a little magic happens overnight.

    Well, in our house, we had someone a little different.

    The Candy Man.

    According to our story, the Candy Man was a mysterious fellow who visited houses at night, while everyone was fast asleep.

    But instead of collecting teeth, he collected extra Halloween candy.

    And what did he do with all that candy?

    He took it to children who hadn’t been able to go trick-or-treating.

    Now, before anyone starts questioning my parenting techniques, remember that I was dealing with a six-year-old who considered every piece of candy a priceless family heirloom.

    I had to get creative!

    And guess what?

    It worked!

    My youngest finally understood that he didn’t need to keep every single piece of candy he collected.

    The Candy Man had saved Halloween.

    Or at least saved me from arguing over 47 lollipops and a mountain of chocolate.

    And I figured that was the end of it.

    Oh, how wrong I was.

    A few weeks before the following Halloween, my youngest came up to me with a very serious question.

    “Mom, is the Candy Man coming again this year?”

    I nearly fell over.

    HE REMEMBERED?!

    Of all the things this child could forget—where he left his shoes, whether he brushed his teeth, or something I told him five minutes ago—he remembered the Candy Man from LAST Halloween!

    Unbelievable.

    Naturally, I had to keep a straight face.

    “Well,” I told him, “I guess that depends on how much candy you collect this year.”

    And just like that, the Candy Man was officially back in business.

    Apparently, once you invent a mysterious Halloween visitor, you can’t just retire him.

    Who knew?

    So, to all the moms and dads out there who find themselves staring at mountains of Halloween candy, wondering what on earth they’re going to do with it all, maybe the Candy Man can pay your house a visit, too.

    He’s quiet, works the night shift, and doesn’t charge a penny.

    Just remember, like the Tooth Fairy, he only comes when the kids are sleeping.

    And if your children are anything like mine, be prepared.

    They might forget to clean their rooms, put away their toys, or listen when you call them for dinner.

    But a mysterious man who comes in the middle of the night to take their Halloween candy?

    Oh, THAT they’ll remember!

    Happy Halloween from one candy-surviving mom to another!

    Mom Life, as it happens. ❤️

  • Mom, Is This Pen Black or Red? (Yes, He’s 24!)

    Some things never change. 😂

    When my son was little, we learned he had color vision deficiency, often called color blindness. I taught him to identify colors by reading the names printed on crayons and markers. He learned his colors that way, even when he couldn’t always tell them apart by looking.

    Fast-forward about 20 years.

    My son is 24 years old, holding two pens, and asks me:

    “Mom, is this pen black or red?”

    And there we were, still having one of those everyday color conversations. I had to smile. Not at him—just at how life has a funny way of bringing the same little moments back around.

    He knows his colors. He has for years. But knowing the names of colors and seeing the difference between them are not the same thing. And sometimes it’s easier to ask Mom than to hunt for a label!

    When people hear “color blindness in kids,” they may picture a young child struggling to learn colors. What I’ve learned from raising a child with color vision deficiency is that the questions don’t necessarily stop when childhood ends. The way someone sees color can still affect ordinary things—like choosing between two pens—well into adulthood.

    Color vision deficiency looks different from person to person. Some people have trouble distinguishing certain reds and greens, while others find different color combinations challenging. It’s not always about seeing no color at all.

    More stories, whenever they pop into my head

    I’ve been thinking back to so many moments from when my boys were growing up, especially the everyday experiences that came with parenting a child with color blindness.

    These stories probably won’t be in chronological order. One day I might remember something from when they were little; another day it might be something that happened recently. I’m just going to share them as they come to me.

    Because that’s how memories work, isn’t it?

    More stories coming soon. ❤️

  • Meet Danny & Chrissy: Learning Through Play, One Adventure at a Time

    Sometimes learning starts with something as simple as looking around.

    A color in the sky. A shape on the ground. Something orange on the breakfast table. A little discovery that turns an ordinary moment into a chance to learn.

