I have a very creative friend named Beth Savage who makes her son the most adorable bento lunches and as we look at going back to school one of the things I dread most is packing lunches. After seeing what Beth does, I realized I have been packing my kids lunches all wrong. Who knew lunches could be this fun?

I had to ask Beth how she came up with these ideas and here is what she shared with me.

Karen: Where did you get the idea to make these very creative lunches?

Beth: Mostly online. I remember when we switched daycares and I was told I would have to pack a lunch. Yikes! I of course turned to the internet (it solves all my problems! haha). I saw the idea of a “bento box” – it’s from the Japanese’s culture.  Google “bento” or search Flickr for “bento” and look at some of the pictures. They are amazing!

I also liked the idea that there is no waste. No plastic baggies, or wrappers etc. – I found it was also easier for my son to get to his lunch himself without having to rely on busy teachers to open things for him. There are MILLIONS of ideas online. I get most from a collection of websites. Google: “Bento for kids”

Karen: What was the initial investment you made on containers, reusable muffin liners, food writing pens and cookie cutters?

Beth: I don’t recall the initial investment. It was gradual. The first thing I bought was the containers – EasyLunchboxes 3-compartment Bento Lunch Box Containers (Set of 4)– I then found the silicone muffin cups at a store called “Nood” – the ones at Michael’s are crazy expensive and are pastel colours (kinda girly). You can generally find them at any baking store. I got a huge bin of 101 cookie cutters from Michaels with one of their 40% off coupons which made it pretty cheap.   I bought fun ice packs at Save On for a dollar (the 2010 Olympic ones). The icing eyes are the only ongoing investment; also bought at Michaels and I always try to use a coupon. Oh, and the markers – they were pricey, but with the coupon it was ok. Again, I did NOT buy all this stuff at once. It was very gradual.

So overall… maybe $60 for all the supplies…give or take. Then over time you get an eye for stuff at the dollar store for things that could work. I also love www.allthingsforsale.com.

Karen: How much planning do you put into your lunches?

Beth: Not much! I generally don’t think about it until I am doing it. I plan what groceries to buy for the lunch, but that isn’t any different from “regular” lunch packers. I put more thought into it is when it’s a holiday or a birthday or any special day, then I try to make the lunch reflect that day. TIP: go to Michael’s AFTER a holiday to get good discount on cookie cutters, picks, etc. then you have a stock for next year.

Karen: What tips do you have for others starting out?

Beth: HAVE FUN! Don’t worry about an “initial investment” – you can invest a lot or nothing, just be creative and use when you have. The dollar store has cookie cutters, fun containers, even cute shaped silicone mini bread loaf pans and lots of stuff to get you started!

I can not wait to make lunches this school year! I have gone through my cookie cutters, reusable muffin liners and need to pick up only a few items to get started.

I hope these ideas inspire you to re think your child’s school lunches as it did for me. I would like to thank Beth Savage for sharing with me her ideas and photos!

What goes into a bento lunch for kids? Easy to eat finger foods like mini-sandwiches, pre-cooked pasta, veggies, fruit, and other treats work best. If you are looking for even more inspiration, check out these resources:

• 21 Healthy Lunchbox and Snack Ideas
• O’bento Lunch 4 Kidz has the most beautiful pictures and creative ideas
• Laptop Lunches has ideas, recipes and an online store
• Our post on Fun Kids Lunches with Bento
• 21 Healthy Lunchbox Ideas

By Karen Owen of KarenMomofThree’sCraftBlog

The kids are going back to school soon and that means time to say goodbye to lazy summer mornings and hello to routine, structure, and backpacks! With a little bit of preparation and organization now, you can cruise through the first few weeks of school with your sanity in place. A few years ago I posted my five favorite back to school sanity savers for Moms and kids on now defunct blog of mine, but decided this is too good not to share with my new readers!

Take Stock Before You Restock

I don’t know about you but when my kids came home on the last day of school with the contents of their desks in tow, I noticed something – that box of 12 colored pencils we “had” to have, still looked brand new! And so did half of the notebooks. Before you rush out to buy tons of new school supplies, take stock of what can be reused from last year. Then combine all your kids school supply lists into one and shop throughout the summer for items as they go on sale or buy them in bulk from my personal favorite online resources, Bulk Office Supplies or Discount School Supply (they stock allergy free and special needs art supplies).

The same thing goes for the kids clothes. Where we live the temps are warm enough in September for the kids to wear their summer clothes still – and my kids always seem to have a last minute growth spurt before the school year starts. Get the kids to try on their summer school clothes and items from last year and make a list of must buys and a list of buy once the weather cools down. I never buy my kids jeans before October – and then I wait for stores like Justice Girls Clothing (my girls favorite) to have their massive sales.

