A rainy day activity might include a trip to the local paint center of your home improvement store. It is fun to look at all of the colors and read the names that have been created for them. You can ask your child how they think the names were chosen. Let your child pick out a wide variety of their favorite colors. You can collect the color cards one day and save the remaining activities for rainy or snow days. At home, the color samples can be cut apart. Since the cutting doesn't have be perfect, your little one can practice their cutting skills with blunt scissors. If you want to make a game out of it, your child can select some colors that are obviously different and create names for them. What fun to see the imaginative names children can give to colors! If they seem stumped, you could suggest that they think in terms of fruits, vegetables or animals.

The paint samples can be used to make game board squares with adult assistance. They can be torn to make paper mosaics by younger children. Older children might like to make more structured pictures. Greeting cards can be made easily out of card stock or construction paper. They make memorable cards when inscribed with personal messages. Since everyone usually has a few greeting cards tucked away, they can be cut into small shapes, interspersed and glued on a cardboard or wood picture frame along with the paint samples. These can be decorated with buttons or colored beads.

You might want to put all of the color samples, some ideas, glue, scissors and other materials into a box for use by a babysitter. It would be a fun way to spend some time with a grandparent. If the activity is not meant for students to follow specific color by number directions, let them create and own their picture. Ownership does not happen often enough especially if an insensitive teacher puts red marks on places where a child colored outside of the lines or used some creative coloring. Let your child's creativity and imagination shine like the sparkle of pride in their eyes when they say, "I made it for you." or "Look what I made."