первый раз в первый класс

[murzik]

hey, question for moms who are already sending their kids to K and up. since i am about to send my little one to K, am having "back-to-school" panic attack. do you give them a separate lunch or stick it in the back-pack. if you give a separate lunch sack, what are the good qualities to look for? if you put it inside the back-pack, what brands to

Comments

[ira_k]

we have been packing lunches since pre-K, so some experience there...
my advice, before buying anything figure out what you will give and what he will eat :) it took us a while to realize that our son is not a sandwich person :) so we are doing a bit of everything - little plastic containers with pasta, carrots, tuna salad, chicken, fish, cold cuts, fruit, berries.. etc.
so we got a lunch box that is tall, so we could stack the boxes and they don't tip over (if they do tip over the lunch box is a mess:); we got one of the boxes that are on sale at target; it is oval in shape and reasonably tall, fits a cooling element and a bunch of containers.
http://www.target.com/raya-Thermos-6-can-Cooler-Stripes/dp/B00411POGY/ref=br_1_27/175-9283045-2278659?ie=UTF8&id=raya%20Thermos%206-can%20Cooler%20Stripes&node=194090011&searchSize=30&searchView=grid5&searchPage=1&sr=1-27&qid=1312378558&rh=&searchBinNameList=subjectbin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&searchRank=reviewrank&frombrowse=1

Backpack - LLBean - they have a great selection of backpacks, great colors ,really well-designed and durable. Our son has a cubbie in school, so even if we put his lunch box and a water bottle in his backpack, i usually take it out and place it in a cubbie in the morning (or he does it himself).

http://www.llbean.com/llb/search?init=1&freeText=backback

and don't worry, it will work itself out :)

[ira_k]

PS target's lunch box fits into the LLBean backpack perfectly :)

[murzik]

excellent, thanks for the input. will seek out the thermos lunch box, it makes sense. there is a system called easylunches, they have a box with three compartments so you don't need to stack too many containers and to keep track of the lids all the time. didn't get it yet, was planning to go to local japanese store, something like DaisoJapan, and see if they have something we like, the japanese are really impressive at packing lunches for the kids.
as for hot food, i was hoping to give him soup on occasion, because this is what we have been eating for lunches, or something warm, like mac-n-cheese and hot dogs, he is not much of a tuna salad person, and as for sandwiches, most likely to eat only grilled cheese and peanutbutter-jelly ones.

[ira_k]

it so happened that our son is not a "one container with compartments kind of guy" :) we tried them. He prefers separate ones. Also no soup and hot lunches for us...even kotletki that we give are cold :)

Again, in our school there wasn't a microwave and teachers weren't involved in warming up lunches, however, some parents were still packing soup in a thermos.

So it all depends on a kid :)) that' why knowing what and how will be eaten is important before investing into the Japanese model:))))

Good luck!

the beauty of the japanese model

[murzik]

the beauty of buying the containers at this japanese store is that "everything there is $1.50 unless indicated", so the risks are low and we can try different things and they are cute and there are all kinds of little sauce containers, which is important as he demands ketchup with his kotletki or chicken nuggets.

Re: the beauty of the japanese model

[ira_k]

nice!!