Now that it’s just about time to send the kids back to school, it’s time to put “Packing Lunches” back on your to-do list. Don’t let yourself get stuck in the sandwich rut again this year. The list below features a few outside-of-the-box lunch ideas that are just as easy as making PB&J, but so much healthier and more flavorful. Use these suggestions to fill your back-to-school lunches with tasty recipes that both you and your kids will love.

Back To School Lunch Ideas: Change the Brown Bag Routine

Image Via: Emmy Mom II

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Invest in a Thermos:

Thermoses are must-have accessories for any lunchbox. Traditionally, they are used to hold soup, but why stop there? You could fill it up with last night’s pasta, some meatballs, or a few hot dogs. Just fill the thermos with boiling water in the morning, let it sit for ten minutes, and replace the water with your hot food. Whatever pairing you choose, your lunch will still be perfectly warm by the time you are ready to eat.

Image Via: Simple Bites

Experiment with Grain Salads:

Salad doesn’t have to be synonymous with a pile of lettuce. Start thinking of pasta salad as more than the perfect side for summer BBQ’s and pack it for lunch all year round. With a mix of fresh veggies, some protein leftover from dinner, and a drizzle of salad dressing, it’s a healthy and balanced meal. If your kids are adventurous eaters, consider subbing quinoa or farro for the pasta in order to add an extra whole-grain punch.

Image Via: Childhood 101

Try Some Make-Ahead Muffins:

Like sandwiches muffins can be customized to fit everyone’s tastes. But there’s something about their hand-held nature and individual packaging that makes them so much more fun to eat. Plus, if you pick the right recipes, you can make a big batch in the beginning of the week and eat them all week long. Spoon your favorite omelet ingredients into muffin tins to make protein-packed egg bites. Alternatively, choose a tasty zucchini muffin recipe for an easy way to get picky eaters to eat their veggies.

Image Via: Taste.com.au

Serve Lunch With Dip:

It’s no secret that kids love to play with their food. Let dip become the star of their meal to keep lunchtime fun. Send them with cold chicken tenders and honey mustard on the side or tuna salad and multi-grain breadsticks. Celery with peanut butter is a classic option or baby carrots with hummus. For dessert, serve some fresh-cut fruit with a sweet dip made of a mixture of yogurt and honey.

Image Via: The Kitchn

No one wants back-to-school lunches to become boring, but when you’re constantly rushing between work, school and after school activities, it seems inevitable. Don’t stay with the old standards this year. When you feel yourself getting stuck in a rut, use this list of suggestions for inspiration. Of course, feel free to customize these ideas to fit your family’s tastes. Odds are, they’ll be as excited as you are for the change of pace.

What do your kids like to eat for lunch? Do you have a great lunch packing tip to share?

For more back to school ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

How to Save Money on Back to School Supplies

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Shop at home first

Believe it or not, you might already have a lot of school supplies lying around the house. Things like rulers, calculators, pencils boxes and backpacks do not need to be replaced every year. You can easily use last year’s school supply if it’s still in good shape. So, before you head out to shop, take a walk around your house; closets, basement bins, and desk drawers might have hidden treasures that can save you some money.

Only buy what is essential

Image via: Confetti Sunshine Blog

Once you start shopping, all those fun extras can take your fancy-colored pens, superhero notebooks, locker accessories and the list stretches on. But in order to avoid overspending, it’s important to keep the supplies to useful and necessary versus fun and fancy. Determine in advance that how you will handle your kid’s requests for those non-essential items.

Consider quality

Don’t just get carried away with the cheapest item available. Take time to find more about the quality of the product, and then pick the ones that you think will last long. For instance, consider backpacks with a lifetime warranty, and bindings and spirals with durable plastic covers. Pricier options can eliminate the need to replace the cheaper items multiple times during the year.

Image via: Houzz

Buy in bulk

The back to school supply list is usually only meant to get the kids started. They will need refills on notebooks, crayons, papers, pencils, and more all year long and buying in bulk can save you a great deal. So, stock up for the entire year, but put away what’s not needed at the moment.

Buying back to school supplies at the end of the summer is an unavoidable task. But, it need not be an expensive one. Along with the tips above start planning ahead of time and take advantage of every weekly coupon and online deal that comes your way.

Do you have any back to school shopping tricks that can help to save money?

