Mom Life, As It Happens

Tag: Shapes for Kids

  • 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.

  • 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.