I’ve learned that one of the easiest ways to get kids interested in learning is by finding a way to capture their attention visually, so I was thrilled when Astrobrights
Color makes a big difference in education! According to the Color Marketing Group, color can accelerate learning while increasing retention and comprehension – very impressive. I used colored paper for my kids’ tests when I taught high school, and they really liked that – they said it made the tests seem less stressful. My high school students also really enjoyed using different colored markers for the overhead machine.
We used the paper that Astrobrights sent us to make two projects: travel journals for our trip to Massachusetts and speech therapy cards for my son. In both cases, having bright, colorful, well-made paper definitely got my kids more engaged in the activity!
For the travel journals, we used regular composition notebooks, Astrobrights paper
Each of my kids picked one color for the front and another color for the back. Astrobrights makes beautiful heavy weight paper that is perfect for this project, since it is thick enough that the pattern underneath does not show through. They also make lighter weight paper that is perfect for more delicate projects.
Once the books were put together, we pulled out stickers and each child got to work decorating their journal. Even one-year-old Anna enjoyed personalizing her notebook!
My kids love writing and notebooks in general, but it has been neat to see how attached they are to these “special” notebooks. Eight-year-old Emma particularly looks forward to writing in her journal every day. Six-year-old Johnny’s is mostly full of sketches, and four-year-old Lily is filling the pages with stories written just like the one I captured in this post. One-year-old Anna is still working on decorating the cover of her book – with scribbles now, in addition to the stickers.
Color makes a big difference for the kids’ notebooks, but I think the contrast between black and white and color is even more striking with my son’s speech cards! Johnny has worked very hard on speech since he was a toddler who started off using “H” as his only consonant. He has figured out most of the alphabet sounds now, but still replaces most “L” sounds with a “Y” sound – which makes it hard for people to understand him. This is very frustrating for Johnny! His speech therapist sent us worksheets to go over this summer, but they were not looking very inspiring. I copied them onto colored paper, and they were instantly more interesting for him!
The color also made these worksheets interesting to Johnny’s sisters! They all sat down together and cut them out into little squares that we could easily bring on our trip. Then we punched holes in all the cars, and strung them onto rings:
Speech therapy is still work, but pretty paper definitely makes a difference!
How does color make learning more fun in your school or home?
Thank you to Astrobrights for sponsoring this post!
MaryAnne lives in Silicon Valley with her Stanford professor husband Mike and their four children. She writes about parenting through education, creativity, and play. Mama Smiles - Joyful Parenting is a space to share crafts, hands on learning activities, and family outings that enrich lives and bring families together.
Almost Unschoolers says
Hmmm…I’ve never really thought about the color of paper effecting the children’s attitudes towards an assignment. Guess I’ll start pay attention :)
MaryAnne says
I just added a giveaway to this post, if you’d like some supplies to experiment with :)
Emma @ P is for Preschooler says
I’ve never thought about color affecting learning, but it makes sense. Colors can influence our moods, our appetite, why not education? I don’t know what I’d do with them, but it’s certainly something I’m going to look into!
Anonymous says
I LOVE colour. Why wouldn’t children benefit from it, too. It makes sense. Your journals are gorgeous. We do something like that here, too but I’ve been using clear plastic covers – I think we are going to have to make some fancy covers as the first page! And I think the paper I’ve been using is Astrobright, too!
Ann says
Keeping a journal over the summer is a great idea. Love the video of Anna too : )
I am not sure what we would do with color paper but I am sure it would get used!
faigekobre says
I use the plain white cardstock for most of my art projects. the quality of the card stock is what I like the kids to work on. I find that the colored ones can be a bit distracting.
Elisa | blissfulE says
Anna is so cute! Stickers, stickers everywhere! :) I’m glad you found a way to make Johnny’s flashcards more interesting, too. Colour does make a difference!
Jen says
Awesome! Those travel journals look so fun!