Post a routine

Kids always do better when they know what to expect! Help your kids (especially those Kindergarten and 1st Graders) develop a morning routine and practice it before school starts. I love charts that I can post on the refrigerator (remember my summer chore chart?) and I have created a very simple one that is picture-based so that kids of any age can go through it on their own. Yes, you can have one of your very own!! Download the morning routine reminder to hang on your own fridge.

Take it a week at a time

Use Sunday afternoons or evenings to get your week planned out. Keep the family schedule in a location that everyone can see. I have a Magnetic Dry Erase 3 in 1 Board by Board Dudes hanging in the mudroom so everyone can get a feel for the events of the week at a glance and its easy to change.

I also keep a planner on my desk. I just ordered the new MomAgenda Home Office edition because it has room for my schedule and notes, but also has space designated for each child and dinner and pockets for important papers, too. You can get them in a variety of sizes and fun colors. Everyone in the family knows to check the book for important phone numbers, general schedules and upcoming events, too.

Create a Backpack Zone

Find a location in your house that is convenient and create a backpack zone. In our house it is the mudroom. Backpacks, shoes and jackets all get parked there when not in use. It makes it much easier to find everything in the morning if you aren’t hunting high and low all over the house for it.

Create a Home Study Zone

Give your kids a regular spot for doing homework – somewhere with good lighting, minimal distractions, and access to the supplies they may need to get the tasks done. Our kitchen table is the homework zone. There is no TV near by, the kids have plenty of room to spread out and I can monitor their progress without having to sit right there with them.

Joe Bruzzesse of Our Thinking is a Middle School expert and author. He has created a list of supplies to keep on hand for homework and projects. We have a china cabinet in the kitchen that houses art and school supplies. This summer the area got a little out of control so I spent some time this weekend clearing it out and reorganizing. One bin contains paper, notebooks and journals. Another bin contains pencils, pens, crayons, markers, rulers, scissors, tape and such. The bottom cabinet holds art kits (translation – beads) and coloring books.

What are your best back to school tips? Feel free to share them in the comments!!

Whether you want to call it TV Free Week, Screen Free Week or “Disney Detox” like I do, unplugging the kids from time to time is a good thing!!

My nine year old has become quite attached to the TV this summer, so much so, that I have seen a marked change in her behavior. It’s not a good thing when she is willing to fore-go so many of the things she couldn’t wait to do this summer because she just “has to” watch a certain show or play a certain game on the computer. It’s become a fight with her to do anything – from getting her hair brushed out to getting her chores done. And did I mention the drama, back talk and attitude? I attribute a lot of it to the way many of the characters in her favorite shows act.

As of this morning I hit a breaking point. Enough is enough and it is time for a screen free week for her. No computer, no TV. End of discussion. Xbox Kinect is still okay because the games we have require movement and LOTS of it.

So far today, she has gotten her chores done, brushed every last tangle out of her hair, read a book, made a card for her cousin, played with her dolls and even though there have been multiple pleas for “Just One Show” and “Can I Just Play Pixie Hollow for 10 Minutes,” her attitude is already improving.

I can’t wait to enjoy my daughter’s sweet disposition again – as soon as she has gotten phrases from “So Random”, “Good Luck Charlie”, “Ant Farm” and “Fish Hooks” out of her vocabulary! And when she finally gets her screen time back, it is going to be in very small, small doses!!

How do you handle screen time in your house?

Over at my friend Robyn’s site – Balance in Diet, she offered up some tips for getting your kids to eat more fruits and vegetables. Like Robyn, I don’t have any problem getting our kids to eat fruits and vegetables – we don’t even have to sneak them in. Here are four ways to encourage your kids to eat more vegetables:

1. The Help Yourself Zone

Create a “Help Yourself Zone” in the kitchen where you keep healthy snacks like fresh vegetables, fruits, and nuts (if your kids are not allergic) within reach. Set out a bowl of sugar snap peas and some cherry tomatoes after school and you would be surprised how fast they go!

2. Use Veggies as an Appetizer

Offer up a fresh salad or a bowl of veggies as an “appetizer” like you get in a fancy restaurant while the kids are waiting for the finishing touches to be put on dinner. They will fill up on the good stuff making it less likely they will go for seconds or thirds of the starches or dessert.

3. Make Veggies into Toppings or Mix Ins

Next time you make a batch of pasta, pasta salad or serve baked potatoes, place bowls of fresh and leftover cooked veggies out as mix-ins. My girls love green peas mixed into pasta. Steamed yellow squash and zucchini are also a big hit for pasta toppers.

4. Get Kids Involved at the Grocery Store

Every time we are in the vegetable section of the grocery store I  have to be sure to assign veggie tasks simultaneously or an argument over who’s turn it is to weigh the veggies is bound to break out. My kids love picking out the vegetables, weighing them and printing out the pricing labels while we shop. Don’t ask why, but its something they think is so cool – so run with it!

