My husband and I have been have been trying for a long time to teach our son to recognize and distinguish colors, but he just hasn't been into it! For awhile, he didn't seem to have any idea that different colors were actually different. We would point to a color in a book and say, "yellow" ask him to point to something else that was yellow and he wouldn't do it. We showed him how to match colors and asked him to match colors too, but he wouldn't. We would show him two of the same objects, point to one and say "blue" and then ask what color the other one was, and he would giggle and either not answer, or say "green" (which has been his answer to all color-related questions). We worked with him for so long without any progress that we actually asked our pediatrician if he could be color blind! She reassured us that he probably isn't, and that she thought all of her 5 children were color blind when they were his age, and then one day they learned their colors. I felt better.

But he still needs to learn his colors. I shared my experience with a friend of mine who said she just taught her son (same age as Devin) how to identify colors by using M&M's! She said it only took a few times and then BAM, he caught on! Does anyone else have a child super-motivated by food or just treats? Well... I do. If you know Devin at all, you know he is impressively in love with all things food. So I thought this idea might work on him. But I didn't want to use M&M's so I chose a treat slightly less sugary... Fruit Loops. They have all the colors of the rainbow! I drew up this color grid and got to work with Devin.

I put the grid in front of Devin along with a cup of Fruit Loops. At first, all he wanted to do was eat the Fruit Loops and when I attempted to explain the game rules to him, he got frustrated and cried because he couldn't just eat them. Eventually, he caught on, and now he's played so many times I can just set him up at the table and he will play the game independently!
Here's how to play the game with a parent supervising & helping:

Pick up a piece of cereal and say "blue" or whatever color it is, then place it on the matching color square. Then pick up the piece of cereal and eat it. It's that simple! Do this several times, taking turns so your child can learn by example how to play the game. He can only eat the cereal once he has placed it on the matching color square.
You can vary the rules too by grabbing a handfull of cereal and pulling out all the same color pieces from the pile and putting them on the matching color square, then eat them all! Repeat this for each color. Think of your own ways to change up the rules to help them learn their colors.

If your child is motivated by treats, this easy game is sure to be fun and help them learn their colors too!