Parenting Australia

What to Pack in the School Lunch Box?

This was a question I asked last weekend as Harvey and I pondered what we would pack in Noah’s lunch box when it was time for him to go to school.

The question came about as we were preparing cheese and vegemite scrolls for the Australia Day party we held to celebrate Harvey becoming an Australian citizen and Ethan’s first birthday and naming day. I thought the scrolls would be a great lunch box snack and wondered what else we would fill his school diet with.

Noah won’t be going to school for two years yet, but I realised this was something I would have to consider carefully closer to that date. It also made me think back to what my mother used to pack for me. I always had a sandwich, piece of fruit, muesli bar (or something similar), yogurt and a drink. Apart from the odd lunch box combination, like cheese, honey and sultana sandwiches or an orange casting it’s citrus scent throughout my food, I think mum’s lunch box offerings were exactly as you would expect. Will I do the same for Noah and Ethan when they head off to school in a few years?

Based on his current morning tea and lunch preferences Noah will have a jam sandwich and water for morning tea and then a vegemite or jam sandwich with yogurt and, maybe, some fruit or diluted fruit juice for lunch. I’m hoping his tastes will expand at least slightly by the time school rolls around. I know the pre-school room at Noah’s day care runs a school readiness program in the year before they go (next year for him). Parents send empty lunch boxes and drink bottles with their children and the cook packs up a class-full of lunches for all the children, so they know how morning tea and lunch breaks work before they go to ‘big school’.

Until then lunch will be the same I expect, except for when we go on a trip in the car. Then it’s a chance to pack a lunch box for the boys full of vegemite sandwiches, yogurt, muesli bars, fruit, bottles and whatever else we have in the house at the time. Noah loves opening his orange sandwich box which holds two vegemite sandwiches cut into triangles, and happily chomps his way through eight pieces, except for the crusts which he puts back neatly into the box and hands back to us when he is finished. These are then recycled to the chickens when we get home and we get great eggs in return.

What’s in your child’s lunch box? Answer in the comments section below!

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Johanna Baker-Dowdell is mum to two boys – Noah and Ethan – and combines looking after them with her work as a blogger, journalist, writer and public relations consultant. She owns and manages Strawberry Communications which started small in the third bedroom, but has grown into its own office space (in the converted garage).

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