Starting Big School
Baby started Reception about a month ago and so far his reaction to school has been very positive. He loves going there, loves his teacher, and has made friends. There has been a class election and he was elected class representative of for the school council. I am not sure he understands what that means but I am trying to explain to him that there is job description (albeit brief) for the position and that is to help with organising e.g. charity drives etc. He will get it evenutally but right now he thinks all it means is he has to wear a badge to school. I am really happy that the school has chosen to mimic society at large by organising elections even for young kids. Overall I am impressed by the school's general attitude that kids will rise to the challenge if you give them something to do, with appropriate guidance where necessary. I think children behave better when adults treat them as equals rather than speak down to them all the time.
The challenge for us has been the packed lunch. Junk food is completely banned at school, which agrees with us but it does limit what ready-made food Baby can take to school. So far we have been OK with providing a cooked lunch in a thermos- school provides a sandwich lunch with fruit and milk but no hot meals. This was mainly because the thermos works very well and we have been able to prepare and freeze food in batches ahead of time, meaning we only need to warm the thermos and heat the food in the microwave in the morning. Pasta bolognaise, spaghetti with pesto, dumplings, fried rice, were a few things we tried that worked quite well. We put the thermos with the hot food, a piece of fruit or some dried fruit in an insulated bag and the food maintained warm till lunch time.
Snacks were slightly more problematic as most pre-made snacks can be viewed as junk food under the no crisps, no cakes rule. Parma ham wrapped around bread sticks, hummus and vegetable/bread sticks, cheese and crackers and yoghurt have all worked well so far. The odd sausage roll, scotch egg or cocktail sausage were also well-received. For sweets we have been providing fresh fruit- strawberries, blueberries and grapes were very popular. Some things just didn't work- boiled egg and sushi for e.g. However, I am fast running out of snack ideas. I have been checking Pinterest avidly for suggestions and hope to eventually build up enough of a repertoire.
It is fun at the moment. I wonder if the novelty ever runs out?
The challenge for us has been the packed lunch. Junk food is completely banned at school, which agrees with us but it does limit what ready-made food Baby can take to school. So far we have been OK with providing a cooked lunch in a thermos- school provides a sandwich lunch with fruit and milk but no hot meals. This was mainly because the thermos works very well and we have been able to prepare and freeze food in batches ahead of time, meaning we only need to warm the thermos and heat the food in the microwave in the morning. Pasta bolognaise, spaghetti with pesto, dumplings, fried rice, were a few things we tried that worked quite well. We put the thermos with the hot food, a piece of fruit or some dried fruit in an insulated bag and the food maintained warm till lunch time.
Snacks were slightly more problematic as most pre-made snacks can be viewed as junk food under the no crisps, no cakes rule. Parma ham wrapped around bread sticks, hummus and vegetable/bread sticks, cheese and crackers and yoghurt have all worked well so far. The odd sausage roll, scotch egg or cocktail sausage were also well-received. For sweets we have been providing fresh fruit- strawberries, blueberries and grapes were very popular. Some things just didn't work- boiled egg and sushi for e.g. However, I am fast running out of snack ideas. I have been checking Pinterest avidly for suggestions and hope to eventually build up enough of a repertoire.
It is fun at the moment. I wonder if the novelty ever runs out?
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