Toddler approved post inspired me to make a rainbow fruit platter (strawberries, orange, pineapple, apple and blueberries). It was a big hit with Luath, who the next night asked for her berries to be in the shape again. However even more impressive was that daddy, our household's low fruit eater, kept reaching for more.
Last year we did a rainbow week and I posted some rainbow fruit/vegetable resources I had found.
(Luath is 29 months)
As mentioned previously we are aiming to eat as wide of colours as possible and for fun sometimes we try to have some rainbow meals.
We enjoyed a shared rainbow platter, it is so nice just to have one big plate that we can eat from. Luath tried everything, she didn't like the spring onions or the orange pepper. We ate our meal on the back doorstep as it was such a lovely day. That was an novel experience as Luath could stand or sit to eat.
Tomatoes Orange pepper Sweetcorn Lettuce Broccoli Raisins Spring onions Melon
- with cheese and oatcakes
The meal was such a success and we were needing to eat up the fruit and veg that we had a similar meal the next lunchtime.
Tomatoes
Orange pepper
Sweetcorn
Lettuce Broccoli Plums Spring onions Melon
- with cheese and jacket potatoes
Following on from our rainbow week and my aim to ensure that as a family we are eating a rainbow of colours and also trying to broaden our horizons, I am trying to have some meals which cover all the colour groups:
Red Orange and Yellow (similar benefits so often grouped together) Green Blue and Purple (similar benefits so often grouped together)White White
Cauliflower and chickpea curry, followed by mixed berries
Main dish
Tomato Yellow pepper Green pepper Cauliflower, Onion
Dessert Blueberries, Blackberries, Purple Grapes
Luath was a bit unsettled and at one point I had to chop a pepper one handed while I held her for a few minutes. She then sat in her high chair at the kitchen counter and helped me by holding the different vegetable while they were awaiting to be chopped. She particularly liked the yellow pepper. She then enjoyed ripping up the cauliflower outer leaves.
Recipe
Another recipe from the slow cooker curries book
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground ginger (this is quite a lot if not used to having ginger in your dish)
2 tablespoons curry poser
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 onion
300g cauliflower (was half a medium sized one)
1 400g can chickpeas
mixed peppers
1 300g can tomatoes
Fry the onions and garlic in oil for about 4 mins. Add the spices, fry for another few minutes (watch they don't burn)/ Add cauliflowers and peppers, fry for a few more minutes.
Put the onion mixture, tomatoes and chickpeas in the slow cooker. Cook on low for about 6hours.
We had our curry with wholemeal tortilla wraps.
We has another rainbow meal two nights later using the rest of the cauliflower. Cauliflower, broccoli and sweetcorn cheese (and onions), served with tomatoes. For dessert summer berries (red blue and purple)
(Luath is 15months)
This week we had a rainbow theme, not quite a nursery rhyme but we used "I can sing a rainbow". The main aim was to reinforce our weekly rhythm (background post) - each day has a different colour. The secondary aim was to ensure as a family we are eating a rainbow of fruit and vegetables, and also broadening our selection. Rainbow fruit and vegetable resource links. ( At the end of the week I discovered that there is a rainbow blog hop, I have linked this post there are lots of ideas from the hop via outlaw mum)
I made some pages of fruit and vegetables in colour groups.
I also made some 3 part cards using free clipart by sweetclipart. I didn't end up using these as I discovered the above colour charts after I made them (I made them while Luath had a long sleep, they are more for the future anyway). They are split into colours and have some fruit and vegetables per colour group, nothing major but you can download if helpful. red, orange,yellow, green, blue/purple
Activity File
This week's books were a bit of a mixture. We had some books that featured rainbows, others that had fruit and vegetables and some that had colours. I found a great book at the end of the week called "what makes a rainbow" (a magic ribbon book), it has a colour per double page, starting with red, there is a ribbon added for each colour, and ultimately you have all the ribbons of a rainbow. It ends with a pop up rainbow.
our books
I kept out the stacking toy as Luath really enjoyed that last week - she didn't play with it much, so it does show that us rotating toys is a good idea. A stacking cup caterpillar, she was only interested in this a little, although she had fun throwing it off the sofa one evening. Her tray of fruit and vegetables were the most popular thing this week. They are velcro cutting food, but Luath puts the knives in her mouth so we just take the food apart.
activity file toys
Luath still is just taking puzzles pieces out, although she does try to put them back in at times (not in the right spaces I might add). I was working this week to see if she would take the pieces out and put them in a basket. I placed the basket on the right of the puzzle - this was a hit and miss activity.
