Looking for an easy way to manage lunches for kids this school year? Try a visual lunch menu for kids.
I’ll be the first to admit that last school year, I relied way to much on the pre-packaged lunches when my kids needed lunch for homeschool classes and school. This summer, for various summer camps that required the kids pack their own lunch, I created some visual lunch menus. Today, I’d like to share them with you!
*This post contains affiliate links.
**The free download can be found towards the END of this post. Just look for and click on the teal dowload button.
Visual Lunch Menu for Kids
The main goal for these visual lunch menus is three-fold:
1. It is SIMPLE. I’m not one to cut cute shapes into my kids’ sandwiches or create themed lunches.
2. It can be PACKED BY THE KIDS. My rising 1st grader can make most of her lunch herself. I want my kids to learn responsibility for their own things and this helps build that.
3. It RUNS ITSELF. I already have a hard enough time thinking of dinner menus. I don’t want to go there with lunches. While I can change out the options, I didn’t want to have to start from scratch each day.
The idea of the visual lunch menus is very simple. On the printable menus are categories: 1- main dish, 2- fruit/veggies, 3- other sides, 4- drink, & 5- dessert {I’ve included one menu with dessert option and one without dessert}. Also included are how many of each they should pick.
I slipped mine into our dry erase pockets {love these!!} and used a dry erase marker to write options in each category. The dry erase marker allows me to change out options. For example, a main dish option might include leftovers from the night before. I can also swap out fruit options as the seasons change.
I hung it up on the refrigerator so my kids can reference what the options are on the mornings they need to pack a lunch* for homeschool classes or school. Remember, if you prefer the option without a dessert choice, you can find that in the free download, too!
*I’ve also included a couple of “Make Your Lunch” menu choices for those days when you’re at home for lunch, too! See pp. 7-10 of the download.
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Enjoy!
~Becky
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