A splash of colour.

Embrace colour….I dare you!

It was when I was wandering (I say wandering, but it was more like being pulled at quite a pace) around LEGOLAND on a day out with my two young children, that a great big ‘Oh! Moment’ hit me.  I use ‘Oh! Moment’ as a way to describe something that should have been blindingly obvious suddenly hitting you right in the face, like an excited three year old trying to wake you up at 5am on their birthday (or in fact any day if my morning routine is anything to go by!). I looked around and for as far as the eye could see there were bright colours. Beautiful colours, colours so vivid it was like being inside a bag of Skittles.  There were smiles too.  So, so many smiles as everyone looked around on their way to the next queue. And there it was, my ‘Oh! Moment’…..nothing was beige, nothing was varying shades of brown and nothing was dull!

Don’t worry, I can hear your big intakes of breathe as you shake your heads and draw a big suck of air in through your teeth.  I can feel the disapproving eyes of the entire early years community all looking at me in disgust and tutting in unison as I make my confession….It was colourful, it was  plastic, it was fake and I loved it!

However, I am not alone with my dirty colour loving secret.  I have supporters…..a whole army of them.  They are quite vocal in their desire for colour. They are young children.  They love it.  They can’t get enough of it.  They show us this in the way that when they paint, they use every single colour going (on every single surface), even if it has no relevance to their picture.  They talk colours constantly, choosing a favourite and a least favourite, comparing it to everyone else’s choice. If they happen to meet someone at the park who has made the same favourite colour choice as them, then that is it, they are best friends for life (or at least until home time).  They sort their car collection by it, they choose sweets depending on it (no matter how many times you try and tell them not to choose the green jelly bean from the pick and mix because they won’t like it, they do and you end up with an bag full of margarita flavoured beans that they don’t like and that just don’t cut the mustard as the real thing for you). They just love colour.  They are colour junkies!

A typical colour junkie.

                                          

I thought about this colour issue and I thought maybe I am wrong, maybe colour is not what makes our hearts dance and our smiles light up.  Then I thought back to LEGOLAND and Disneyland and any such place that is aimed at our ‘focus market’.  And they are rife with colour.  They are explosions of colour because that is what children love.  Imagine if Walt Disney had said “I’ve got this amazing idea for a place that will be the things children’s dreams are made of, and as we all know children dreams are beige, so I am building a beige theme park!”  It would not have worked. If children wanted beige and grey and neutral then TV would still be broadcast in these colours, the millions of pounds that are poured in to research would mean toy companies churning out beige toy after beige toy.  But they don’t because it is not what children want.

So, what do we do as a professional workforce whose job it is to engage these children, who we need to inspire to love learning?  We shake our heads at this colour nonsense, we turn our back on the multi-billion pound industry that is based on our ‘core market’. We ignore the way they hook their customers and we serve up a diet of beige. Because we know best….don’t we?  Just think about life in a beige classroom, I’m feeling inspired already (not!)….would I like to play with some beige wooden blocks or would I like to explore the natural collage material (that looks suspiciously similar to my grandma’s potpourri bowl). Would I like to explore the book corner with beige boxes and then go and choose some beige counters out of the beige basket? Maybe then I would like to look at the beige and cream walls a bit more please.

I’m bored already, just thinking in beige has thoroughly depressed me! What about natural colours I here you all cry.  Well let’s take a quick look at Mother Nature’s colour choice…shall we start with the bright blue sky, the golden yellow sunshine, the emerald green grass, the ruby red poppies, the multi-coloured birds and butterflies and her biggest and most spectacular display of colour of all, the breath taking rainbow.

That wily Mother Nature tempts us to eat a whole range of fruit, vegetables and berries in every colour to keep us healthy. 

Mother Nature's Rainbow

 In fact not many natural foods are beige.  We respond to colour.  Colour response is programmed in our brains.

Hmmmm…. So where has this beige-ness come from then if it is not that colour fanatic Ma Nature? 

I could be wrong but I think it came from research showing that early learning environments should be softened to make them more like a home environment.  This research suggested adding more textures and making cosy places but can these things not be carefully mixed in with a splash of colour too?

Research shows (and this is real research now, not just my ‘Oh! Moment’ research from walking around LEGOLAND, though I feel that is still valid….) that children respond well to colour.  Colour allows children to concentrate, to focus, to feel safe and to stimulate the brain.  Research shows colour provides an unthreatening environment that improves visual processing, reduces stress, and challenges brain development through visual stimulation/relationships and pattern seeking.  Providing a variety of colours in learning environments reduces boredom and passivity.  Studies have shown that monotone environments may induce anxiety and lead to irritability and an inability to concentrate. The right choice of colours can be powerful the proper use of colour in schools can convert an atmosphere that is depressing and boring into one that is happiness inducing, exciting and stimulating; therefore leaving children (and staff!) having more positive feelings about school. Look at your learning space with fresh eyes, too much sameness does not convey the value of diversity.  So there my friends is indeed the ‘science’ bit.  So if colour does not appeal to your child loving fun nature maybe cold hard facts will.

A block of colour can inspire children and help prevent
eye strain (as well as just being pretty!).

So I dare you to add a splash of colour to your learning environment. I'm not saying the psychedelic is the way forward just a bit of colour to engage those children.  Go on be a devil add a purple border to that display board or a teal cushion to your reading area, splash out on coloured bricks….Mother Nature would be proud of you!!