I love putting together a little “Back to School” gift pack for my kids each year. Shopping for new pencils, binders, and backpacks, and just the overall feeling of starting fresh on a new school year is something I really enjoy.
Although I homeschool my kids, we also participate in a weekly co-op school. Getting up at the crack of dawn to make lunches is not one of my favorite parts of Back to School season. It’s definitely not the time of day when I feel like being creative, but my kids get easily bored with the “same old sandwiches”.
If you’ve been following me, you’ll know that I love printable charts and schedules. As I thought about what we could do differently this year to make packing lunches less of a chore and make lunches more appealing, I decided to make a printable to help make planning school lunches easier.
I put together a round up of Back to School lunches and ideas for making it fun. There are also a few ideas to inspire your kids to keep up with their routines. My kids and I will be using these resources to give us fresh new ideas. After they decide what they would like to eat, we can use this printable to plan out our lunches to save time in the mornings!
****Tip: Print out one page and put it in a plastic page protector. Tape magnets to the back of the page protector and keep it on your fridge. Now you have a wet or dry erase surface so you don’t have to print a lot of pages. I prefer to use these Staedtler wet erase markers. They are the BEST wet erase markers I have found. I love the fine point tip – it writes just as nicely as a regular pen and doesn’t smudge once it’s dry. To clean: simply wipe with a damp paper towel.
And, I decided to share my school lunches printable with you!
Feel free to download this printable, but please respect my copyright. This printable is © Copyright 2013 Organizing Homelife and is intended for personal use only. Please do not distribute this file for free or for profit without written consent. Thank you!
School Lunch Ideas:
Easy Lunchboxes is an incredible resource for lunchbox ideas. There are literally hundreds of pictured lunches with descriptions of what is in each lunch and a link to the source.
This one is also such a great resource! This mom documented and took pictures of the lunches she made for her son when he was in Kindergarten and then again when he was in 1st grade. There are LOTS of great ideas and healthy foods that my little ones will actually eat.
Family Fun also has some great school lunch ideas that kids love:
I love how Blooming Homestead organized refrigerated snacks in her fridge! It makes packing lunches in the morning a breeze if you prepare the night before.
Jokes and Notes:
Want to get creative and make lunch time fun for your kiddos? I LOVE the idea of putting jokes and lunch boxes notes in your kids’ lunches. Save yourself time and check out these great blogs for pre-made free printables!
I’m loving Blooming Homestead today! She has some great lunch box jokes that will put a smile on your kids’ faces.
Cap Creations has these super cute joke cards:
Kristin Duke Photography has a TON of joke cards and even decorated them for different seasons.
Want to encourage your kids? Mercy Ink has these great scripture verse cards.
Chickabug has these adorable note cards that you can use to write your own message to your kiddos.
Routine Charts:
Are you Crafty? I LOVE these ideas for helping your kids organize their routines! Both are easy to make and super cute!
The 36th Avenue made these darling dry erase clipboards to help her kids with their routines after school.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find the original source of this photo, but I LOVE the idea and just had to share it with you!
Just for Fun:
And here’s one last resource for Back to School fun. Do you like getting creative with food? Spoonful.com has some cute ideas for making Back to School snacks fun.
I hope these tips and ideas inspire you to make Back to School fun and less stressful for your family. If you have a great tip or idea that makes your school mornings less hectic, I’d love to hear about it! Share your ideas in the comments below.
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Thank you! My son is going back to public school this year after several years of cyber school. Since he has a food allergy, he will never, ever, ever eat a school lunch. Packing lunches for a kid who doesn’t like sandwiches is something I’ve not been looking forward to, so thank you for finding all these resources to look through. The planner will be great help as well, since he’s one of those people who does better when he knows what’s coming. 🙂
I love this!! Is anyone else having an issue trying to print the document? It wont let me. I have tried several different ways.
Hi Jennifer. The number one reason that people have trouble with downloading PDFs is that their software is outdated. I recommend Nitro PDF Reader. It’s totally free to download. You can also use whatever is on your computer (i.e. Adobe), but make sure you have the most up to date version. If you still have trouble, let me know. Enjoy! 🙂
Great post Ginny! 🙂
Thanks, Anna! 🙂
I will have 2 at school this year So I am trying to have a shelf for each to put their papers and set up a new area for backpacks and coats. I do not have a downstairs closet so I am always trying to find ways to organize.
I love it thank you!
Love all of your printables and just really your whole website :). It has been of great encouragement to me and I will definitely have to link people to your website :).
Thanks, Kristin, I appreciate that! I’m so happy you left me a comment so I could hop over and visit your blog – I really enjoyed it. 🙂
Thank you for the wonderful shout out for my ELBs Ginny! I’m sharing your fabulous school lunches printable with my lunch packing community! So generous of you to make these printables available to everyone. So appreciated 🙂
You bet, Kelly! Your Easy Lunch Boxes are a great idea and I love that you have so many creative lunch ideas on your site! Thanks for the share, too. 🙂
I have to say I am new to the world of bloggers and stumbled onto your blog. Thank goodness. My daughter hates sandwiches and is a healthy eater while her older brother would eat cchicken fingers and fries if I would let him ( he is in high school and doesn’t think it’s cool to pack a lunch). The life with teenagers. This will help with all my trials this coming school year. I am on your site at least once a day finding new ideas on helping me out with making me more organized and less stressed. Thank you for everything you do an amazing job:)
Virginia
You are so sweet, Virginia! Thanks for letting me know how much you’re enjoying my site. You made my day. 🙂
Ginny: Thanks so much for including MERCY iNK’s school notes! Pray they bless your readers 🙂 Great round up!
Lauren
You bet, Lauren! Thanks for making them available. 🙂
Routine Charts is really work.
I have three children under the age of 5. The eldest child I raised with printable charts. But they are constantly lost or damaged. Now I use the Manini app for three children. These are the same printable morning routine cards and evening routine cards but in the phone. They are not lost and are always at hand, even on a walk. In the app, you can mark the completion of tasks and children like it very much. They actually ask for tasks themselves to make a mark the task. I felt much better. And I’m not nervous and it’s easy for children to become independent.