Back To School Organization: Preparing For The First Day

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Back to school tips – Plan Well

Just go back a little and retrospect on what your morning routine will be like. Is it breakfast preparation that takes a lot of time? Or do you pack the school bag in the morning? Do your children make a fuss to get up in the morning? Identifying the obstacles beforehand will help you think of techniques that could result in more efficient first mornings. For instance, if it is the breakfast that results in a mess, try to prepare something simpler or do the prep work the previous night. If the kids make a fuss to get up, put them to bed earlier, even if it means skipping the afternoon nap that day. Thus, a little chat with yourself is going to help lots.

Image Via: belmarrahealth

Organize Over The Weekend

Organizing your children wardrobe for the entire week can save you  a lot of morning hassle. Include your children in the weekend organization drill and pick clothes for everyday of the week. Now neatly stack them into their wardrobe. So not only do you save yourself from the morning chaos but also teach your children some important organization skills. And it won’t take more than half an hour!

Image Via: MSLiving

Desk Organization

Who said paperwork belongs to office only? Kids bring in lots and lots of paper work from school and take a lot of it to school too. Be it artwork, test assignments,  permission slips, paperwork comes in all forms. It would be wise to go through the existing stockpile and get rid of what is not required any more. It will help you neaten your kids desk and also help you find stuff quickly and without any irritation or stress. This way you won’t struggle to find what goes in the school bag on the first day.

Image Via: New Chronology

Prepare A Calendar

Make a calendar and an organization chart for the new session. It would be very helpful to have a snapshot at a glance. That ways you won’t miss the upcoming important events and will be prepared beforehand.

Image Via: thebensonstreet

Moms can have chaos free mornings by doing little bits everyday. Don’t worry about the paucity of time. Carving out little niches of time will be sufficient as these organization tasks are not time taking, just boring at times maybe. Weekends are a great time to involve the family in organization and turn them into fun activities.

I know of moms who just set their clocks to 10 minutes hence and it works like magic, especially on the first day. A box of new crayons, a new pair of shoes or just a cosy hug before saying buh bye to your kids can make the transition from holidays to school a smooth one. It would be nice to know how you organize your home and routine for the first day after school vacations. It would be fun to know how you deal with the chaos.

For more back to school organization on Stagetecture, click here.

The end of August arrives with a flavor of holidays and some strings to be back on track. Especially for the children, readjust the bio-clock to return to school may not be an easy task. When getting back into the back to school routine seems stressful, a little planning helps parents and children make the process – which includes sleeping and waking early and eating at correct times – lighter.

Often children and adolescents have difficulties to get into the rhythm school after spending the long summer vacation away. However it is very important that your child start the year well motivated… with 3 simple steps!

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1. Review your Old Routine

Getting back to the old routine might be challenging. Some days before the classes start, set again an early bed time and start to get the routine back – this will help the transition to be smoother. Don´t do sudden changes because the children suffer the most radical changes. Go decreasing gradually daily the amount of time they can play video-games for example until it goes back school routine. The same goes for the hours of sleep, wake up time, time to play… Do everything slowly, so that your child does not feel that simply stopped having fun because classes are back.

2. Get your Children Ready

A must-do is to calm your child as a new year usually causes anxiety. “Will my friends be there? And if not, will the new classmates like me? Who will be the new teachers? Will I like the new subjects?” These and other questions are at the head of the young kids when the time comes to go back to school and you must answer them the clear way possible in order to help them to get ready. Also help the kid to remember all the good time that he had last year: talking about the school trips or friends can increase the kid´s willingness to go to school. A fun part of this process to all children is organize supplies for school. Let’s have a try together unique school supplies on Blooming a lovely website that I discovered “while browsing for back to school supplies”, and find a good solution to begin the children journey back to school!

Image via: Pottery Barn

3. Plan a New Routine

Once the classes have started, it is important that both you and your child create a routine of activities that must be followed to the end of the year. This is because during school life, their homework, exams and events will become increasingly frequent, requiring from the students organization and planning. The lack of a pre-established routine often compromises your child’s school life.

Be firm. As much as your children may whine, or do not want to wake up early do not give in. The adaptation to the routine depends on your stance as a mother or father.

For more back to school ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

It’s hard to believe but it’s that time of year again – Back to School time!  Just like the famous office supply commercial says, “…it’s the most wonderful time of the year…” No, not Christmas – back to school! As parents rush to and from one store to the next gathering backpacks, books, and binders, we are filled with a bittersweet mixture of happiness (for some much-needed peace and quiet) and sadness to see our children growing so quickly before our eyes; another year older and grade-level higher.

