School Lunch Packing Must Haves - Budget Friendly, Dishwasher Safe

Well, I managed to make it 6 years without packing school lunches, thanks to our daycare/preschool that provides breakfast, lunch, and snacks!  Enter elementary school, and the jig is up.  There are plenty of influencers out there promoting $40 bento box-style lunchboxes for kids, and I'm wondering who has the money to buy multiple (at least 2 per kid, right?) OR the patience for anything that requires hand-washing on a daily basis.  NO THANKS.  

While I'm not super crunchy, it is important to me to minimize waste as much as possible, so I like for everything to be reuseable.  When B and I brought our lunch to work (pre-COVID), we love Stasher bags as a durable, reuseable option, but C's school requires that kids be able to independently open their own lunch packaging to avoid spreading germs.  Stasher bags are a little too secure for his 6-year-old fingers, but he can handle all of these on his own.

Here's what we've been using so far this year - all dishwasher-safe and on the more affordable side!  

(Note: affiliate links below)

Pottery Barn Kids Cold Pack Lunchbox - these go on sale fairly often and are a good value for the quality at the sale price (and the designs are so cute!).  PBK stuff is just so durable!  I machine wash or scrub with a dish brush (see my post here for cleaning tips), and they look good as new.  The "Cold Pack" model is more rectangular in shape, which fits the reuseable lunchboxes we use (see below).  It comes with an ice pack that Velcro-s into place, although I don't typically use it.  

EasyLunchboxes - we've used these for years and years to take our lunches to work, so I ordered a few more for the school lunch rotation.  These are super durable, go right in the dishwasher, nest into each other (space-saving!) and inexpensive.  There are so many cute bento lunchboxes out there but many of them are pricey, hand-wash-only (NOPE), or too small for my kiddos' huge appetites.  C can open these on his own.  They fit (snugly) in the "Cold Pack" lunchboxes from Pottery Barn Kids.  The 3 compartments work well for us - the larger one can hold a sandwich or other entree (soft tacos, cheese/crackers, etc.), and we use the 2 smaller compartments for a fruit and a vegetable.

Sistema dip containers - we use these little containers for dips - hummus or ranch for veggies, marinara for ravioli, etc.  These are screw-top, which makes them well sealed (no spills!) but easy for a kiddo to open on his own (unlike press-on lids, which are either not tight enough or impossible to get off).  These are small - they hold a few tablespoons.  Dishwasher safe!

Ziploc Twist 'n Loc snack cups - these come in several sizes, and we use these for snack (C's lunch time is at 10:40 AM, so they have an afternoon snack).  Both the 1/2 cup ("mini") and 1-cup ("extra small") sizes work well for snacks; the 1/2 cup is better for small items like trail mix, while the 1-cup is better for larger snacks like veggies, muffin, those peanut-butter filled pretzels.  (Note: smaller quantities are usually available at Target or Walmart).  These are super thick plastic - not flimsy like many containers - and again, have the magic screw-on lid which makes them spill-proof but easy for kids to open on their own.  Dishwasher safe, no warping!

Thermos 16-oz water bottle - our elementary school requires kids to bring their own water bottle everyday, so I bought 2 of these to keep in rotation.  I put them straight in the dishwasher and they've been fine - no impact to the finish.  No straws or rubber spouts to worry about keeping clean, and the stainless steel inside means no absorbing weird smells like plastic does.  I fill these with ice water the night before (ain't nobody got time for morning lunch packing), and the water stays very cold until lunch the next day.  We haven't had any issues with leaking, either.  The tall, slim design fits well into his backpack outer pocket; it also fits in the side pocket of his PBK lunchbox, although he doesn't usually carry it that way (he keeps the lunchbox inside his backpack, so it's easier to access the water bottle via the backpack outer pocket).

Flexible Gel Beads Ice Packs - I love these ice packs because they aren't rock hard with sharp edges like so many ice packs are when frozen!  Because they have beads inside, as opposed to liquid, they won't leak slime everywhere if they do get punctured.  They are also very slim, so they easily lay beneath or on top of our lunchboxes to keep cold items cool until lunch!

Avery labels - we use these on the lunchboxes, snack cups, and water bottles - they survive many rounds of the dishwasher without falling off.  I just write his name on them with a Sharpie. 

Lunchbox notes - these are sweet and easy enough to add to his lunch!  I looked at a bunch of different designs, many with jokes that seemed like they'd go over his head.  These looked perfect - easy for an early reader to read!

Our Favorite Halloween Books! (40 books, from baby to big kid)

 My kids LOVE holiday-themed books!  We keep them packed away with the holiday decorations each year and only pull them out at the end of September, so they get the renewed ‘novelty’ factor each year!  During October, I keep Halloween books in a bin on our fireplace (separate from the rest of our books) so they get extra focus.  We add a few to our collection each year, from board books to picture books. 

Here are the Halloween books we personally own – I tried to sort them from youngest (baby/board books) to preschool (shorter books) to elementary school (longer picture books), but honestly – my kids read ALL of these at all ages.  Note that not every book is directly Halloween-themed…..some of them are stories about skeletons, vampires, or ghosts. 

Let me know in the comments if we are missing any of your favorites!

