Most school aged children in Australia will be starting or going back to school in a little over a week. One of the challenges of this process facing parents will be what to pack for lunch and break time. Making this task even harder is the hot summer weather. And while I don’t have to pack lunchboxes for Bear and Bee yet, I still like looking for ideas for hubby’s lunches – much cheaper and healthier than having him buy lunch every day.
Nicole over at Planning with Kids has a great calendar
available for 2013 to provide you with inspiration for your child’s
lunchbox. Check it out – the recipes are
great and there is also a list of seasonal Australian fruits that work well in
a lunchbox. There are also some wonderful ideas in many of the food magazines available
at your local newsagent.
So now is the time to get in and do a bit of planning before
you get caught up in the rush of packing school bags and trying on
uniforms. Perhaps do some practice runs
with the lunchbox if your child is starting school for the first time. Pack their lunchbox early in the morning, or
better still the night before, and have them eat from it during the day to get
use to the idea. You’ll get any idea of
what they can cope with and whether they have any trouble with opening the
containers etc.
I would also suggest sitting down with your child and their
lunchbox and brainstorming some ideas of what could go in it. To help with this idea, I have created a
lunchbox worksheet that you can download for free. Each section of the lunchbox
has a specific food heading and the lunchbox as a whole covers all the food
groups (fruit and vegetables, milk and dairy, breads and cereals, meat and
protein).
Younger children can paste in pictures of appropriate foods
from magazines while older children can draw and/or label their food
suggestions. If you have time, you could
help your child prepare a few versions of this worksheet to have for new ideas
for their lunchboxes during the school term.
There are lots of ideas on the internet for what to include
in kids’ lunchboxes. If you need some
inspiration, here are a few of my favourite sites.
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