Shannon Nelson says
I would definitely use this colorful paper for my son and I to work on projects together. The colors are so vivid and eye catching
Thaleia from Somthing2Offer says
i love colored paper and fun office supplies!
Ashlee says
We use colored paper constantly on crafts and educational activities! It helps children visually separate items, and also just makes it fun to look at!
Dana says
We would use it for collages.
Brandy Fisk says
I have a home daycare and I’d love to win so, I can make some new flash cards for the walls in the playroom.
Wehaf says
I would use this paper to make flashcards and worksheets.
Ticia Adventures in Mommydom says
I’d use them for all sorts of things, but printing off notebooking pages would be a common one for me.
MaryAnn says
I would use them for routine charts for the kids
FinallyStayAtHomeMomma says
I would like to make bright and colorful calendars. My children like to use the bright paper for art designs.
Shelia S
Gabby Dunai says
I would use it in my Pre-K classrooom
Jessibeth Vicenty says
I like crafting, so I’m thinking a calendar and some banners :D
Michelle says
I plan to use it for flash cards!
deannalw says
I LOVE color. I will use these for holiday printables and cards.
Pam H. says
I plan to use it for Bible study worksheets. Color captures the children’s attention more than plain white paper.
sharon says
colors help me organize things
Elizabeth says
I’d love to use this to make greeting cards.
The Filler Four says
I would use it to copy center materials on it for my kindergarten class
Abby says
I’m a high school teacher, so I would use the paper all throughout my classroom.
sarahacool says
I would use them to make color coded flash cards :)
crazyweirdo33@yahoo.com
Luna S says
I would use it for crafting.
Kirby says
Organizing for me, and to make fun craft projects with the toddler!
ramblesahm says
We homeschool our oldest and I would love to get my hands on these for him this year!
tanya says
I would love to make some charts for my kids.
dorturnee says
Color adds individual personality and expression to your work. It seems like an awesome supply to work with!
domestic diva says
My kids would love to use this for their various homeschooling projects. Lately, they’ve been making collages — this would be fun for that.
Betsy says
I would love using it for projects for my kids
Austin Baroudi says
Color makes a difference because kids seem to pay attention to things that are more colorful and vibrant making them more interested in it!
Pam Spann says
Astro bright makes the activity more appealing to little ones. I would love to use the bright paper for center activities and small group activities.
rachel says
I love color. It adds so much life to each day.
kelly tillotson says
I print and make a lot of worksheets for my children in our homeschool. I love the Astrobright color variety!! Thank you so much for the giveaway!
*kelly
kelly-tillotson@hotmail.com
Emily A. says
I would use the paper for my son to make cards and crafts like you did. You can never have too much fun bright colored paper!
Mandy says
Astrobright paper is great for little paper projects and even adding just a touch of color to printed things.
Rachelle Anderson says
Anything with bright colors encourages my kids to color on it!
slehan says
Color just makes everything more fun. White is very boring.
Thanks for the contest.
slehan at juno dot com
Amy Lucero says
I watch my niece 1 day a week and she loves to paint and draw. Using these color papers door a collage would be very stimulating!
Ally says
I’m not sure how we’d use it, but it would probably involve making decorations to brighten things up!
laura says
I would love to use these for fun projects for my kids.
Misty W says
I would make signs for the kids rooms
megan n says
My daughter is not big on writing. I would definitely use the beautiful colors to make her a personalized journal, inspired by your post. I think it would really inspire her to enjoy writing more.
Pragmatic Mom says
OMG. I. LOVE. ASTROBRITES! My first business got off the ground because of the tear off flyers we posted around Harvard Square on Astrobrite Yellow and Orange so those are my color picks!
jeannine: waddleeahchaa says
I like the astrobrights on the cover of your journals. Very personal! My kiddos both keep personal journals. These are not used for homeschool. They are free to write and draw as they please. They drag them around all of the time writing and drawing little bits.
We’ve been using astrobrights for years! Love the bright colors.
