I have assigned each of my children a color; anytime they all have the same of something, I try to get it in their colors. My children's "colors" are, from the oldest to the youngest:
1- (B) blue
2- (G) purple
3- (B) red
4- (B) green
5- (G) pink
6- (B) orange
7- (G) yellow
8- (G) light blue
In answer to the obvious question, 'what do you do when you run out of colors?' you get creative. By that time you probably don't have exactly the same thing for every child anyway because they are different ages/stages. But it does help with a lot of things, like bath towels, for example. I bought them each one good bath towel and washcloth in that color, and we don't have extra towels getting dirtied. These get laundered once in a while, as they don't bathe every day, and when they do, the towel is (supposedly) used on a clean body, so they don't need to be laundered that often. Everyone knows who left his towel on the bed, or on the floor, so there's no argument there.
Toothbrushes are another example. When we go to the dentist.... well, they just can't find that many different colored toothbrushes in their supply. But when I buy them in betweendental visits, I look for the two-packs for 99 cents and stock up on as many of all the colors as I can so I have a new set when it's time. I refuse to pay more than a dollar for one child's toothbrush!
I have used this system for labeling snack bags and water bottles on trips, so that even pre-reading children know whose is whose. It's kind of funny, but our last several children have learned the colors by the siblings' names before the color name.
Child points to a green block, and says "Joel!" I point to a red block, and the child says "Marc!"
And yes, they do shortly learn the actual names of the colors. :)
3 comments:
I "only" have three sisters, but we are green, blue, yellow, and purple. (I'm green.) We got color-coded coats, school supplies, back packs, dolls, etc etc etc. My mom still thinks it's fun to buy us color coded Christmas sweaters, and when we took the last Single Sisters Picture before the first of four weddings in five years, we wore color coded button-up shirts.
Glad I'm not the only color-coding mommy. Although I admit I am less intentional about it than you are. :)
However, my cardinal baby naming rule is that everyone MUST have a different first initial!
That sounds like fun, MooreMama.
Angie, I totally agree. Not that I have that rule, but we have two J's, and that is quite enough for me thanks! How else can I make shorthand notes on things regarding children, you know? But I just use the middle initial of one of them, so it still works.
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