Welcome to the world of Eating Rainbows!  We thought we’d put together this information for you in order to make using our chart as easy as possible.  We made the chart cute and colorful to capture the interest of your children.  We also made it really easy to understand and use!  Here is a step by step guide on setting up and implementing our chart.

Step 1.   Pop out all the magnets (pushing from underneath works well)

Step 2.  Place the chart on your fridge using the blue and green magnetic strips.  (If you have a stainless steel fridge, visit our blog for a variety of solutions)

Step 3.  Put all the character magnets up on the fridge.  You will notice that there are two distinct shapes (circle and square) and two sets of characters.  Each person tracking their produce can pick a character and a shape.  That way it is easy to know which one belongs to each person. 

Step 4.  Explain to your children that they now get to see how many colorful fruits and veggies they eat each day.  Tell them that it’s good for our bodies to eat from each color group every day.  Each color group has their own special kinds and amounts of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients ( pronounced fight-o-nutrients) which help to keep us healthy…so that is why they are going to try to Eat a Rainbow every day.  (If you have a picky eater don’t worry about serving sizes – at first all they have to do is try one bite in order to get to put up a magnet.  Otherwise it’s too big of a task for them.  See our blog posts on picky eaters for more information)

Step 5.  After your children eat a serving (about the size of their fist) of fruit or vegetable – they now get some instant gratification by placing a magnet of the corresponding colored column on the chart!  They get a real kick out of being able to mark their accomplishment! 

Step 6.  As the day goes on they will continue to place magnets up on the chart.  This makes it very easy to see what produce color they still need to eat in order to reach the healthy goal of eating a rainbow.  This can help you plan snacks and meals!

Step 7.  Once your children have eaten a rainbow they get to place their achievement cloud magnet on the rainbow part of the chart and then it’s time to celebrate!!!  They can sing our Today I Ate A Rainbow! song  (visit our Rainbow Song page to hear the song…it won’t take long before your children pick it up!)

Step 8.  If your children are motivated by rewards (aren’t we all?!) then you can set up some rewards based on what works best for you and your family.  At our house, if our daughter eats 6 rainbows in a row she gets to pick a family activity.  It could be going to the swimming pool, indoor mini golf, going to the park, a game of tag, or playing her favorite board game!  We like to reward her with activities that we can do as a family as well as ones that get our bodies moving!  The whole goal of this chart is to get them used to eating a variety of fruits and veggies every day!

Step 9.   Remember to use your shopping list and buy a rainbow!  (If you want your rainbow shopping list to go up on the fridge then you can either cut off a piece of the extra surrounding magnet (that your magnets came together on) and glue or tape it to the chart.  Or you can get double sided magnet tape…works like a charm!)  Thank you to my preschool teacher friend Lisa for the suggestions!)

This chart is meant to be used as a tool to help you establish the very important goal of setting healthy eating habits for your children.  This will turn into a lifelong gift for them to be  able to make healthy food choices and then reaping the benefits of those choices…a healthy body!  This may take a little extra time and effort on your part, but we know that you think your children are worth it!

If you have any questions on how to use this chart…just send us an email!