(affiliate links)

Boo! Touch and Feel // One, Two…Boo! // I Love You, Little Pumpkin! // Baby Touch and Feel Halloween

B is for Boo // Pop-up Peekaboo! Pumpkin // Ten Timid Ghosts // Little Blue Truck’s Halloween

Llama Llama Trick or Treat // Happy Halloween, Daniel Tiger! // Max’s Halloween // The Ugly Pumpkin

Room on the Broom // The Spooky Wheels on the Bus // Clifford’s Halloween // Wee Witches’ Halloween

Gilbert the Ghost // T Rex Trick or Treats // Corduroy’s Best Halloween Ever // Happy Halloween, Little Critter!

Stumpkin // Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat // Berenstain Bears Prize Pumpkin // Berenstain Bears Haunted House

Berenstain Bears Ghost Walk // Berenstain Bears Ghost of the Forest // Bone Soup // Skeletons Are Not Spooky

Where’s My Mummy // Creepy Carrots // Creepy Pair of Underwear // Gustavo, the Shy Ghost

How to Make Friends with a Ghost // Moldilocks and the Three Scares // A Very Brave Witch // Vampirina Ballerina

Skeleton Hiccups // Bonaparte Falls Apart // The Scariest Book Ever // Which Way to Witch School?

Teaching My Kid to Read - 4 Steps

C just turned 6, and he will start kindergarten this fall reading like a champ!  I can't take credit - he loves books, and his school helped out a TON - but here are some things that worked for us if you're working on teaching your kid to read!

I'm sure it goes without saying, but the first step is obviously letter recognition and letter sounds.  Reading isn't going anywhere without having those skills mastered.  We are now 2 for 2 kids on letting The Letter Factory DVD teach our kids their letters and sounds -- we start this between age 2.5 and 3, and after about 2 weeks they've got it down.  Read my post here for more details on this.  The DVD teaches uppercase letters; you'll have to nail down lowercase letters too (we like flashcards).  

As far as learning to read, we started with phonics-based early readers (think "a cat is fat").  We used a set that my mom had saved from teaching us to read in the 80's, but the current equivalent are the BOB books.  Our main tip for success with these books is that the parents/adults NEVER read these books.  They are so simple that a child can easily memorize the words after hearing it read to them only once -- so if they want to read the book, they have to do it themselves.  Start with the easiest book and work your way up; on every single word, I'd repeat "sound it out" until he made each phonetic sound and eventually figured out the word.  This is VERY SLOW at first.  If it's too frustrating, or they aren't showing enough interest, you can set it aside and wait a few weeks or even months...don't give in and read the book to them!  They have to be both able and willing to do it themselves.   (Of course, we continue reading lots of OTHER books throughout all of this -- even after he can read on his own.)

With C, after he got the hang of it, he was eager to read more.  The set we used had 40 of these books that worked up from easier words to slightly more complex words (long vowel sounds, etc.)  The BOB books have a similar difficulty scale - start with the beginner, then level 2, etc.  Personally, I find that phonics-based books are an easier starting point than sight words, but I'm sure this is heavily influenced by it being the same way I learned to read myself.

After phonics books became easy, we moved onto leveled readers.  These are great because there are so many books featuring different popular characters from TV shows or movies (Paw Patrol, Star Wars, Barbie, Daniel Tiger, etc.).  There are several different brands of leveled readers, and we used all of them - primarily Step into Reading, I Can Read!, Ready to Read, and World of Reading.  I've included a photo below comparing the way each of these 4 brands defines the various levels; for example, Step Into Reading is levels 1-5, while the others all have a level lower than Level 1 (My First, Pre-1, Pre-Level One)...so not all Level 1 books mean the same thing.  

We used these interchangeably based on whichever brand featured the characters/topics that would most interest my son.  Berenstain Bears, Daniel Tiger, and Avengers were some of his first that peaked his interest.  Some come in box sets and some are sold individually.  There is also usually a huge section of these at the public library!  We have the same rules on these books - the parents/adults don't read them.

After progressing through the various levels of readers, he was ready for easy/short chapter books.  (The Level 3-4 readers generally have paragraphs, so they are a good transition.)  C is not yet at an age where he is interested in reading books without ANY pictures; most early chapter books still have a picture every few pages.  He started with mystery books, because there is an incentive to get to the end of the book to find out the answer to the mystery.  

Some of our favorites include:

• the Nate the Great mystery series
• the Cam Jansen mystery series
• the Jigsaw Jones mystery series
• the Magic Tree House series (these are his favorite)
• the Flat Stanley series 
• the Eerie Elementary series

I think all of the above would be great for either girls or boys; I've also heard the Junie B Jones series is super popular with girls (C has only read one so far).  Most of these books are rated with a Reading Level of 2 - 2.4 or for ages 7-10.  The great thing about these book series is that once they find a character they like, there are many more books in the series that will likely appeal to them too!  We plan to try The Boxcar Children series next.  Check your local library!  I currently have 75 books for C on request from these various series (we don't worry about reading them in order).

I am hoping by Christmas he will be ready for the Harry Potter illustrated series!  (Again, I think the inclusion of illustrations will help him visualize the story and keep his interest for such a long book).