 Do you have any additional tips for getting kids to eat more vegetables or try new varieties?

I have three children, two with birthdays near major holidays – December 18 and January 21 – so in our house I have decided to celebrate half birthdays!

Now I do not mean that I am going to do a full extra birthday with parties presents, loot bags and more (but you could). In my house we will start marking the occasion by having half birthday cakes for dessert on their half birthdays, 6 months after the date of their actual birth dates.

Now these cakes are easy and fun. Celebrating this non holiday is so simple even the busiest families can turn an “non celebrating day” into a new tradition.

In order to create a half birthday cake simply start with a simple boxed cake mix and some icing.

You can either do two 8″ round cakes and freeze the extra one for the next occasion, or you could do one round cake and use the left over batter for cupcakes – which also freeze well if you do not ice them first.

Once you have baked and cooled your cake, remove it from the pan and cut down the center in half. Add a layer of icing as you would do for any layer cake. Then add the other half of the cake on top and ice it as you would a regular cake.

Be careful when icing around the cut edge as the crumbs are likely to move around in your icing. To avoid this either bake and freeze the cake a head of time (this makes it less likely to fall apart) or use lots of icing and smooth the icing with a long cake spatula.

Decorate the cake as you would a normal birthday cake – making it as simple or elaborate as you would like. Be sure to write “Happy ½ Birthday” on your cake. You can have the child blow out half a candle, or the one left over from his actual birthday. There are so many fun things you can do with the half birthday concept. For us, as the boys get older we will let them invite a friend to dinner and for cake – of course but no actual presents will be given. However, if your child’s birthday falls too close to Christmas, you may want to forgo the birthday presents at Christmas and give them during the summer half birthday instead. It’s all about what works for you and your child!

By Karen Owen of KarenMomofThree’sCraftBlog

My boys are 10, 8 and 3 and I am very happy that I am raising creative boys who love to draw, make up stories and make lists. They however are not huge fans of printing or handwriting but I hope this activity will help with that.

Start by taking a trip to the dollar store to stock up on summer notebooks. Pick up notebooks in all shapes, sizes and types like the exercise type books like the kids use in school, small purse sized note books or my personal favorite spiral bound books. The purpose of notebook shopping is to encourage your kids to WRITE, DRAW OR CREATE daily. The notebooks are inexpensive enough that you can pick up a bunch, small enough to fit in a purse for outings, great to use in the car, airplane or cabin and inspiring enough to even the toughest convert.

You can let the kids decorate the front on a rainy summer day. Give older kids their own set of multi color pens (also available at the dollar store), rubber stamps and stickers. Scrapbook supplies and ribbon (great to tie a pen or pencil to a spiral note book) also help to personalize each book. The key is to set aside 5 minutes a day to encourage your child to put pen, pencil or crayon to paper.

Here are thirteen (13) motivating ideas to get your kids to write or draw in their books.

1. Creative writing prompts for older kids like “I am going on a trip to the (fill in the blank) and I am going to need… and have the list or draw what they would need. ClassroomJr.com has a large selection of Story Starters for kids of all ages.
2. “Make me a list” – kids can make a wish list, a toy list inventory, grocery store, things I want to do over summer break
3. Make a rhyme
4. Have your kids purposely write backwards or upside down and have them decode their work at the bathroom mirror
5. Write some jokes or riddles (even if they have heard them a thousand times before the point is to get then to write them down)
6. Teach them to play Tic Tac Toe (visit Printables4Kids.com for blank Tic Tac Toe sheets and Dots and Lines Game sheets), hangman or create their own word searches and have them switch with their siblings or friends
7. Have kids color an emotion like happy, sad, angry, etc.
8. Give them the advertisements section from the paper and have them collage a page with pictures or have them cut out individual letters to create their names (for the very young or create sayings with the other letters)
9. Write a story
10. Practice handwriting or printing by putting your own prompts in your child’s book (Create your own handwriting worksheets)
11. Have your “start” practice their “autograph” or for the younger kids just practice writing their name
12. Have the kids make a space alien, princess, cat, dog or other favorite object out of the letters in their name
13. Illustrate a comic (my oldest loves to do this)

Introducing the kids to the summer note book is a healthy way to promote literacy, creative writing and it promotes a great pre-organizational skill set, too.

I can not wait to see how my boys’ summer notebooks look at the end of the summer! We will have a great keepsake. I hope this helps you to create lasting memories of your summer vacation and help you to create moments that will last.

Remember it is not the days we remember it is the moments.

By Karen Owen of KarenMomofThree’sCraftBlog

School’s out for the summer!! Woo-Hoo!!

I am so ready for a change of pace and so are the kids. It’s not that the schedule gets any less hectic, but it just gets different. No 5:45 a.m. wake ups, no homework, no packing lunches. Instead, we are looking at 8 a.m. swim team practice, reading whenever and however (my kids love reading) and packing coolers for swim meets, outings and road trips.