    That is where Danny and Chrissy come in.

    Meet Danny & Chrissy

    Danny is curious, playful, and always ready to see what he can discover next. Chrissy brings her own spark of curiosity and enthusiasm, making their little adventures feel like the kind of fun kids naturally want to join.

    And, of course, there is Pickles, their four-legged friend who seems to find his way into the adventure too.

    Learning Doesn’t Have to Feel Like a Lesson

    That idea is at the heart of KidsWonderArt Studio.

    Children can learn through the things they already love to do—looking, noticing, talking, drawing, playing, imagining, and asking questions.

    Danny and Chrissy give us a way to turn those everyday discoveries into little stories and playful learning moments.

    Where Their Adventures Can Go

    Stay up to date with Danny, Chrissy, and Pickles as their adventures unfold. There’s always something new to discover, and you never know where they’ll go next.

    For KidsWonderArt Studio, that’s the fun part. 🌈

    Where Kids Discover, Imagine & Create.

  • What Is Your Little One Dressing Up As for Halloween?

    Halloween will be here before we know it! 🎃👻

    And if you have a toddler or preschooler, you probably already know that choosing a Halloween costume can be a pretty big deal.

    Maybe your little one already knows exactly what they want to be.

    A dinosaur? 🦖
    A princess? 👑
    A superhero? 🦸
    A pumpkin? 🎃
    A ghost? 👻

    Or maybe you’re still waiting to find out what their imagination comes up with!

    Sometimes the best part of Halloween isn’t the costume itself. It’s watching little kids get excited about pretending, imagining, and becoming something completely different for a little while.

    What is your little one dressing up as for Halloween?

    And did they choose their costume themselves?

    Leave a comment and tell us! I’d love to hear what the little ones are dreaming up this year. ❤️

  • What My Son Still Sees Differently Today

    Years have passed since those kindergarten days, but some things haven’t changed.

    My son is grown now. He is no longer the little boy bringing me crayons or making school pictures at the kitchen table.

    But he still sees some colors differently.

    He knows what colors are supposed to be

    One of the things that became easier as he got older was learning the names of colors.

    He can see a color one way and still know what that color is called. He knows what it is “supposed to be,” even when his eyes are showing him something different.

    That distinction became especially important when he was young.

    The sky can still look pink

    That little boy who once looked at a picture and told me the sky was pink still sees the sky differently.

    He knows the sky is supposed to be blue.

    But what he sees can still look different to him.

    And honestly, that is something our family has learned to accept instead of argue with.

    We still ask what he sees first

    Our family developed a habit when he was growing up.

    Instead of immediately telling him what color something was, we would ask:

    “What color do you see?”

    That question stuck.

    We still use it today.

    The grass story still makes me smile

    At one point, we asked him what color the grass was before telling him what we expected him to say.

    He said brown.

    He still sees it as brown, but he knows grass is supposed to be green.

    It is one of those things that reminds me that knowing the name of a color and actually seeing that color aren’t necessarily the same experience.

    And then there was the green coffee

    I drink a lot of coffee with creamer. To me, it looks brown—almost like peanut butter.

    One day I asked my son to bring me my coffee.

    He came back and said:

    “Here is your green coffee, Ma.”

    He still calls it green.

    But he knows it is supposed to be brown.

    Those little moments have become funny family stories now, but they also remind me how different someone’s experience of the same ordinary thing can be.

    Growing up changed the way he learned

    When he was in elementary school, reading the color names on crayons and markers gave him another way to work with colors.

    By high school, there was less drawing and more pottery and hands-on projects. I noticed that the colors he used often seemed more muted to me.

    He was still creating. He was simply doing it in a different stage of life.

    He buys his own clothes now—but still calls Mom

    When he was little, I bought basic-colored clothes for him so I knew things would match.

    Now he’s grown and buys his own clothes.

    And yet, every so often, he still calls Mom and asks if something matches.

