Children: criticism vs joy. Lunch shaming, Life Skills, Survival as a parent.

Dear Parents: What are your goals for the first weeks of school? Survival by the seat of your pants or a plan of action? What kids learn at lunch range from lunch shaming to behaviours they carry forward into their adult lives; including valuable life skills. Education can be as easy as making a sandwich.

Creating Hero or Zeros?

Lunch Shaming: It is all about the money or lack of money. This is a reality in the USA.

"In 2014, FNS found that students were being lunch-shamed at 60 percent of public schools across the country...Numerous news stories have suggested that an end to lunch-shaming is the driving force behind rising debt...In the same 2014 study, FNS found that 35 percent of schools resort to “administrative actions,” like prohibiting a student from attending homecoming because they’ve got lunch debt. Another 6 percent of schools send unpaid bills to collections agencies." The complete article is found here: https://chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2019/04/25/lots-of-american-families-are-struggling-with-student-lunch-debt-whats-the-solution/

Find ways to help your child feel important.

One study by the National Family Institute found that the average parent spends 14.5 minutes a day communicating with each child. Of that time, 12.5 minutes are devoted to parental criticism or correction. Not surprisingly, those behaviors lead many children to believe they do not matter to anyone, or that they can't do anything right.

Make a special effort to tell your child every day that he is special.

(source: https://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin013.shtml )

Making lunch WITH your kids helping solves 2 daily struggles.

1. it provides a time to encourage positive quality time with your children(bonus! this eliminates the complaints about their lunch).

2. it gets the chore of making lunches done: Imagine being able to get lunches done with the kids helping and talking about the best part of their day(this help them develop responsibility and independence).

"What kids learn from packing their own lunches:

Having kids make their own lunches doesn’t just eliminate the struggle of trying to guess at the perfect lunch. It can also teach kids a number of life skills:

Putting together a balanced meal. Making healthy food choices. Knowing which foods are the best for staying satisfied throughout the day. Using a knife, preparing a sandwich, popping popcorn, and other basic cooking skills. Managing time. Keeping track of supply levels and knowing what needs replenishment"* (Sourch: Self sufficient kids)

Easy mess free recipes your kids can make on their own:

30 Easy Recipes Your KIDS Can Make All By Themselves

With easy, straightforward directions and minimum use of kitchen tools, your kids are going to love the kitchen.

Lemon Dilly Spread Maple Kettle Corn Popcorn Meatless Pizza Mediterranean Fish Sticks Mug Cake No-fry Fish Sticks Pasta Primavera Frittata Pepperoni Calzones Build a Hero Sign up for more articles by Laura Grannary

Doing meals the easy way with The Pantry Planner

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