One thing that really helps keep the peace all summer long (well, at least it works in theory) is our Summer House Rules that hang on the refrigerator. My gift to you – a free printable version of these summer house rules to use in your own homes! Enjoy.

Download your own copy of the Summer House Rules as a PDF file – then hang where the kids can not miss it!

You might also want to print out some of my other free printables for making things run smooth this summer:

• Printable Cleaning Checklists for Kids
• Monthly Menu Planning Worksheet
• Kids Chore Charts
• Summer Camp Packing List

Summer is in full swing and while my kids don’t really “love” their chore charts and summer house rules, they know that in order for us all to live as peacefully as possible under this one roof all summer long, that the chores and house rules are essential. After week number one of the summer chore chart went into effect, there was a little misunderstanding on the meaning of cleaning the bathroom, what cleaning the living room meant, and so on. As a result, my kids’ cleaning checklists were born.

Now I do not expect my kids to clean to the level that I would, mainly because the home repair should be left to adults. However, if no one ever teaches them what is expected and gives them guidance, then they will never know. My checklists are pretty basic but the kids are getting so much more efficient with their cleaning and they take a lot more pride in their work, too.

Feel free to print out the PDF file of the cleaning checklists below, which includes basic checklists for cleaning the living room, dining room, bathroom, kids bedroom, playroom and kitchen. I have put them into clear plastic sleeves and  let the kids use dry erase markers to check items off as they go.

• Free printable cleaning checklists (PDF file)

And just in case you need a chore chart & the summer rules, you can find them here.

We would like to thank One Pretty Thing for featuring our printable cleaning checklist in her Kids Printables Roundup.

One Friday after school, I decided that something had to be done – I couldn’t face the weekend with a totally messy house and looking around I realized that most of the mess was created by my three kids. I wanted them to help clean up, but know from experience that there is the hard way of getting this accomplished – screaming, yelling, demanding, and general dictatorship – and there is the easy way!

The secret is MAKE IT FUN! I devised a plan and when all was said and done, it took us about 2 hours to really make this house shine.

The Ingredients:

• A timer
• Strips of paper labeled with each room you want cleaned (we have done this with actual tasks, too)
• A bowl
• Some fun music
• A mystery/reward

The Plan:

We started by having my youngest daughter pull a slip of paper out of a bowl – this let us know where we would start. Once we knew the room, my oldest set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes and my middle daughter picked the tunes on the iPod. We all headed to that room and started picking things up, putting them away, wiping down surfaces, and getting the room clean.

When the timer went off, we stopped -  no matter where we were in the process.  I added a twist to the fun.  As a reward I had planned on letting the kids get a movie off Pay-Per-View and having a family movie night, so I gave them a clue for the reward. I have never seen my kids so excited to get something done (especially my 7 year old who normally refuses to help with anything)!

After the 20 minutes was up, everyone got 5 minutes of free time before we started the process over with a new room. I switched up who got to pick the room, set the timer, and pick the music each time so that the kids felt like they were in charge.

You would be amazed at how easy this was and the kids were so proud of their work. I even overheard one of them reminding the other to pick up something in the bathroom because we had just worked so hard to make it clean!

PS – we watched The Game Plan as our reward. It was such a cute movie and totally appropriate for a family movie night!

A few years ago I went to the medicine cabinet (ours is in a high cabinet in the kitchen) and grabbed a bottle of cold medicine to give a dose to my son. Luckily, before I finished dispensing it I noticed I had grabbed the wrong bottle – it was the adult version. I made it my task the next day to make the cabinet better organized.

I went to the dollar store and purchased three small stacking organizer bins with open tops. I labeled them Childrens, Adult and First Aid. I pulled everything out of the cabinet and sorted it into one of these three categories.

The childrens’ bin contains what I consider to be essentials – Childrens Motrin, Mucinex cough medicine, Childrens Sudafed, Similasan Childrens ear ache drops, Little Noses Saline Spray/Drops for Dry for Stuffy Noses, the kids vitamins, and any of their current prescriptions.

The adult bin has Motrin, Aspirin, Alavert, Benadryl, Nyquil, Similasan Allergy Eye Relief Eye Drops and our adult vitamins.

We keep the first aid bin well stocked with Neosporin (love the new Neosporin and Pain Relief formula), Arnica Gel (great for muscle pain), Traumeel Ointment (also for muscle pain), Dermoplast Pain Relieving Spray (takes the sting out of scrapes fast), bandaids in all shapes and sizes, cortizone cream, tweezers, antiseptic wipes, gauze and tape.

This system has worked weel for us for the past few years. My kids are now old enough that they can get their own bandaids and little items. Having the medicines clearly marked in bins makes it much easier for the entire family to find what they need and stay healthy.