On Top of Spaghetti

Yesterday was the first day of school and everything went surprisingly well.  The minions returned home tired, but in good spirits, despite getting caught in a torrential downpour on their walk from kindergarten to after-school-care.  Today we packed umbrellas along with raincoats in preparation for another rainy walk.

I have been stressing about the transition to school, likely more than either child.  Will they make friends quickly?  Was it the correct decision to put them in separate classes this year?  And, how do I deal with packed lunches and snacks when currently I'm scoring about a 60% on the adult front for sack lunches?  Clearly I need to step up my game, and I'm trying, but mostly failing so far.

When we attended kindergarten orientation back in the spring I learned that the expectation is that we provide a litter-free lunch (and two snacks) for the kids.  For years we've been reliant on daycare providing all of the nourishment that the kids need 8AM-530PM.   Now we've been left on our own and can't provide any litter trail without getting what I assume is a finger wag from educational providers about our inability to provide our children with some semblance of nourishment.

We researched packed lunches and learned that kids are more likely to eat their lunches if they are involved in selecting the foods and helping to pack them.  I asked Molly what her favourite item was to eat at daycare...her response: Ice Cream.  Helpful, right?  Next I went out and bought what I thought was a ton of containers, reusable cloth bags and juice boxes.  When we went grocery shopping this past weekend, we selected favourite meats, crackers, cheeses, fruits and veggies together.  The night before kindergarten Molly helped me whip up a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip muffins for snack and we packed everything up together.

Spider Man says, "EAT YOUR LUNCH!"

Yesterday afternoon when I picked up the kids I discovered two things.  1) I had not prepared for the fact that Molly's lunch bag, with everything in it would immediately disappear into a black hole, ravaging me of a good portion of litter-less lunch supplies and 2) Jack's refusal to eat EVERYTHING we packed (together) for his lunch and snacks.  He had maybe 2 pieces of meat and drank all of his apple juice and took a bite or two of cucumber, but that was it....all day long.  Molly claims she ate all of her food yesterday, but I won't know for sure until tonight, hopefully.

Last night, after filling out six forms for each child I returned to the land of lunches.  I took some of their "feedback" into consideration.

Today I have three goals for the children: 1) Molly returning home with two lunch bags 2) That I won't get in trouble from school authorities over the apple core and two banana peels my kids will (hopefully) be producing at lunch and snack and 3) That Jack actually eat some of the food I packed.  Okay, I guess I also hope they have fun today.

What do your kids eat for lunch? Does it count as a litter-free lunch if your children refuse to eat anything you send them to school with and return with bags filled with warm apple sauce that you end up throwing out at home?

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