Tag: homeschooling

As a kid, I always, always, always toted a lunch box to school. My first one was metal with a blue plastic handle and had illustrations of Holly Hobby on it. Inside I usually had a slightly smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a thermos of chocolate milk. The best part of lunch was sometimes finding a love note from my mom, written on the napkin. I missed my mom, even while I was busy at school, and so those notes were a comforting reminder of her love.

When I started out as a homeschool mom a few years ago, I was happy to have my oldest daughter home at lunch time and thankful we did not need to pack lunches for her. The thought of packing lunches seemed silly and unnecessary for a homeschool family.

Somewhere along the course of the last three years, though, lunch time morphed into something less than pleasant. With all the morning chores and school work to do, lunch always sneaked up without a plan. At noon, instead of feeling the relief and satisfaction of having most of our school work done, I stressed out over what to feed my now starving students who were too short to safely reach things in the kitchen.

A while back I decided we needed to try out bento boxes, like the school kids use in Japan. In the process of shopping for those, I stumbled upon Goodbyn lunch boxes.

These aren’t insulated, so they might not work for a typical school kid who stashes lunch in a warm locker for several hours. But with five deep compartments under one lid, plus a beverage container, these lunch boxes fit well in the refrigerator and work superbly for our homeschool family. Packing them at dinner or breakfast time keeps me proactive about the lunch meal. So if my 3rd grader and I are still finishing up a math problem at 12:04, my hungry Kindergartener marches up to the kitchen and happily starts eating on her own. Finally, lunch time feels like a real break for me! Yay!

By the way, the Goodbyn lunch boxes come in a few sizes and colors. The ones I purchased have “ears” and came with dozens of dishwasher-safe stickers for customizing. Each costs about $25, is made in the U.S.A., and is BPA-free. The plastic cleans easily and dries very quickly; I usually make my kids handwash theirs. The biggest compartment is large enough and deep enough to fit a whole banana or apple. Another compartment fits a cup of pudding nicely. So far, nothing has jumbled up with food from another compartment. This box is really fun to pack and I enjoy seeing what fits in each compartment; maybe I’m just weird. But you’ll be happy to eliminate the need for plastic baggies, I bet. Oh, and just in case your child does need to carry his lunch somewhere, the Goodbyn does have handles.

My children insist on having a napkin packed, too, and sometimes I even include a mint with it. My youngest reports that mints make the napkin smell better.

So, without further discussion, let’s do lunch!

PLEASE NOTE: I am not being compensated in any way by the company that makes the Goodbyn lunch box. But if they’d like to pay me for this honest review, I’d {probably} gladly take their money. 🙂