    Some things change.

    Some things don’t. ❤️

    What I learned from watching him grow

    I used to think helping him meant teaching him to see colors the way I saw them.

    Over time, I realized that wasn’t the point.

    The point was helping him understand the world he was living in while respecting the way he experienced it.

    That lesson became part of the reason I created A Rainbow of Shapes in 2008.

    The book was never about telling a child that what they saw was wrong. It was about finding another way to learn.

    The story is still part of our family

    My son grew up, but the lesson stayed with me.

    Sometimes the best thing a parent can do is pause before correcting a child and ask what they see.

    That one question can open the door to understanding.

    If you’d like to read the full story behind the book, visit the KidsWonderArt Story.

    You can also visit the Shop to learn more about A Rainbow of Shapes.

  • The Story Behind A Rainbow of Shapes

    Sometimes a children’s book begins with a story that has nothing to do with becoming an author—and everything to do with being a mom.

    A Rainbow of Shapes began with my son.

    The moment that started it

    In kindergarten, I learned that my son was color deficient.

    Learning that was heartbreaking for me as his mom. I wanted to help him learn without making him feel like there was something wrong with the way he saw the world.

    I wasn’t looking for a business idea. I wasn’t trying to create a product.

    I was trying to help my child.

    I found a simple way to help him learn colors

    Once he could read, I taught him to read the names printed on his crayons and markers.

    If he saw a color differently, he could still learn what that color was called.

    I also taught him shapes.

    And I started thinking about how colors and shapes could come together through creativity and play.

    Then the little moments started making sense

    There was the red hammer his dad asked him to bring—and he never brought it.

    There was the day he told me, “My mom has green hair like my teacher.” My hair was blonde.

    There was the school artwork where he looked at a pink sky and told me, “What you mean mom look its pink in the sky.”

    Once we understood that he was seeing colors differently, our family started asking a different question:

    “What color do you see?”

    That simple question became an important part of how we understood his experience.

    Creating gave me something positive to focus on

    As a mom, I could have spent all my energy focusing on the problem.

    Instead, creating gave me something purposeful to build.

    It gave me happy thoughts instead of constantly thinking, “My son has this issue.”

    I wanted to create something that could help my son and other moms and children who might be going through something similar.

    A Rainbow of Shapes was created in 2008

    That idea became A Rainbow of Shapes in 2008.

    The book brought together the things I had been thinking about: primary colors, shapes, creativity, imagination, and learning through play.

    The original purpose is captured in the wording on the back of the book:

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

    That sentence still says exactly what I wanted the book to do.

    It wasn’t about telling my son what he should see

    The book wasn’t created as a medical resource.

    It came from a mother trying to find a creative way to help her child learn.

    I didn’t want my son to feel that his way of seeing the world made him wrong.

    I wanted learning to have another doorway.

    And the idea grew beyond the book

    The book was one part of the story.

    The larger idea was always about giving children opportunities to discover, imagine, learn, and create.

    Years later, that idea became the foundation for bringing KidsWonderArt back.

    Today, A Rainbow of Shapes is still at the center of that story—and the original idea is still important to me.

    If you’re here because of the book

    If the story behind A Rainbow of Shapes speaks to you, you can take a closer look at the book through the Shop page on this site.

    Visit the Shop to learn more about A Rainbow of Shapes.

    You can also explore the full KidsWonderArt story or visit Creativity & Learning for simple activities inspired by the original idea.

  • Easy Shape Activities for Preschoolers That Feel Like Play

    Shapes are everywhere—and you don’t need a worksheet to turn them into a fun learning adventure.

    If you’re looking for easy shape activities for a preschooler, start with what you already have. A toy, a plate, a book, a box, or a few crayons can become part of the activity.

    1. Go on a shape hunt

    Pick one shape and see how many examples your child can find.

    Try a circle first. Look for plates, clocks, lids, or wheels. Then try squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals, or diamonds.

