Caroline Job is back with a post to solve all of your lunch box worries, to help make sure you get the 5-a-day in and that your child will grow healthy and strong, read on to make sure you are preparing top packed lunches for your students.
The summer holidays are coming to an end, the new school term is looming. Our little rising fives are due to start school for the first time… It’s a daunting time for those changing schools, whatever their age – both for the children but for the parents too. The realisation for the parents that they’re not so little anymore, the new beginnings for the little ones. It’s all change and we all handle change in different ways. They’re off to a new school and this is when the control over their daily life starts to shift and change hands – away from the parent over to the teachers, helpers and staff at school.
It is a worrying time but if you’ve opted to give them packed lunches, at least that is something still within your control and a part of their daily life that you can still influence.
But then we come to the lunch box dilemmas –
What shall we pack in their lunch?
Our key tip is to pack a lunch in the first few weeks that you know they’ll like. Don’t even think about introducing new flavours and new ideas at this early stage. They’ve enough to contend with. Just settling into school, getting used to their surroundings, making new friends, understanding their daily life, timetable and so on is enough for them to cope with. You may need to re-adjust the amount you prepare in their lunch box – it may simply be too much. I know in some schools, they allow just 15 minutes before the helpers encourage the children to go out and play, get some fresh air. So lunch can in some cases be more like a stolen moment, rather than the time we would allow them to eat at home. So the easier you can make it for your children to eat it, the more likely it is to get eaten.
Our top tips for Back To School Lunch Boxes
- Prepare something they’re more likely to eat.
- Vary it each day. Don’t stick to the same lunch. It’ll get boring
- Make it bite-sized, finger food – easy to eat. They might even surprise themselves by chatting away and eating at the same time. It’ll soon disappear…
- Make it colourful, make it interesting on the eye – again they are more likely to eat it if it looks appetising
- Don’t pack to much – It’ll overwhelm them. Better to pack little bits and it comes home empty than overwhelm, and they don’t quite know where to begin
- Don’t panic. Try not to pressure them to eat. You can always be ready in the playground with a healthy snack for after school / home time pick-up, if you see it’s all eaten at lunch or if you see they’re not in the best of moods…
- Encourage them to help pack the lunch – involve them in deciding and preparing the lunch. Even if it’s choosing the piece of fruit, or getting things out of the fridge…
- Chop up the fruit and pop in a container eg slice an apple, adding a few drops of lemon juice will prevent it from browning.
- Quarter an orange, let them suck out the juice like mini footballers
- A handful of grapes, strawberries and blueberries, washed and popped in a snack box, ready for them to munch
So what’s your lunch box dilemma?
Maybe we can help?
The Lunch Box Lady x
Caroline Job, aka the Lunch Box Lady, set up Lunchbox World back in 2009 following an online searrch for a washable lunch bag for her own kids school packed lunches. Lunchbox World with its one aim to help you put the FUN back into packed lunches http://www.lunchboxworld.co.uk/shop, has become a one stop shop for anything lunch box related, covering tips, hints, recipe ideas for packed lunches, picnics or just lunch for work, school or days out. There’s two blogs with lots of lunch box ideas too – The Lunchbox World Blog http://www.lunchboxworldblog.blogspot.com and 365 Lunch Box Challenge – http://lunchboxworld.wordpress.com, where every post is a new lunch idea. You can follow her @lunchboxworld on twitter or why not like her facebook page and keep up to date with all the latest. You can share your lunch on http://www.pinterest.com/lunchboxworld/ and this summer starts the new My Lunch Box Linky, so do join in the fun!
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laura
Wednesday 14th of November 2012
thanks for those great advice :) will you consider a healthy drink as a snack to go with their lunch?
Laura@howtocookgoodfood
Thursday 6th of September 2012
Great advice and something I will be using when I teach my healthy lunchbox workshops in the future! Thanks, Laura@howtocookgoodfood
Sarah @ Goodheart Gifts
Tuesday 4th of September 2012
Such great advice. I've never really thought of the complications of a packed lunch liked overwhelming them or making it interesting to the eye. But it is important because while your child is at school it's the only impact you have while they're there and the main thing they'll eat until they come home so it's important to get it right.
Thank you for sharing these tips, Sarah @ Goodheart Gifts