Ten Ways to Paint a Rainbow

Colorful process art is irresistable! We've rounded up the most creative ways for you to paint a rainbow with your kids!

read more " Ten Ways to Paint a Rainbow "

Pipe Cleaner Rainbow Busy Bag

Do you want to build a rainbow? This busy bag is sure to keep your kids entertained as they name colors and practice fine motor skills!

read more " Pipe Cleaner Rainbow Busy Bag "

Rainbow Tinker Tray

Our Winter Tinker Tray was such a big success that we decided to make another one. But we're craving spring and color so a rainbow themed was perfect! 

read more " Rainbow Tinker Tray "

Rainbow Sticky Wall Letter Formation

We love to brighten up our days with colorful rainbow learning activities! We created a sticky wall full of letters to practice letter formation for homeschool preschool.

read more " Rainbow Sticky Wall Letter Formation "

Graphing with Rainbow Color Counting Bears

It might seem a bit strange to introduce kids to algebra with rainbow counting bears, but bear with me (pun intended)! I promise that this activity is developmentally appropriate and fun as kids catch on to the concept of graphing points on a Cartesian Plane through hands on math play! 

read more " Graphing with Rainbow Color Counting Bears "

Rainbow Polka Dot Discovery Bottle

We love any excuse to play with rainbow colors! This discovery bottle is extra fun because the rainbow polka dots are transparent so you can see different colors where the rainbow colors overlap. We also tried a new to us sensory bottle filler that worked beautifully that we can't wait to share with you!

read more " Rainbow Polka Dot Discovery Bottle "

Rainbow Shapes

We reviewed two dimensional shapes by building them with colorful sticks! This hands on math activity allows kids to explore angles and sides in a concrete way.

read more " Rainbow Shapes "

Recycled Cardboard Rainbow Craft

We love to craft using free recycled materials! Can you guess what we used for the base of our 3D rainbow craft sculpture?

read more " Recycled Cardboard Rainbow Craft "

6 Rainbow Crafts & Activities for Kids

It's no secret that we love making rainbows at Still Playing School!  In fact, D is our rainbow baby!

Here is our collection of six fun and education rainbow activities to explore color with your child!

read more " 6 Rainbow Crafts & Activities for Kids "

Rainbow Fine Motor Ideas

We love rainbows! They are fun for St. Patrick's Day, perfect for celebrating Spring, a great way to learn colors, and cheerful for any time of year. We'd love to share our top ten fine motor rainbow activities for kids!

read more " Rainbow Fine Motor Ideas "

Contact Paper Window Rainbow

We really needed a rainbow to brighten up our window! We are tired of looking outside at everything bein drab and gray. When we do get a bit of almost spring like sunshine it catches in this window rainbow in the most brilliant way! It was the perfect quiet time activity turned pick me up for the home.

read more " Contact Paper Window Rainbow "

Pipe Cleaner Rainbow

We've always been head over heels for rainbows! This invitation to build a pipe cleaner rainbow allows children to review colors and practice fine motor skills at the same time. This quiet time activity doesn't use glue so kids can create their rainbow again and again. 

read more " Pipe Cleaner Rainbow "

Rainbow Name Puzzles for Kids

We love rainbow activities! We created rainbow self correcting name puzzles to work on spelling our first and last names for homeschool preschool!

read more " Rainbow Name Puzzles for Kids "

Rainbow Cooked Pasta Sensory Play with Foam Clouds

Rainbow cooked pasta sensory play with foam clouds was so vibrant, pretty, and irresistible for my preschooler and me!  It was quick and easy to make, too!

read more " Rainbow Cooked Pasta Sensory Play with Foam Clouds "

Fine Motor Rainbow Ball Game

We love playful ways for our preschoolers to learn colors! Scarves in a ball create an irresistible fine motor game for kids! We made it even more interesting by adding all the colors of the rainbow into our play.

read more " Fine Motor Rainbow Ball Game "

Our Rainbow Baby

Here s/he is.

Our new hope.

A secret carried since the week of Violet's fundraiser.  A whisper from her that week that she was proud of us, that we were heading in a healing direction, that everything would be as okay as it could be without her.

