Easy School Lunches at Home

When you search on Pinterest for school lunches, what comes up is something only super-moms put together-or is that just me? My son literally wants the same thing every day for lunch-pb+j sandwich, fruit and goldfish. Sometimes I worry it's not diverse enough, which puts me on the Pinterest hunt, which then makes me feel like a failure for not having dino cut sandwiches, bento box configuration, or cute little shapes cut into our fruit. If you are like me and need semi-healthy, easy lunches then I hope this inspires you!

PB+Banana Sandwich

I've actually been surprised at how many people have not had this. PB+B was a definite staple growing up, and it's a plus when you can add fruit to any meal for your kids! You simply spoon a couple of dollops of Peanut butter and 'smoosh' (great cooking term, right?) the banana into the peanut butter and combine. Smear on whole wheat bread, and you have an easy but fairly healthy sandwich!

'Lunchable' Meal

My son loves when I make our own version of a 'lunchable'. Taking inspiration from the easy-to-grab lunch, I let my son 'diy' his own. This can be crackers, lunch meat, and cheese or bagel pizza (I normally add sauce and let him add cheese and toppings himself). I also allow a dessert that goes with it-cookie, snack sized Snickers, or something similar. This is the star of the show and makes it special for my son!

Cheesy Tortilla Roll-up

This isn't what I would I consider 'healthy', but it's very easy to put together, and it's one of my kids' favorite. Tortilla+ shredded cheese, microwave for 30 seconds, roll-up, half and add some sour cream as a dip. We don't keep chips around, so I normally just pair it with my normal sides (I'll be talking about in a second). A lot of times, it's leftover tortillas from a taco supper. I like to also add tomatoes and bell peppers to add some color and veggies to the plate (I know, I know, tomatoes are technically a fruit!)

Black Bean Burrito

Another lunch that my picky eater will eat. Also another that normally is a great 'after taco night' meal. I often use leftover black bean taco filling (black beans, cilantro, corn and seasoning), spooned onto a tortilla, sprinkle cheese, and roll. Microwave for 30 seconds and it's another easy and simple meal that has great protein and a veggie. 

Sides, Fruits, and Veggies

Normally I try to keep things seasonal-apples in the fall and winter, oranges in the winter, berries in the spring, peaches, watermelon, and nectarines in the summer. For veggies, we do more for supper, but during the summer, I use cucumbers out of my garden, as well as bell peppers and such. To make things cheaper, I choose one or two fruits a week. Normally it will be a bunch of bananas and one other fruit. However, Baby Girl has been loving mixed fruit here lately. My mom or sister will cut up a whole bunch of fruit and the kids enjoy snacking on it during their lunches. It helps them explore other fruits they may not have thought about before. This can be pricey at times, but it can be a fun addition to an easy lunch!

For sides we are super boring! I like to get whole wheat Goldfish-my kids like it, and it is 'better' than chips, so I feel like it's a win-win! I would love to hear what you use for sides for your kids lunches! I also sometimes buy cheese sticks for extra protein. Other good sources of protein would be plain or vanilla yogurt, and use the fruit as a topping. 

Drinks

Another boring item for us. We only drink water for lunch. We drink milk for breakfast, and water or milk for supper. Juice or lemonade is for special occasions, normally when we eat out. Water is cheap, and it's good to make sure your kid is drinking plenty of water throughout the day. We don't introduce cokes or fizzy, sugary drinks until they are much older. My son has had a couple of fizzy drinks in his whole life! 

Desserts

I don't go out and specifically buy desserts, normally, but we seem to always have something sweet around. I keep Easter, halloween (we normally participate in our church's trunk or treat), Christmas, etc. candy in a bucket and I allow the kids to have one thing a day for lunch. This stretches what we have, and when a new holiday comes, I empty any old candy that we may have. Right now we don't have anything, but that's okay too! This makes when we do have something, special! 