    Make it a game instead of a test: “Can you find one?” becomes “Can you find five?”

    2. Shape and color match

    Combine two skills by giving your child a color and a shape to find.

    Ask for a red circle, a blue square, or a yellow triangle. If you don’t have the exact combination nearby, draw one together.

    You’re practicing shape recognition and color recognition at the same time—and your child gets to move, search, and make choices.

    3. Build a picture from shapes

    Draw a few simple shapes on paper and let your child turn them into something.

    A circle might become a sun. A triangle could become a roof. Rectangles can become doors, windows, or buildings.

    There is no single right answer. That’s what makes this one so good for imagination.

    4. Find shapes around the house

    Turn an ordinary room into a shape-learning game.

    • Circle: plate or clock
    • Rectangle: book or door
    • Square: tile or block
    • Oval: mirror or bowl
    • Triangle: a sign or toy

    Walk around together and ask, “What shape do you see?”

    5. Make shapes with crayons

    Give your child a few crayons and ask them to draw one circle, one square, one triangle, and one rectangle.

    Then let them add details and turn those shapes into a picture.

    This is where learning and creativity meet. The shapes don’t have to be perfect.

    6. Let your child become the shape teacher

    Once your child knows a few shapes, switch roles.

    Point to an object and ask, “What shape is this?” Then let your child find another object with the same shape and teach it back to you.

    Children often love being the expert. And when they explain something to you, you get to hear what they understand.

    7. Try a shape-and-color challenge

    Give your child a quick challenge:

    • Find a circle.
    • Find a square.
    • Find a triangle.
    • Find a rectangle.
    • Find an oval.
    • Find a diamond.

    Then ask which shape was easiest to find and which one was hardest.

    You can also turn this into a printable-style activity with the FREE Pumpkin Shape Hunt.

    The trick is not making it feel like work

    Young children don’t need every activity to have a worksheet, a score, or a perfect finished product.

    Sometimes the most useful thing we can do is give them something interesting to notice and let them explore it.

    Find a shape. Name it. Draw it. Turn it into something.

    That’s learning, too.

    Why shapes have always mattered to me

    Shapes became part of my son’s learning journey when I was looking for ways to help him learn colors through a different approach.

    That experience eventually became A Rainbow of Shapes in 2008.

    The book brought together colors and shapes with imagination and creativity—the same idea I still want to encourage through KidsWonderArt.

    For more simple ideas, visit Creativity & Learning, or read the story behind A Rainbow of Shapes.

  • When Motherhood Gives You Something You Never Expected to Create

    Sometimes motherhood hands you a problem you never expected—and somehow, in trying to help your child, you discover something you didn’t know was waiting inside you.

    I never set out to create a children’s book.

    I was simply a mom trying to help her son.

    It started with something heartbreaking

    In kindergarten, I learned that my son was color deficient.

    Learning that was heartbreaking for me as his mom. I kept thinking about how I could help him learn without making him feel like there was something wrong with the way he saw the world.

    I wasn’t looking to become an author. I wasn’t building a business. I was trying to find a way to help my child.

    I started with what I knew

    Once he could read, I taught him to read the names printed on his crayons and markers. That gave him a way to learn what colors were called, even when he was seeing them differently.

    I also taught him shapes.

    Then I started putting ideas together.

    Colors. Shapes. Creating. Learning.

    Little by little, something began to take shape.

    Creating changed the way I felt

    This part is just as important to me as the book itself.

    Thinking about my son’s color deficiency could leave me focused on the problem. Creating something purposeful gave me somewhere else to put those feelings.

    It gave me happy thoughts.

    Instead of constantly thinking, “My son has this issue,” I could think, “What can I create that might help?”

    That question changed everything.

    A book I never planned to write

    In 2008, that creative idea became A Rainbow of Shapes.

    I wanted something that brought colors and shapes together in an imaginative way. Something purposeful. Something that could help my son and potentially help other moms and children who were going through something similar.

