How Mixing Lab turns two paints into kitchen-table colour science
A parent guide to Tomorrow Kid’s Colours Mixing Lab—list entry card, five-paint palette, order-independent blends, ten named recipes, no stars/no fail, and when to use it after Find/Sort.
What Mixing Lab is for
Tomorrow Kid’s Colours list includes a dedicated Mixing Lab card—“What do two paints make?”—that opens free paint-blend play. Kids pick two paints, watch the blobs merge, and hear the named result. There are no stars and no fail state: every mix teaches something, including off-curriculum blends with their own name and hex.
Parent tip: treat Mixing Lab as kitchen-table colour science after a Find/Sort round. Keep Learn → Find → Sort as the spine; Mixing Lab is the joyful encore, not a graded quiz.
Where it lives
- Open Colours from Home (the rainbow tile)
- Tap the Mixing Lab card on the Colours list (“What do two paints make?”)
- Pick a first paint, then a second—watch the blend, hear the result
- Tap any paint to mix again; the header shows 🧪 N recipes as discoveries grow
Entry wiring: the list card (ColoursListView.mixingLabCard) opens ColoursMixView. For Learn → Find → Sort stages and the eleven curriculum colours, see the main Colours guide.
The five-paint palette
Mixing Lab uses five paints from the bundled content—not the full eleven-colour curriculum row:
| Paint | Role in blends | | --- | --- | | Red | Primary | | Yellow | Primary | | Blue | Primary | | White | Lightens / softens | | Black | Darkens / deepens |
Blends are order-independent: red then yellow is the same recipe as yellow then red. Mixing the same paint twice speaks “more of that paint” instead of inventing a new colour.
Ten recipes, including off-curriculum names
There are 10 named recipes. Primaries make familiar school colours (orange, green, purple…), and white/black mixes unlock results that need no curriculum colour row—light blue, cream, olive, and similar kitchen-table names with their own hex.
Spoken welcome and result TTS keep the lab playful without a score card. Recipe progress is shown as 🧪 N recipes, not stars.
How Mixing Lab differs from Learn / Find / Sort
- Learn → Find → Sort — staged curriculum (First / Mixing / Everyday colours); Find and Sort award stars—see the main Colours guide
- Mixing Lab — five-paint free play; blend → named result; no fail; no stars; recipe count only
- Stars / Sticker Book — Mixing Lab never competes with Find/Sort rewards
Use Lab when you want curiosity without a grade. Use Find/Sort when you want the shared star language.
A calm way to introduce it at home
- Finish one Find or Sort round on a First colour together.
- Open Mixing Lab and mix red + yellow—ask “what colour did we make?”
- Try a white or black mix next so off-curriculum names feel like discoveries, not mistakes.
- Point at the 🧪 recipe count so collecting recipes feels like a collection, not a quiz.
- Return to Learn → Find → Sort tomorrow so Lab stays the encore.
What to try next
Keep Learn → Find → Sort as the weekly spine. When energy is high—or after a hard Sort—open Mixing Lab for no-fail paint science. Ready to try it? Open Tomorrow Kid, open Colours, and tap the Mixing Lab card.