Image via: LDa Architecture & Interiors

As the school days commence, our mudrooms seem to quickly implode with papers, shoes, back packs, and sporting goods. Suddenly it seems we need a mudroom/entryway overhaul, so here are some tips to quickly organize your mudroom and find a place to stash everything.

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De-clutter:

The first step for any room overhaul is to purge the room. If possible, take everything out of the room.  Assess all the items and put them in piles of “keep”, “donate”, “keep but belongs elsewhere”, and “trash”.

Image via: Two Ellie

Shelves, Baskets, and Hooks:

Now that you have de-cluttered, it’s time to bring in some great organizing tools such as baskets, trays, hooks, and shelves. One neat idea is to find an old set of metal lockers. These lockers look great with a new coat of paint – maybe chalkboard paint to write children’s names on the outside – and they are VERY functional for hiding backpacks, shoes , sporting equipment, and coats.

Image via: Pinterest

Hooks also come in handy. A visit to your local hardware store will reveal a plethora of hook styles. They can be a great way to organize hat collections, antique baskets, scarves, and coats.

If your mudroom also holds your laundry room (like mine) considers hiding your washer and dryer by hanging floor to ceiling curtain panels.  Grommet curtain panels hung by a heavy duty tension rod work great and can easily be closed to hide your unsightly laundry mess.

Essentially, decorate your mudroom like you would the rest of your home; making it a pretty and welcoming place to enter after a long day at work or school.

For more mudroom ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

The summer is coming to an end and school will soon be back in session. Even though kids may be sad to see the summer holiday getting over, parents are all set for the daily challenging routine. In order to simplify your daily life, the most important task is to get your child’s bedroom organized. Here are some tips for getting your kid’s room ready for school.

Image via Organized Living

Get your kids excited

There’s no requirement for a complete bedroom makeover. An offer to rearrange the items or perhaps adding a few new ones will get your kid excited enough to help organize his/her space.

Organizing the closet

Clothing is one of the most common issues in the kid’s bedrooms when they go back to school. The clock is ticking and your child is busy searching for his/her favorite hoodie. If such a scenario is not uncommon at your home, it’s time to purchase a clothing organizer or getting a custom closet system. Rods for hanging clothes, shoe racks, drawers for folded clothes, bins for sports items, and hooks for caps and jackets are essential. Sit with your child and give everything a home. This way you not only prepare your child for easy organization but also save yourself the horror of morning rushes.

Image via: Pottery Barn

Homework station

When the task is simple to do, it’s undoubtedly more fun. As homework is no different, set up a dedicated spot for schoolwork. If your child has been doing his/her homework on the kitchen table, this year consider buying a desk set that complements your child’s personality. Placing a desk in your kid’s bedroom will give him/her a sense of responsibility and privacy he/she may require to do the work on his/her own.

Image via: Leah Fabulously Organized Home

Assess your kids’ needs

Before hitting the stores to purchase the new year’s school supply, it’s important to sit with each child and assess what all is really required. Take time to remove damaged goods and find out which usable stuff can be passed on to younger siblings. This will not only help you to keep the collections and clutter under control, but will also save you from unnecessary spending.

A disorganized room is a huge roadblock to a child’s success. So, to set them up for a victorious school year, take time to concentrate on things that kids mostly have trouble keeping a track of.

For more organization ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

It can be a real challenge to get children to eat healthily at school. Some just flat out refuse to do so, while others will only eat a few healthy snacks as part of their overall diet. The risk becomes that children are eating highly sugared and salted foods on a regular basis in school, which can damage their appetites and lead to problems with obesity. These problems can become more serious as children age, and can create lifelong dieting issues. Improving your child’s diet in school without them knowing is consequently important, and shouldn’t be too difficult if you consider some of the following approaches:

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Introduce Healthy Eating Slowly

Rather than trying to pack a healthy lunch every day, start by adding in a few items that don’t necessarily look like health food. Apples, bananas, and energy bars can be included with crisps and sandwiches, or can be given along with money. Be careful, though, if you find that these snacks are reappearing in rucksacks every day.

