Eat the Rainbow Punch Cards for Kids

We are a family of healthy conscious eaters.

That being said, the holiday sugar bug has bitten all of us and as a result almost all my kids are sick. 

We already eat a diet high in produce and we try to abstain from sugar, dairy,  most meat, and processed foods but I got to thinking..... I spend almost all my time explaining and reminding my kids why we should try to refrain from those things instead of focusing on what we SHOULD be eating and why! 

Why not focus on the positive instead of the negative right?!

So I tinkered in Photoshop until I came up with a way to encourage my children to eat more fruits and veggies and this is what I came up with:

The punch card is 7 days worth of eating the entire rainbow every day. (I've included a list of suggested produce below)

I combined blue and purple for 2 reasons: 1- There is a fine line between what produce is blue and what produce is purple. And 2- this is the hardest color to shop for (in my experience). Regardless- the Phytonutrients that come from either color are nearly identical regardless.

Brown could also include white produce such as onions and cauliflower OR you could have that be their healthy grains if you eat them such as oats, barley, rye, rice, etc. 

Eating the Rainbow every day is the best way to ensure you are getting all the various vitamins and minerals Mother Nature has to offer as each color has different phytonutrients. - which in turn keeps your body healthy and capable of fighting off all the winter bugs that float around.

What kind of foods make up a rainbow diet?

The punch cards are $3 in my Etsy shop. 4 cards per page- print as many as you like:)

However.....

if you don't want to/can't purchase the punch cards I've included a free printable chart you can laminate and hang on a fridge or wall. (OR put in the Responsibility/Chore Binders I made!)

This chart would be great for adults or older children!

Here's to a healthy new year!

Happy Parenting!

Chore Cards

UPDATE: I am now selling INSTANT DOWNLOADS of the binder system described below. 


In my family each of my children has a "Responsibility Binder". (NOW AVAILABLE AS AN INSTANT DOWNLOAD!) In this binder you will find:
Their daily responsibilities "to-do" list
Their Chore Cards pages, Monday through Saturday
Calendar (for our monthly planning meeting)
Independence List
and Personal Interview page.

Not only does this teach my children personal accountability, but also about the importance of personal planning and organization.
And FYI - my oldest is 8 and even my 3 year old has one! So don't think that your child is too young for something like this!

Our Chore Cards fit perfectly into baseball card page protectors! So every week on Sunday nights I update all my kids binders for the upcoming weeks chore assignments.
(Oh... and FYI I have a master binder that holds all the cards.) It's inside my Family Planner.

Each child has Monday through Saturday  separate chore pages and each page holds 3-5 chores depending on the age of the child and the difficulty of the chore.

 Once a chore has been completed, and I pass it off, they turn it over.

After they complete their Saturday chores, they get paid. We call Saturday "Pay Day". I pay my children .25 cents a chore. This usually accumulates to $5-$7 a week.

Here is the catch. I like the things that I teach my kids to apply to the real world. Soooooo,

**Chores are not mandatory in our household!!** You're probably thinking, "WHAT??!!!!?!?!"

Here's why:

In the real world, if you go to work, you get paid. And once you're at work, you don't get to pick and choose what you get to do, you do what you're assigned and what needs to get done.
So, if my kids decide that they don't want to do their chores that day, they don't get paid. Simple as that. HOWEVER, If they decide to "go to work" and do their chores, they don't get to pick and choose which ones they do that day and which ones they don't. They do what they were assigned.

Yes this system means that there are days when chores don't get done. But come pay day, when one child get's $7 and the other only gets $3 it's a real bite in the butt! And more often than not, the $3 kid works way harder the next week due to that poor pay day.

Now one thing that IS mandatory is their Personal Responsibilities.

(Making their bed, keeping their room clean, picking up after themselves, doing their homework, getting up and ready for the day and putting themselves to sleep responsibly by brushing their teeth and getting their backpacks and lunches ready for the next day.)

In the real world, you have responsibilities. And in the real world, you don't get paid to fulfill your responsibilities.
Granted, when you grow up, chores become responsibilities, but when kids are young, chores are the closest thing to "work". 

Now I know that this won't work for everyone. Every family has a different system. So, I'm sure you could use these cards in a million different ways.

*Put them on Popsicle sticks

*Attach a key chain and sort the chores by day with 5 or 6 separate key chains, and then hang it on a chore board.

*Attach magnets and put them on your fridge....

If you decide to do something else with these cards let me know! I'd love to see them and showcase it!

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO THE FREE DOWNLOAD 
or click the picture at the top of this post.

Happy Parenting!

UPDATE: If you're looking for something a bit more integrated or even MORE chore cards.... CLICK HERE