Hope this gives you a little inspiration! When I first thought of this topic, I felt like I had more to share. I then realized how boring our lunches actually are. My mom calls them 'streamlined' lunches, and it is true that having just a few basic lunches keeps things on budget and easy to put together! I would love to hear other ideas. You can comment below, or on Instagram or Facebook and I'll share them to my stories!

What's in my Morning Basket for 1st Grade

Last year, I talked about starting a morning basket for Little Man. We enjoyed having a designated time for Bible, music, and read alouds. This year looks a bit different, as we enter 1st grade with a toddler and a newborn. If you are unfamiliar with a morning basket, it's a basket (or binder, bin, whatever you want to use!) filled with things you do together as a family. This is great if you have kids of multiple grade levels that need to work together on a few subjects. Some ideas for a morning basket include:

Bible

Music

Poetry

Handicrafts

Art

Read Aloud

And more! 

You can click on this link for a free Printable!

Growing up, my mom had all 6 of us come into the living room for Bible and memory work. We would also have a hymn, and an educational song (we did countries/states songs, skip counting, folk music, etc. ). Mom would also read to us from a character book (like Built for Work, and Biblical Girlhood) and then dive into a read aloud that corresponded with what era we were studying in history. All this was accomplished in an hour, and while she read we would work on a handicraft project or art. This was one of my favorite times during the school day, and I hope Little Man finds it equally enjoyable. Baby Girl (And technically the newborn) will be able to join in! 

This year, this is what is included in our Morning Basket:

Bible: The curriculum we are using has the Bible story, questions and Memory verse work. We will work on each of those during this time. 

Music: We will sing a hymn that goes along with what we are studying that week in Bible, and a song from Wee Sing America, to go along with history. 

Morning Binder: Unfortunately, Math U See doesn't focus much on calendar work, so I bought this cute weather board from Micheal's, and printed this free calendar page from TpT. I may get a little coloring page for Baby Girl to do at the same time, or this may be the time I get out a puzzle or small project for her to do while Little Man does that. 

Read aloud: This is a perfect time for me to sit down with our newborn and nurse her, while I read one of the books we are reading for history. 

Skip Counting: This will be music or spoken form, and a great transition into the next subject: Math!

Do you have a morning basket? What do you include?

First Day of Homeschool Traditions

Little Man is only in 1st grade, but we've been doing 'school' (preschool for a couple of years) for a while now. Each year, I like to make the day as special as possible, to get Little Man excited for the learning to come! Today I am sharing a few of these here:

Fun Morning Breakfast

Starting the day with something fun and out of the ordinary, can make the beginning of school exciting! I normally let Little Man pick what he wants, which could be donuts, pancakes/waffles with sprinkles, or like last year, he chose yogurt with m&m's. These are things he doesn't get to eat all the time, so it makes days like this special. 

1st Day of School Picture

These are a normal activity for those starting school. My sister got a chalkboard sign this year for Little Man that I can't wait to use!

And speaking of pictures, I try to take a bunch of photos of what we did on the first day of school. When you look back, you'll see just how much progress your child has made. There's a picture I took of Little Man writing August in huge awkward letters at the beginning of the school year last year, and I love comparing it to how well he writes now!

At least 1 fun, hands on project or activity

My son loves all things arts and crafts, so this really helps set the tone for the rest of the school year. Whether it's a craft, Lego structure, or food creation, your kids will love 'learning' with their hands. 

Some fun things we are doing on our first week of school (trying to do one of these around one a 

day this week):

Layers of the Earth pudding cup for science

Lego American flag for history

Skip counting songs for Math

Mystery watercolor words for Spelling

(These are a couple of fun things we did on the first day of school last year and the year before-Apple sort and count in preschool, and dyeing material for Kindergarten-So fun!)

This is what we do, and I would love to hear what you do! Some other ideas include: not actually doing 'school' the first day, but maybe an about me or just do a fun activity, decorate folders or binders (we normally do this ahead of time), gift of school supplies or books (Little Man got 2 phonics readers for his first day of school, last year.