Like most modern families using tech friendly ways of keeping in touch, we have adopted the What’s App family chat group – a fun, provocative, sometimes hostile place where updates and issues old and new between siblings and their other halves can be explored. It essential allows us to natter from very different parts of the world, and apart form the odd fall out, it’s a great place to catch up on what we’re up to and share quite useful life hacks.

 

On one very mundane Monday morning a year ago my brother sends us images and videos  from what looked like some Indian Holi-type colour festival in San Fransisco,  he was there with his family and hundreds of other people having an outrageous amount of fun. The colours grabbed my attention immediately followed by a sudden sense of ‘I need to do this with my family too!’ .. ‘like right now!’.

 

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The event turns out, is called Color Me Rad, a 5K run in a blaze of colour bombs, colour cannons, colour mortars, and multi-toned courses. It’s now here in the UK (without consideration for the correct spelling of ‘colour’ of course) and hitting London, Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

 

Of course we got all over it, wide eyed and eager  – hungry to participate in lots of harmless frivolity. Unlike the recent Slide in the City event we went to (also an import from our fun-loving friends in the US), this one didn’t leave you feeling massively let down by an over-marketed under-delivered UK version. It was brilliant!

 

The idea is to start the race with a clean white t-shirt and over the course you’ll get colour bombed to the point of looking like a 5 year old’s impression of a Jackson Pollack painting. Each section of the run adds a new explosion of colour to your clean, painter’s palate until you cross the finish line into a final blitzkrieg of colour.

 

 

Check out our video from the event:

 

So what’s the colour made of I hear you asking! It’s a non-toxic, non-rash-inducing, coloured cornstarch – the type that is used in foods. It all comes off in the wash (more than one I should add) and is completely safe. So if your urchin decides to start sticking their fingers in their mouth you can be rest assured they won’t turn into a green gremlin.

 

What’s great about the event is that everyone, young, small or old, are welcome to participate. Those under 18 must bring a waiver signed by a parent or guardian with them on race day and here’s the kicker…7 and under run for free! They won’t receive a race bib or t-shirt but they will be covered in colour head to toe!

 

 

Anyway, so it costs £22 and is a brilliant day out, where you can spend some time in the park afterwards fooling around with your new look before heading home to deal with the mess.

 

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The reason why we have decided to talk about this is not just to share a reasonably priced fun family event that leaves you with great memories and lots of cool images, but to consider what a splash of colour can do for us.

Colours can have a powerful affect on a person’s mental or physical state. For example, studies have shown that looking at the colour red can result in an increased heart rate, leading to additional adrenaline being pumped into the blood stream.

 

Carl Jung, a heavy weight in the field of Psychology, was a proponent of art therapy, He encouraged his patients to use colour because he felt this would help them express some of the deeper parts of their psyche. There are also commonly noted psychological effects of colour – warm colours such as red, yellow and orange can spark a variety of emotions ranging from comfort and warmth to hostility and anger and Cool colours such as green, blue and purple often spark feelings of calmness as well as sadness.

Researchers from the Surrey Baby Lab have identified that most children show a preference for favourite colours like red, yellow and green as early as four months, with preferences becoming more individual and distinct from the age of six.

 

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Get your kids to experience colour in all the ways you can – paint, crayons, playdoh, clothes – anything that encourages and stimulates an understanding and appreciation for the vocabulary of colour. Understanding what colours your child loves and hates is essential for developing their confidence, improving their emotional state and enabling them to express themselves effectively.

 

 

According to Scholastic.com the “understanding colour and shape is a tool for learning many skills in all curriculum areas, from math and science to language and reading. For example, when your child learns to discern the similarities and differences between colours and shapes, she is using the same skills she needs to recognize the differences between letters and numerals.”

 

We’ll be revisiting colour again, an immensely exciting and important topic for us! We hope you’ve found this information useful.

 

Would you go this event? What colours inspire you?