Getting organised for back to school.

Here in the Southern Hemisphere we are 2 weeks away from the end of term three, and the end of our school year is almost in sight *shudder*. But I've noticed a lot of American Mum Bloggers posting about how hectic their houses are right now with the back to school rush, and since we had heat and eat lasagna for dinner tonight, I thought I'd share one thing Master Five does to help me ease the pressure of the morning school rush. He makes his own lunch.

Every day when he gets home from school, he brings his drink bottle and lunchbox into the kitchen. Then, while I give him fresh water in his drink bottle (he can't reach the sink yet), he gets himself a roll out of the freezer.

Our sandwich drawer

On a Sunday night when Coles down the super mark downs, I can get a bag of 6 rolls for 50c. Then I take them home, put stuff on them, place them in ziplock bags with sharpie names, and leave them in the freezer. The row on the far right is sweet things like honey and jam, which he is allowed to take once a week, the rest is meat or cheese etc.

Once he has his roll, he goes to the fridge and grabs a snack for recess, and his 'brain food' - a second snack his school has implemented at midday, so the children don't get all fuzzy before lunch (at 1:30pm).

The snack drawer

In there at the moment is celery sticks, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, a couple of mandarins and dried apricots.

Then the lot goes into the fridge, ready for him to grab in the morning and place in his school bag. He loves being able to choose his lunch, and feels very grown up for getting things ready and being "Oscar Organised" as they say it at school.

It takes me about 30 minutes every week or two, just making up rolls and chopping vegie sticks, to keep ahead of him, but it's much less time than making a lunch every day. And it's a lot healthier too!

Who says I can't have TimTams for dinner?

We spent most of the day at DP's parents house today, an hour and a half drive away. Actually, we were only there for about two hours, for lunch. The rest of the day we spent travelling to and fro.

They fed us some delicious homemade hamburgers, the recipe of which I unfortunately do not have to share. But that left all of us in no mood for a full sized dinner tonight, so the children had sandwiches. (Except for Master One - gotta love those Heinz Little Kids non-baby food cans in the cupboard as standbys! They are great for Pizza night too! lol)

I'm off to make some lunches for Master Five now, our stock of frozen rolls in the freezer is getting low, and he does so love getting his lunchbox ready every night himself. (A post for another night perhaps). But while we are talking about school lunches, check out the dedication here!

Lunch Bag Art

I tried doing this, with sharpies, on the ziplock bags my son got his sandwiches in. Thought it would be cook if I could do it from Prep onwards. I got two weeks in and gave up. Perhaps if I worked in an office and had a lunch break too, then I might have had the time. Also, the lack of talent didn't help.