    The wording on the back of the book still captures the original purpose:

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

    It wasn’t a medical book.

    It was a mom’s creative response to a difficult moment.

    And then KidsWonderArt came back around

    The book was one part of the story.

    The bigger idea was always about children discovering, imagining, learning, and creating.

    Years later, that same idea became the foundation for bringing KidsWonderArt back.

    What started with one mom trying to help her son became something I could share with other families, parents, grandparents, teachers, and little artists.

    What motherhood taught me

    I used to think that helping my child meant finding the right answer.

    Sometimes it means finding another way to ask the question.

    Sometimes it means noticing what your child is showing you.

    And sometimes, unexpectedly, it means creating something you never planned to create.

    That’s one of the things I love most about motherhood. You can start out simply trying to get through one moment, and that moment can quietly lead you somewhere completely unexpected.

    The thing I almost missed

    If I had only focused on the difficult part of that experience, I might never have created the book.

    Instead, I found something purposeful to build from it.

    And that is a lesson I still carry with me:

    You don’t always get to choose what motherhood puts in your path. But sometimes you get to choose what you create from it.

    Read more about the story behind A Rainbow of Shapes, or explore the Creativity & Learning section for simple ideas inspired by that original vision.

  • 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.

  • 5 Easy Ways to Teach Preschoolers Colors Through Play

    Learning colors doesn’t have to feel like a lesson. Some of the best learning happens when kids are simply looking, moving, matching, and creating.

    If you’re trying to help a preschooler learn colors, you don’t need a complicated curriculum or a pile of worksheets. You can turn things you already have around the house into little learning opportunities.

    1. Start with the colors you see every day

    Point out colors during ordinary moments.

    “Look at that red cup.”
    “Can you find something blue?”
    “What color is your shirt?”

    The goal isn’t to turn every moment into a quiz. It’s simply to help children notice colors in the world around them.

    2. Let crayons do some of the teaching

    Crayons make a simple color-learning tool because children can see, say, match, and create all at once.

    Ask your child to find a red crayon and then find something nearby that is red. Try another color. Then let them draw whatever they want with it.

    That last part matters. The activity doesn’t have to end with a correct answer. Letting children create gives them a reason to keep exploring.

    3. Go on a color hunt

    Pick one color and see how many things your child can find.

    Try:

    • Find 3 red things.
    • Find 2 yellow things.
    • Find 1 blue thing.

    You can do this in the house, outside, in a classroom, or even while waiting somewhere.

    For an easy version you can use right away, check out the FREE 5-Minute Color Hunt.

    4. Match colors to shapes

    Now add shapes to the mix.

    Ask your child to find a red circle, a blue square, or a yellow triangle. You can draw the shapes yourself or use objects you already have.

    This turns one learning idea into two: recognizing colors and recognizing shapes.

    5. Let the child become the teacher

    This is one of my favorites.

    Give your child a crayon or object and ask them to tell you what color it is. Then ask them to find something else that matches.

    Children often enjoy being the one who knows the answer. It also gives you a chance to listen to how they are thinking rather than simply telling them what to do.

    The best part? It doesn’t have to be perfect.

    When children learn through play, there is room for curiosity, mistakes, questions, and imagination.

    And that’s really the point.

    Learning colors can be about discovering—not just memorizing.

    If you’d like another simple activity, try the FREE Pumpkin Shape Hunt for a playful combination of shapes and colors.

    A little idea can become a bigger creative habit

    My own experience teaching my son colors in a different way eventually inspired A Rainbow of Shapes in 2008.

    That book began with a difficult moment as a mom, but the bigger lesson stayed with me: children can learn in different ways, and sometimes play gives us a wonderful place to start.

    For more simple activities and creative learning ideas, visit Creativity & Learning.

    And if you’re curious about where all of this began, you can read the story behind A Rainbow of Shapes.