For those who color code their kids...

[2squared]

How do you do it economically? I really want to color code my kids, but it seems that I won't be able to find the things I want in all five colors. I'm afraid if I pick red, yellow, blue, green, and orange (or whatever other five colors) and then something won't be available in orange and the next something won't be available in yellow. Making substitutions seems not right, ya know?

[Pegasus]

I'm not 100% sure what color coding my kids would mean but I better not try it. I've only got 2 but I'm pretty sure I'd start calling them by their color instead of their name. Come on, Pink, it's time for you to unload the dishwasher. Have you finished your math yet, Purple?

 

:D

 

Pegasus

[PiCO]

How do you do it economically? I really want to color code my kids, but it seems that I won't be able to find the things I want in all five colors. I'm afraid if I pick red, yellow, blue, green, and orange (or whatever other five colors) and then something won't be available in orange and the next something won't be available in yellow. Making substitutions seems not right, ya know?

 

What exactly are you going to color code?

[ladydusk]

I only have three children and we use red, blue, and green which are easy to find generally together. Sometimes, though, I want something that isn't in those colors, so I stick some electrical tape in their color on the cup or whatever to mark it as theirs.

[Impish]

:iagree:on not knowing what is meant..

I just had visuals of kids, cans of paint...

 

Great. Now I'm flashing on Braveheart. :001_huh:

[Remudamom]

I started color coding the triplets so I'd know who was stealing who's bottle. You can get little colored stickers to mark things if you need to, I bought some round stickers at Walmart that were just solid colors. I'd mark textbooks, shelves, etc. Handy.

[ladydusk]

I'm not 100% sure what color coding my kids would mean

We color code almost everything: lap desks, bathroom cups, scissors, pencils, pens, school file folders, lunch plates, notebooks for math, school crates, etc.

 

I do this so 1) there aren't fights over what belongs to who or 2) if I find it lying about, I know who left it there.

Edited August 1, 2010 by ladydusk

[LibraryLover]

That sounds so visually unappealing. lol Unless you're talking stickers rather than clothing. lol

[Celia]

I started color coding the triplets so I'd know who was stealing who's bottle. You can get little colored stickers to mark things if you need to, I bought some round stickers at Walmart that were just solid colors. I'd mark textbooks, shelves, etc. Handy.

 

This cracks me up!!!

[RoughCollie]

It depends on what you are going to color code. I color-coded objects (not clothing) to minimize arguments over what belonged to each child, and so I would know who had left their things lying around.

 

We used red, blue, and yellow for the boys and pink for DD.

 

Electrical tape comes in many colors and is handy to color code all sorts of things, like pencils.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=electrical+tape&x=0&y=0&ih=6_5_1_0_1_0_2_0_0_1.70_74&fsc=8

 

Colored dots are handy, too. These are examples of sets that come in more than 4 colors (office supply dot sets are often in only 4 colors).

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Doffice-products&field-keywords=color+coded+dots&x=0&y=0&ih=13_3_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_1.80_153&fsc=13

 

Colored Sharpies, too:

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Doffice-products&field-keywords=sharpies&x=0&y=0&ih=5_2_0_0_0_0_1_0_0_1.77_77&fsc=-1

Edited August 1, 2010 by RoughCollie

[Impish]

I started color coding the triplets so I'd know who was stealing who's bottle. You can get little colored stickers to mark things if you need to, I bought some round stickers at Walmart that were just solid colors. I'd mark textbooks, shelves, etc. Handy.

Sounds like they took after Mom at an early age :lol:

[JenneinCA]

I do sometimes.

 

My youngest son loves orange and red, so I try to buy his things in those colors. His swimsuit is orange. His water bottle is red. His school supplies are in red and orange. It makes him happy and it makes my life easier.

 

My older son loves green, so I try to buy his things in green. His swim suit and water bottle are green. His school supplies are in green as much as possible.

 

My daughter gets most things in either pink or purple. She likes both equally. Her school supplies are usually in one of those colors.

 

It isn't so much that I am color coding as much as I am trying to appreciate their unique views on the world and make them smile. It usually doesn't cost any more to pick the different colors.

[lapsetmom]

I just try not to be a stickler about it, but each of my children have a different favorite color, and if we are buying them all bags or school crates, etc, I try to buy them in their colors: blue, pink, yellow, purple, and green (at least we think she likes green; she is only one, but she only picks out the green cereal or balloons, etc.) Sometimes, if there is no pink, I use red since it is similar in shade. Before my youngest was born, I sometimes chose light green if there were no yellows. I try to be flexible. The stickers and colored tape were good ideas too if you can't find something in a color. I think I need to get cups in my kids' colors because I never know whose cup is lying around!

[FO4UR]

I only have three and use Blue, Red/Pink (red is dd's default color:tongue_smilie:), and Green. Those colors are extremely easy to find...in fact, I'm looking for a rational reason to purchase the $3 crates in those colors at WM (:lol:).

 

 

I don't color code *EVERYTHING,* and I've learned that this can backfire with the young ones....given that my 4yo now thinks that everything green is inherently *his.*:blink:

 

If I had 5dc, I think I would stick with colored tape/stickers.

[nukeswife]

My kids color coded themselves. My oldest son loves Green, my dd (middle child) loves blue and my youngest loves red. If I tell them to pick a notebook, folder, binder, etc they always chose a shade of those colors. So now I just buy them in only those colors. They've been this was for 3 years and haven't changed so I think I'm safe.

I've found yellow to be the hardest if you want a binder that color, but since yellow is my favorite it's not an issue, I'll default to orange.

