Tag Archives: back to school

Overscheduled Kids = Parental Stress

Forget about emotionally scarring your kids by enrolling them in a litany of extra-curricular activities. According to a new study, the endless stream of piano lessons, soccer practices, Cub Scout meetings and ballet recitals, is more stressful on parents than anyone else. Childhood experts at the University of Maryland at College Park maintain that parents of overscheduled kids are the ones who suffer the most emotional stress when it comes to juggling multiple activities. Turns out, most kids are fine being shuttled from sporting event to sporting event and then to music lessons, dance class and oh, don’t forget, school. … Continue reading →

Healthy Back-to-School Snacks Your Kids Will Actually Eat

If you are a health-conscious parent, then you face a daunting task this time of year. You could go all natural and fill your children’s lunch boxes exclusively with fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts, but the likelihood that they would happily devour the healthy goods you packed for them is slim. Your other options include making your own tasty and nutritious snacks or packing “healthier” store-bought options, like the ones listed below: Snikiddy Chocolate Chippers Cookies: The sweet treats contain less sugar than other cookies on the market. They also come in portion-controlled packets, and kids who tested them high … Continue reading →

Healthy Lunchbox Treats for Kids

Nothing says, “I miss you” like a double chocolate fudge brownie tucked into the corner of your child’s lunchbox. It’ll probably be eaten long before the healthy turkey sandwich you packed, but at least the sugar rush will help ease the pain of having to sit in class all day when it’s beach weather out. Fortunately, there are ways to include sweet snacks in your kid’s lunchbox without sending him into sugar overdrive. One of my daughter’s favorite “healthy” brownie recipes is listed below. While most brownie recipes call for a full cup of sugar, this particular recipe uses 2/3rds … Continue reading →

Nutritious Back-to-School Treats

Healthy doesn’t have to mean horrible tasting. Of course, trying to explain to your 8-year-old why you are filling his lunchbox with carrots and celery sticks instead of chips and chocolate (for the 18th time in less than 24 hours) isn’t without its challenges. Instead of battling with your child over what’s inside his lunchbox, consider experimenting with nutritious snack options that taste great, such as: *Popcorn (pop your own – it’s cheaper and healthier) *Dried fruit *Trail Mix or GORP *Peanut butter or cheese crackers *Fruit muffins *Banana bread or carrot and nut cake *Granola bars *Pancakes made with … Continue reading →

Tips for Livening up Your Kid’s School Lunch

For some kids back-to-school means back to eating the same ol’ peanut butter and jelly sandwiches five days a week. If you pack your child’s lunch every day, then you know how challenging it can be to come up with new and exciting options your kid will actually eat (and not trade for cookies and chips). Instead of spending the next eight months packing PB&J, consider breaking out of the sandwich rut with these ideas: * Leftover pizza * Leftover pasta * Leftover fried rice * Soup in a thermos * Brown rice salad with nuts and veggies * A … Continue reading →

Back-to-School Battle: Lunch

With millions of students heading back to class next week parents are bracing for the obligatory back-to-school battles with their children over clothes, transportation… and lunch. Some kids simply refuse to eat school lunch, which leaves moms and dads scrambling to come up with homemade meals that are both healthy and tasty. For many parents that means buying packaged lunches, which may look nutritious, but are actually far from it. For example, did you know Lunchables’ Maxed Out Cracker Stackers Combo Ham and Cheddar—-a popular lunch choice among middle school students–contains 22 grams of fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol and … Continue reading →

Do You Feel Obligated to Buy School Pictures?

There seems to be an unwritten equation when it comes to purchasing school photos: The more you buy = the more you love your child. In the old days (before the advent of digital technology) parents would purchase class photos sight unseen. Meaning whether your child’s photo made her look like a mini Cindy Crawford or Jack Nicholson in “The Shining,” you were stuck with whatever package you signed up for. These days some schools allow parents to view digital proofs of their student online and make their order selections based on what they see. Other schools, like my daughter’s, … Continue reading →

Health at School: New Shoes

Back to school shopping was always a horrible trial for my family. I’ve never been a huge fan of clothes shopping, so it was a miserable experience just for that. Then there was the huge divide in taste between me and my mom, which eventually got settled with this rule: if I picked something she hated, then she got to pick something I hated. Shoe shopping was only slightly less of a battlefield, if only because the choices were somewhat more limited! Much of our shoe shopping (in the elementary school years, at least) was done at the little shoe … Continue reading →

Swine Flu and Your Student

As if parents didn’t have enough to worry about getting their kids ready for a new school year, a just released report warns that the swine flu could claim 100,000 Americans lives—-many of them children–this flu season. Government health officials released their swine flu battle plan for U.S. schools earlier this month, and now they are suggesting parents come up with their own strategies to keep their kids safe. If you have no clue how to devise a simple, yet effective plan to ward off N1H1 virus symptoms, then consider the tips offered by doctors: WASH THOSE HANDS According to … Continue reading →

Health at School: Lunch Time!

Ah, the school lunch. The cafeteria has come a long way since I was in grammar school, where you had one meal option and one “alternate” Sandwich choice. Even by the time I was in high school, the cafeteria had stepped up to compete with the local eateries in town, offering multiple hot and cold meal choices. Still, your kids might not want to chow down on cafeteria food every day — or you might want to save money and send lunch from home. Here are some tips to help ease the lunchtime battle. Set a lunch allowance. My parents … Continue reading →