Before I share today’s tutorial, I wanted to introduce a new idea I’ve had for a while for a series on the blog.  You see, I’m a former elementary teacher.  While there are some days that I do miss it, I’d much rather be at home with these two cuties instead.

In fact, I love being home with them so much, that my husband and I have decided that when it’s time to start school, I’ll be homeschooling them.  It’s something that I never actually thought I’d be interested in doing, but since becoming a stay at home mom, I’ve got a very strong desire to homeschool our children.

So, to start to get in the “homeschooling” state of mind {and just because my oldest is ready to start some simple preschool activities}, I’ve decided that every Tuesday I’ll be sharing an educational activity, craft, or snack, perfect for you to try out with your little guy or gal.  It’s something I’d like to call…

{Like my banner?  My pal Sarah whipped it up for me…she’s the BEST!}

The first activity I’m excited to share with all of you today helps with color recognition, sorting, and matching.

Paint Palette Color Sorting

To make your own, you’ll need:

plastic paint palette {found at JoAnn’s for about $1.50}

7 different colors of felt {basic colors}

coordinating poms

hot glue/glue gun

Let me just start by saying that this was super easy and fast to assemble.  The paint palette that I selected resembled a flower.  I used a scrap piece of felt to create a pattern and traced that onto each color I’d need.  I then cut each piece and adhered them to the paint palette with a little bit of hot glue.

I then made sure that I had three poms in each color to match the different sections.

For now, I keep the entire activity {paint palette & colored poms} in a large Ziploc bag.  I’m planning on sewing a cute storage bag for it in the near future though.

This is such an easy activity to break out during breakfast or those times when I need my two year old to be entertained while I’m feeding or changing our three month old.  He likes to sort one of every color first and then go back around until all three poms are in each coordinating tray.  We’re also working on saying each color and he’s pretty much mastered blue, red, yellow, and green.

Happy teaching!