Birdiebee says
I would use it to make signs for my granddaughter’s upcoming birthday party.
heather says
I think colors are so helpful in teaching children.
Sandra says
Great for crafts
Veronica v says
I love to use color to make things brighter.
Kate F. says
I would use it to do projects with my niece and nephew.
Analisa says
I would love to use the paper for crafting with my son.
Tara says
My 11 year old daughter is so crafty so I would let her go crazy with it!
Terri Moore says
I color coordinate our school subjects, red box with the math books and a red folder to go with it. I think bright colors engage our minds and are just plain fun!
Donna L says
I would give it to my grandkids for projects.
Amanda Sakovitz says
I would do crafts with my niece
Thomas Murphy says
I would give it to my kids to do crafts and projects.
Laura A. says
I’d love to use the astrobrights paper for crafts with my little boy!
Natalie F says
I would use it for art/writing projects with my oldest son and coloring with my younger. Kids get excited about fun colors.
Elle says
The colorful paper is great for making different decorations for the house for summer.
bokononist1 says
I would use it for crafts.
Brandy Williams says
I would use these to make crafts with my kids :)
Sarah Sparks says
As a teacher, I use different colored papers when I copy math worksheets for my students. A separate color for each unit. I often have to buy my own paper to make copies.
Holly Mitkowski says
I would use these for school projects with the little ones!
Tracy Jones says
I want make flash cards for kids. The colored paper makes it more fun.
christy colln says
I would use these for craft time with my son ! :)
Mary Happymommy (@mami2jcn) says
I would use them to teach my daughter numbers.
giantsis says
I love being able to color-code things to remember! It makes them stick in my head better!
Wes Hovorka says
I would use it for making crafts.
Seth says
I like bright colors and they brighten the mood.
Lisa says
My kids are very visual learners so I think color is important
Nesca Crespo says
I think color really would grab the attention of squirmy wormy kids. This would be more fun for them.
Leah Shumack says
My daughter really enjoys writing letters so this would be really nice to spice up our stationary!
Nancy says
I’d make postcards for my grandkids to mail from their summer vacation
Noreen says
Practicing multiplication, it would make it more fun on colored paper
Laura J says
Oh we would love to use it for fun art projetcs for Carter! He loves to create and the colors make it so much fun!
healthyteeneats says
Colors make learning easier for kids to want to do.the activities.
Kali Hees says
We would use them for flash cards, crafts and other fun stuff!
qweenb620 says
Color makes such a difference in learning because it captures the attention of little minds that like to wander :)
Marie says
I think it’s a fun way to get kids involved by associating colors with their emotions and some of the things that they like.
T Michelle Trump says
I plan to use it in my preschool classroom. They love bright colors and I love making learning fun.
Tara Huff says
I would use this to make flashcards for my kids.
Patricia Wojnar Crowley says
We would use this to make homemade cards for birthdays etc!
June Lisle says
I would give the paper away to one of my friends to use with their kids.
Leigh Anne Borders says
I love using these bright colors on all kinds of documents. Form our menus to activity pages for the kids, it makes a difference when it is colorful!
Amber Dunn says
My son loves bright fun colors, so everything is more fun with bright paper!
Marilyn Nawara says
I am going to use it to do arts and crafts projects with my granddaughter.
Missy Marie says
The kids enjoy making homemade cards for birthdays and such. We could use the astrobright paper for that:)
Mary Cloud says
I would give this to my daughter to use in her arts and crafts projects – let her see what she can come up with
Ann says
For my tennis activities
Donna says
my daughter teaches 3rd graders. they would love this
Julie says
colors brighten a child’s world
Johanna says
Did you use lined or unlined composition journals? Also good to hear about your sons speech journey. we have started with our daughter and it is going to be long and lots of work. any ideas and/or resources you suggest are appreciated!
Birdiebee says
I would use it to make signs for my granddaughter’s birthday.