An explanation as to where I've been the past several months, laying low, at home, quite sick, tired, and emotional with falling in love with our third one while hugging our first and missing our second.

Our rainbow baby, defined as "the understanding that the beauty of a rainbow does not negate the ravages of the storm. When a rainbow appears, it doesn't mean the storm never happened or that the family is not still dealing with its aftermath. What it means is that something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color, energy and hope."

While using this definition, I feel the need to clarify that V was our sunshine.  Losing her was the storm.

Before knowing we were expecting, our friend Karen used this song in one of the slide shows of the photos she took of V's time with us.   Another message from V?  "You are the sunshine on rainy days.  And if I have sunshine, a rainbow is coming my way..."



"And the skies will not always be gray..."

read more " Our Rainbow Baby "

A Response to our Rainbow Delivery

I was asked to write a letter to our hospital regarding some issues we had during D's delivery.  I am publishing it here as well in the hopes that it may reach other hospitals and families.  Please contact me if you have any further questions or would like to know more about our birth plan and/or experience!

---

To Whom It May Concern:

In December of 2012, I delivered my “rainbow” baby at (name of facility). A year prior, his sister was also born there and lived 2.5 days, her entire life, at this same hospital. We knew during our pregnancy with her that she would not live long. Anticipating the emotions and triggers that might be present when delivering a new baby after a neonatal loss, I wrote out a detailed birth plan for my son's arrival. In it, I asked that all staff handling our care be aware of our situation so that they would understand why this time was highly stressful. It was not to be a typical birth and delivery. While welcoming our son into the world, our daughter would feel very close. We welcomed that but also knew it would bring up fresh waves of grief. I also knew I wouldn't be up to telling her story over and over again to explain why this was so.

Delivery went well and was uneventful, except for the fact that I immediately started noticing that the nurses prepping me had not read our birth plan. They did not know about our daughter, but then did mention recalling our delivery of her once I brought it up.

In recovery, they noticed that our son was having some breathing issues, most likely due to the c-section. He was able to remain with us to be monitored for this, but throughout our stay his gagging and choking reminded me so much of our daughter's apnea episodes before she passed away. He resembled her at birth which was a gift, but also added to these flashbacks. I was having extreme emotional reactions to watching him struggle even though I knew he was essentially healthy and fine.

I received conflicting instructions from nurses regarding what to do when he was struggling to breathe. Some said to pull the emergency chain, then when we did other nurses seemed put out that we were reacting so severely to routine c-section recovery issues. Clearly, staff was not reading our birth plan. When asked about this, I found out that this was indeed the case. Since we were in recovery, they figured our birth plan was no longer pertinent. From that point on, I asked that each nurse tell the next coming on duty of our story, but again, I feel like this should have been a time when I could focus on my health, my son's, and grieving our daughter instead of informing nurses of our situation.

When we delivered my daughter, we knew she would pass away. The palliative care team at the hospital was superb, helping us prepare, and marking our room and files with a butterfly to signify our special circumstances. I suggest that rainbow deliveries be marked in the same way with a rainbow.

Some nurses also told me that they didn't take grief and bereavement training because they were in couplet care. Once a mother and baby are there, it is because everything is fine. Because of this, these nurses rarely dealt with the still births or fatal prenatal diagnosed babies.

I welcome the opportunity to share our story and experience with staff in the future in order to better educate them about the delicate situation of a rainbow delivery.

read more " A Response to our Rainbow Delivery "

Color Surprise Game for Kids

Our kids love those videos where people are opening eggs to find what's inside! I decided to use that enthusiasm to learn, match, and name colors. We used a few materials to create a fun color surprise fine motor game!

read more " Color Surprise Game for Kids "

Spring Sensory Bin

Isn't this just one of the most colorful sensory bins you've ever seen? Any kid will want to play right away but some adults may not be able to resist either.

read more " Spring Sensory Bin "

Fine Motor Color Sorting

We had everything we needed around the house for this fine motor color sorting invitation for kids! What a fun way to discuss the colors of the rainbow!

read more " Fine Motor Color Sorting "