Skip to main content

Time for School

Henry has just started preschool! It's an exciting new phase for our family. As Henry embarks on this new chapter, I thought it would be fun to document his school lunch experience. I am relaunching How to Feed a Henry with a focus on his lunchbox.
Henry on his first day of school
WHAT TO EXPECT
Henry will be attending school five full days, which means packing five school lunches each week. My plan is to photograph Henry's lunchbox contents each day -- possibly before and after pictures to see what he actually eats. My intent is to post a photo log of the week's lunches; this will help with our family's weekly grocery planning and spark menu ideas for the following week. I may write occasional product reviews or other topics related to school lunches.

Henry will be eating lunch in a noisy cafeteria with lots of kids at a public school. He will have 30 minutes for his lunch break. This may seem like sufficient time, but Henry is not known for being a quick eater. He takes his time and can become distracted easily. Henry may sometimes purchase a hot lunch, but bringing a lunch from home seems like a less stressful option for him; we'll see if this theory holds true after we get into the school routine. Avoiding the hot lunch line should give him more time to eat.

LUNCH BOX GUIDELINES
Henry will be taking the lead on packing his lunch. His dad and I will provide guidance and assist as needed, but he is in charge what to put in his lunchbox. We've found that he is more likely to eat a meal if he is included in the planning and decision-making processes. The guidelines include packing at least one protein and two fruits or vegetables. We try to stock the pantry with healthy and balanced food options, but you won't see gourmet meals or artistic bento designs on this blog. Some of the food may be home cooked but much of it will come from a grocery story; Our family typically shops at Trader Joe's, Costco, Safeway and Metropolitan Market.

Henry does not have any known food allergies and there are no policies at the school restricting any allergen foods in the cafeteria. He is a big fan of peanuts and other nuts, so those are likely to appear on the menu frequently. His other likely protein choices are meat, beans, and cheese.
Henry arriving at school for the first day of class.

I'm excited for to explore this topic and I hope you'll follow along for the journey.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook

UPDATE (10/2/12): Unfortunately, I did not hear back from our original winner. Congratulations to our alternate winner for "The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook" -- Robin Pfefer. UPDATE (9/29/12): I am happy to announce that Kashia Clopper is the winner of "The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook". When I was first thinking about using the Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) model for Henry, I was unsure about whether it would really work. I was excited about BLW’s claims of less stressful meals that the whole family could share together. Plus, I was all for encouraging Henry to gain new skills by learning about the shapes, textures, colors, smells and flavors of food. This sounded ideal in theory, but would it work in practice? After some fun but ineffective attempts at letting Henry feed himself, I went in search of resources to learn more about BLW. I needed to learn how to prepare meals for our family in which Henry could participate. That’s when I found “ The Baby-Led

Do Your Kids Eat Everything?

UPDATE (3/15/2013): Congratulations to Kia as the random drawing winner in this giveaway! Thank you to all those who entered this contest.  Before we began our food adventure with Henry, Daddy and I had many conversations about how to encourage Henry to become “a good eater.” After watching other parents constantly struggle with their toddlers, we wanted to know if there was anything we could do from the start to prevent picky eating. That’s when we read “ French Kids Eat Everything ” by Karen Le Billon . The book is an easy and enjoyable read about the year that Karen’s family spent in France and how it changed the way her family eats. The heart of the book explores the 10 French Food Rules for raising happy, healthy eaters. “French Kids Eat Everything” sparked numerous discussions at our dinner table about how our family eats. We have become more conscious of our assumptions about food and how that will influence Henry’s understanding of mealtimes. In addition, the

Please Don't Feed My Toddler Cheetos

Our family has started a new chapter -- last week I rejoined the paid workforce! I am very excited about my new part-time job at a local history museum, coordinating field trips and special events. As part of this transition, Henry is now going to daycare three days per week.  Henry meets new friends and plays with new toys on his first day at daycare. Searching for quality childcare was a somewhat stressful experience. We visited 8 childcare facilities who had immediate space available for Henry to begin part-time care. I wanted to be confident that Henry would be cared for by experienced, nurturing staff in an environment that would challenge him to learn new skills and form friendships with other children. Of course, the added cost of childcare also had to fit within our family budget. While interviewing daycares, one aspect that I cared about was food. All eight of the facilities participate in the USDA food program , receiving reimbursement at a set rate for the meals they