Do you want a fun way to teach your child patterning?  How about with good old fashioned paper links?  I remember making these when I was a kid.  You can also use this to teach them colors.  It is fun to do and you can turn it into a learning experience if you use colored paper.  I showed my kids, ages 4 - 15, how to make link chains with plain paper the other day.  It was actually an activity for my 4 year old, but the older kids were all excited and wanted to make links also.