Our Rainbow Week
(linked to posts for the week for more detail)
red
We began the week by attempting to do some paint/crayon art and coloured rice play. I discovered that Luath is still at the eating stage.
a little bit of red rice
play before tasting
a little bit a drawing before
Luath started to eat the crayon
helping prepare our red dinner
orange
We linked up with a virtual book club via toddler approved this month's book was The Carrot Seed so our orange activities were carrot based. I tried to make paint coloured by carrots, we made and ate carrot muffins
carrot muffins
carrot coloured paint
artist using a carrot
and pastry brush
butternut squash, carrot and chickpea
curry and an orange
yellow
No extra activities today, but we continued with wearing, looking for and eating the day's colour
sweetcorn, cheese and egg (with spinach, it looked
too bland without the green)
banana and peanut butter snack
green
I got myself all confused as I had looked out blue clothes for Luath and it was only after we were dressed I realised it was supposed to be green day, so she wore blue clothes on green day and green clothes on blue day (way to confuse us all!)
Today was also a odd day so I took almost no photos and as Luath and I were still crashed out until almost 6pm daddy made a high speed meal coloured orange!
We did eat a pear and I pointed out green objects.
blue
Apart from wearing some blue/green clothes we were back on track with our colour of the day. We ate some blueberries for breakfast, and I made and we played with blue playdough.
home made blue play dough
blueberry porridge
purple
I made some yummy purple frozen yoghurt - frozen berries mixed with natural yoghurt, it was a lovely colour. We spotted some pretty tiny purple flowers on blue day and on white day, but were too busy to go to the woods to spy them on purple day.
spotting a purple flower
homemade frozen berries yoghurt
white
Apart from Luath's clothes today was more of a rainbow day than white. We had multicoloured meals and looked for coloured stones on the beach - the beach looks white/grey from a distance but close up it is a multitude of colour. rainbow
One major hit of the week were the coloured stars I had stamped out to use to record what colours of fruit and vegetables we eat over a week/month. Luath played multiple times and for some quite long sessions with them, some of the things we did with them - poured, transferred, threw them in the air, put them in our hair and scooped them. Yes sometimes they were all over the floor but they were easy to clean up. I made more over the week so we could fill a jar for an I-spy game. I am thinking if I stamp more I could fill a tub as it is as close as we will get to rainbow rice for a little while.
who would have guessed
stamped colour paper stars
would be so much fun
Luath was fascinated by the
star stamp
Otherthings this week
We attended a fashion show at the high school. Daddy did some modelling. I had won a design a t-shirt competition so we saw how it looked on the cat walk.
Luath played a lot with her golf clubs and football
Luath has taken a huge leap in her verbal skills, she has been saying and repeating for months, but this week she started saying the last word in many of the rhymes/poems/stories that we read. It is quite amazing how much has been lodged in her brain just waiting for her verbal skills to catch up. It really shows how beneficial it is to repetitively sing and read simple rhymes and stories.
We try to follow a daily and weekly rhythm, nothing structured in such a way that we can't alter it. When Luath was about 5 months old I thought I would give each day a colour to try and help her identify with each day and that on a certain colour day we tend to do a certain thing. I have been a bit lax lately with this so decided to make a real effort this week. Luath's understanding level has taken a huge leap in the last two weeks so I feel it is a perfect time to reconnect with our daily colours.
Daily Colours
Ways this week that I plan to add our daily colours (we don't do all these things every day every week, just more of them this week) For that day's colour:
start the day with a coloured nappy
wear at least one piece of clothing in the colour
use a bib with coloured trim
eat with coloured tableware and use the drink mats I knitted muths ago
craft with that colour
play with that colour
look for objects that colour
One of the main things we will do is have one meal that the fruit and vegetables are of the day's colour. We eat at least our 5-a-day, but some weeks I think we need a push to make sure we eat a balanced rainbow and we need to broaden our selection. Some resource links I found.
I found some great pictures of fruit and vegetables per colour group here which made into A4 pages, put into plastic pockets and into a file.
I had a few ideas of ways we could record what colours we ate over a week and for now have decided to use coloured paper shapes in a jar. I punched star shapes (just because that is the biggest shape stamp I have) out of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and white - I have purple paper somewhere, and I am debating about a brownish colour. Over the week each time we eat a fruit/vegetable we will add that colour star to a jar. I am not concerned for the time being re portion size.
Daily Rhythm chart
We have a very simple daily chart, day of the week within that day's colour and a clipart of any specific activity happening that day. I haven't broken the day down into exactly what we do nor at the moment have set times/days for play/craft activities. We have been a bit lax at using this too so I will aim to restart using this too.