Push for Better School Meals

Trying to organise a gradual change in school meals is an approach that has had success in many parts of the UK. Most schools now avoid deep fat frying, and reduce servings of salt and sugar, as well as providing more child appropriate servings at lunchtimes. Moreover, by introducing vegetable wraps and healthily prepared snacks at breaktimes, schools can make healthy options a natural part of meals without it seeming like a major change.

Use Juices and Yoghurts

If your child turns their nose up at fruits and vegetables, you could try buying fruit juices and packets that avoid concentrated sugars. A fruit and vegetable drink carton can help to provide one of your child’s five a day, without necessarily looking or tasting any different to a sugared juice drink. You can also try this with flavoured yoghurts – start mixing up the yoghurts your child receives in their bags, and see whether they notice a difference if you switch to low fat or healthy brands.

Make Healthy Food More Convenient

Simply limiting what’s available in the morning for your child to take to school can make a big difference. While this can be a problem if they spend money on food in school, leaving out a fruit bowl, and keeping the most sugary and salty snacks in difficult to reach places may help to encourage children to take what’s immediately in front of them.

Don’t Force the Point

Forcing a child to eat their fruit and vegetables is only going to cause resentment and defiance. Instead, introduce foods gradually, and make sure that there’s always healthy options for breakfast and dinner, as well as on weekends. The trick is to create these options, and only go direct with asking about their diet if they consistently don’t take up healthy foods.

Adjust Your Existing Recipes

If you’re preparing healthy food for your child to take to school, try experimenting with small ingredients changes. Focus on including salads and other greens in sandwiches and rolls, swap out mayo for salad cream, use less spreads – it all helps.

Make it Fun!

Another approach that can be completed with a school’s help, you can encourage younger children to learn about nutrition as part of their science lessons, and make identifying healthy foods and their benefits into a game. The more informed children become, the better the decisions they can make on their own.

Chris Green is a mildly exasperated Dad who gets wound up by most things school related, however, now his kids are further along the school line and at Lansdowne College – the next stage is moving out right?

For more kids ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

With many different classes spaced out across the day, children have to carry a range of heavy equipment like books and PE kits to school. Recent studies show that their heavy backpacks are putting undue strain on their spines. Up to half of all secondary school children experience occasional backache – suffering with this problem at such a formative age of their development can lead to an increased chance of skeletal issues during adulthood.

Unfortunately, this issue is exacerbated by poor classroom furniture, lack of exercise, poor posture, and obesity. In 2006, approximately 10% of adolescents reported back pain that was bad enough to consult a doctor about, and up to 8% claimed to suffer from chronic symptoms.

Classroom Chairs and Desks

Most classroom furniture is selected based on space and cost effectiveness, not what is good for our children’s bodies. Ill-fitting chairs result not only in physical complaints, but restlessness and low attention spans due to the discomfort.

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Ergonomic assessments are required in any office environment, so why aren’t our children receiving the same treatment? Adjustable furniture for schools is crucial, so staff members should look into furniture companies to see how they can improve their facilities. Not only will they improve academic performance, but schools will benefit from fewer students off sick with physical pain. There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer.

When desks are low, they are forced into poor posture. Regardless of vast differences in sizes – from the younger Year 7s to the almost adult-sized Year 11s – every chair is the same, unaccommodating fixture. With your child having to sit in the same chair for 6 hours a day, this can have long-term ramifications.

Backpacks

Worryingly, an increasing amount of educational institutions are doing away with lockers, as they see them as a luxury. It’s necessary for children to have somewhere they can securely unload their possessions, so they don’t have to walk from class to class with heavy text books all day.

Earlier this year, it was found that 1,400 pupils were carrying ‘excessively loaded’ rucksacks around Spanish schools. The average child in the UK carries 15-20% of their body weight to school and back every day. Adolescent back pain sufferers are 4% more likely to experience back problems as an adult.

Backache has affected 95% of the population at some point and costs over £10 billion a year in disability or sickness welfare. A pediatric physiotherapist from Neath Port Talbot conducted a study that revealed referrals based on back pain had increased to 4.5% in March.

Alongside backpack and furniture issues, bad diets and video gaming all day has become the norm for many children. Excess weight promotes very poor posture and leading a sedentary lifestyle has played havoc with the skeletal structure of our kids. Lightening their school bag load, campaigning for more ergonomically effective school furniture, and aiming for a healthier lifestyle are all things parents are going to have to take in hand to protect the wellbeing of their children.

This guest submission was contributed by Lloyd on behalf of Innova Solutions.