I do use electrical tape if needed to color code things that are general like boxes of crayons, markers, pencils etc.

 

 

I just recently bought Fiestaware to replace my broken corelle, and they each asked if they could have a set in their colors. So that's what I went with. We all have different favorites (dh loves purple) so I bought my dishes in Scarlet, Sunshine, Shamrock, Turquoise and Plum, then got white, black and tangerine just to make it an 8 place setting group. My mom loves purple too, but the kids said their dad trumps grandma so she'll have to use the orange set when she comes to visit :tongue_smilie:

[Athome]

Find ways to just add the color. Instead of finding red towels. Attach a red ribbon loop to a white on and a green ribbon to another. And so on and so forth

[2squared]

Thanks for the ideas!

 

I started by coloring coding their dishes so I could tell who didn't clean up their stuff and so they could tell which meal was belonged to which kid. It worked really, really well. Now, though, I only have three sets of these dishes and I can't find two more of the same style. :glare: It's not a big deal, but it seems like a waste to toss the dishes we have and buy new just to add colors.

 

Then I bought towels - one towel in one color for each dc. It was wonderful, but I didn't match the colors to their plate colors. So things got a little mixed up.

 

I can already see this system would work splendidly for school supplies, but as I scanned the school supply isle I could see that some colors would be difficult to come by. My dds love pink and purple, but those colors weren't as frequent as red, blue, green, (boring) black and (boring) white.

 

Color coding clothes wouldn't be as helpful for me, because luckily, I can still tell them apart based on facial appearance and size. Usually. :lol:

[CalicoKat]

I did this with the bathroom towels.

 

Purple -- dd 11

Pink --dd 9

Blue --ds 7

Green -- ds 4

Yellow --dd 3

 

It's easier to know who messed up the bathroom. And who gets to clean it up. :D

 

I do have one child who likes to foil the system. But in general it works.

 

Their school lesson planners also follow this color system. Easier to locate, easier for me as I've got 4 to schedule for these days.

[KidsHappen]

I color code the girls. The only problem I have had over the years is that their favorite colors have changed. They are pretty stable now though. For instance if we are playing Wii, my oldest is orange, the next is green, the next purple, the next blue and the last pink. Mom is always red. It also helps when playing Clue as most of those colors are available. We do it with towels, toothbrushes, regular brushes, DSs, portable water bottles, etc. I sometimes have a hard time finding something in orange so I get her brown or yellow. She is old enough to understand.

[Miss Peregrine]

We only do it with bath towels/washcloths. It was always "NotMe" who left the towel on the floor. Solved that. :)

[SheilaZ]

My kids picked out their own colors and it has now moved on to camping supplies. My two oldest sons are in Boy Scouts and we have colored rope on their tents, sleeping bags, and lanterns. It makes packing easier and everyone in the tropp knows that the coleman latern with the orange rope on it is Jacob's.

[patchfire]

I color code informally - mostly for myself versus them. My iCal, the wall calendar, their bathroom cups, colored Sharpie pens when I'm doing initial school planning drafts...

 

I picked colors that they tended to gravitate towards anyway. Dd's color is green, and she already had picked out for her duffel bag and sleeping bag to both be green. That sort of thing. I had to pick little dd's color and picked purple. Now this has caused me no little consternation when I realized older dd needed a backpack (for a few classes outside the house she's doing this year), and she picked a PURPLE one. How could she do this to my careful system? :lol: Thankfully it's more lilac than purple, so my carefully crafted system with DARK purple isn't totally set on its ear. :D

[Hockey Mom]

I color code my boys (red and blue). I do this because even though they are a year apart in age, they wear the same size clothing and shoes. It's easier for me to determine whose white shoes are left in the living room by looking at the red sharpie circle on the bottom of the shoe.

 

I code their towels differently. DS7 like space stuff, so his towels are all space-themed rockets and aliens. DS6 like dinosaurs, so his towels are all dinosaur-themed.

[JudoMom]

My guys are color coded for the most part. Blue, Green, Yellow, Red (or Pink--it was actually his favorite color for awhile) and Orange (or Purple).

 

Now that they are getting older it's not much of an issue, but when they were all 9 & under it helped save my sanity.

[2squared]

when they were all 9 & under it helped save my sanity.

 

:iagree: Exactly. Color coding will be my friend for a few years.

[Jayne J]

I've tried this repeatedly and have run into one issue--ds's favorite color is orange. It can be pretty darn hard to find things in orange sometimes. Thankfully, he is my only boy, so he can default to blue.:D

Lesson: make sure your child's favorite color is a bit more standard, or chose the color yourself, lest they flip when there are no orange notebooks... (When you have more children than primary colors it can get dicey, I'm guessing.:lol:)

[fhjmom]

I am color coding for school and I am planning on using the electrical tape system for thing not in "their" colors. DS favorite is blue and older DD's favorite is pink so they were easy. I choose bright green for littlest because most of the stuff I looked at that came in blue (think bright aqua) and pink, also came in bright green. She likes it though and, as another poster said happened with her younder one, she has already decided that anything green belongs to her! :lol:

 

Red is Mom's color.:D

[FunnyFarmMom]

I've been color coding my kiddos since the boys were babies. I'm not very picky about home things so for instance with the bowls, we just added a couple of yellow bowls in a similar size when we needed another color. I do think it is funny that my kiddos have kind of internalized the color thing. I just pointed out to my boys that, despite their desire to be real cool and individual, each chose their assigned color to paint their new rooms. And littlest, even though she's 6 now, still feels the need to wear yellow most days. The kids and I picked her color before she was born AND before we even knew girl or boy!