Image sources: 1, 2

For more kids’ room ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

The back to school transition period is always difficult in matters related to change. For instance, there will always be resistance on the part of your kids to pump up for schooling right after a sluggish summer schedule. For kids, it means back to a controlled and pressure packed environment. For parents, it will be another challenging season of motivating their kids.

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But there’s no turning back in this situation. Back to school is here and all parents can do is to find an effective ways to be less stressful in the majority, if not the entire, school year.

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To help you experience a less stressful back to school season, here are some useful tips:

Adjust your kid’s schedule.

Introducing a change in your kid’s schedule should not be done abruptly; hence, you have to make sure that changes in schedule should be done gradually. You may do it at least a couple of weeks before by adjusting their bedtime schedule and time for breakfast. This will be a lot of help given that one of the most problematic parts of schooling is how your kids manage to wake up early to set their mood.

Orient your kids using the student handbook.

Being aware of the school rules and regulations will avoid your kids from getting in trouble or violate a school policy. When your kids commit a violation, this means headache on your part. You will be required to go to school and probably disrupt your work schedule.

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Show your support.

Allow your kids to realize that school is fun and you are always behind their back. Get involved with school activities like answering their homework or participating in school activities that allow parent’s involvement. This will encourage your kids to do their share in their education.

It is also important to talk with your kids about school before ending the day. It will help you be aware of how your kids are doing in school and show them you care.

For more back to school tips on Stagetecture, click here.

All 3 of my children have been collecting Box Tops for Education for the last 6 years or so. I remember when my middle son, now 14, but when he was in 2nd grade was in tears because I had thrown away a granola bar box that had a Box Tops for Education on it! He was so upset, and I had to go dig through the trash to get it…. ewwww!   — Awww, what we do for our kids!

For those of you who don’t know what Box Tops for Education are:

“Box Tops for Education has helped America’s schools earn over $475 million since 1996. You can earn cash for your child’s school by clipping Box Tops coupons from hundreds of participating products. Box Tops also offers easy ways to earn even more cash for your school online.” – Box Tops 4 Education

 

The importance of giving back to schools:

The great part about the Box Tops for Education program is that your direct participation earns your child’s exact school money for education. You will enter your child’s school information and all your rewards will go to their school. Awesome, yes?

So I was excited to pair up with Jingit, a program that pays you to shop for your favorite brands and your child’s school get’s rewarded too! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Jingit:

“With Jingit, you can earn real cash, instantly for watching ads online; or checking in and shopping for select products at your favorite stores; even for giving your feedback to leading brands by taking brief surveys. In return, those brands get your attention!”

 

Google+ Album – See how to use Jingit!

What a win-win for all. So I loaded the Jingit app on my iPhone, shopped at Walmart and bought General Mills foods that my kids already love. Take a look at my Google+ Album here.  See my trip, what I picked up, and how easy it was for my daughter’s school to earn Box Tops, and me, money.

It was an enjoyable time being able to get rewarded for items I would have purchased anyway! My son inhales the Totino’s Pizza’s (hey he’s a teenage boy) – and my daughter loves the Gogurt and granola bars. General Mills cereals such as Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch are favs at my house too!

Want to learn how you can get started – here you go:

Here are the steps for you to start earning!

1.) Sign up here: —> Jingit Signup

2.) Download the Jingit app for your iPhone or Android: –> Jingit download app

3.) Start shopping! Go to Walmart. Check in with the app and scan the barcodes on any 4 participating General Mills’ back-to-school basics products that are listed on the screen once you get to the store.  Then “cha-ching!” – you’ll earn a little real cash, in real time. And 4 Bonus Box Tops will automatically be donated to your selected school.

4.) Visit Walmart.com to engage with General Mills products, and look for banner ads with a Jingit curl from these same brands. Some locations may not feature the same ads. Once you get home, make sure to “check in” at home, by scanning your products again to earn more money, and to have the Box Tops for Education donated to your child’s school.

Lastly, log in to your Jingit dashboard and see how much money you made. You can also watch videos, learn more about other products you can earn with and share with your friends on Facebook , Twitter and Pinterest. I was excited that I made $6.00!

Thanks Jingit, Walmart, and General Mills. My daughter was excited to donate her Box Tops to school the next day.

I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and Jingit #CBias #SocialFabric”. All experiences and opinions are my own.

For more back to school tips on Stagetecture, click here.