Mr X is not homeschooled this year. We sent him to public school kindergarten, with the hope of improving his speech.  He has come a long way (he had the expressive speech of a 4 month at age 18 months) but he still does not use consonants consistently.

Kindergartners get snacks, and each child is asked to contribute. X is so excited about bringing a snack on his day.  We’ve marked the calendar and count down to it!  The school sent snack guidelines home, of course:

• No Peanuts or Peanut Butter items (I expected that, and I’m more than happy to provide a peanut free snack to keep X’s classmates safe.)

• No candy, cakes, cookies, or marshmallow treats (Per the School Nutrition Policy.  This is Texas state law, actually, about serving extra food of “minimal nutritional value”.)

• No drinks, pudding, or jello items (carpet concerns)

• No birthday items (new school district policy does not allow celebrations of birthdays at school.)

No birthdays just makes me sad.  When you are 5 years old your birthday is a HUGE event in your world.  The school continues to celebrate and acknowledge other cultural holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, etc.), so it’s not an issue with “not being scholastic enough”. I suspect it’s a “not fair to everyone” issue.

The note says to send individually packaged food if possible, but we are working to curb our consumption of prepackaged food (plus- $$$!  There are 24 kids in his class!)  This is my first time, really, sending anything into a school classroom.

My ideal?  I would browse Pinterest for an awesome, healthy snack that perfectly captures a cute, kindergarten theme but doesn’t involve so much caramel the school rejects it.  It would be attractively packaged with a sweet note for each child.  It would be so amazing the kindergarten teacher would call other teachers to come and gaze in awe at The Snack.

Back to reality.  Reality is, it’s got to be fast, it’s got to be affordable, and it’s going to school with X in a tote bag.  That’s just life, take it or leave it.

X wants to take grapes. Totally doable (and healthy, affordable, easy!)  Depending on which variety are on sale, I am hoping to put green and purple in the same bag (X’s specific request).  We’ll just wash and package them at home, in snack bags.

Other affordable, healthy school snack ideas:

• Popcorn
• Pretzels
• Tortilla chips
• Tortilla pinwheels (roll up tortillas, cream cheese, and apple slices/bell pepper strips/misc. filling, cut crosswise into rounds)
• Berries – strawberries are always popular
• Banana chips, or bananas (well they ARE individually packaged!)
• Apple slices (place in lemon water to keep them from going brown)
• Raisins (yes, in the little boxes… not the cheapest most eco-friendly option, I know.)
• Baby carrots, grape tomatoes, bell pepper strips
• Zucchini fries (quarter zucchini sticks like pickle spears, coat in olive oil and parmesan, bake. YUM!)
• Trail mix – use pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds instead of peanuts
• Homemade Lara Bars/granola bars (free recipe for no-bake healthy soaked granola bars!)
• Fruit salad (grapes, pineapple, melon balls, clementine segments, apple pieces)
• Healthy muffins, such as these Almost Fat Free Pumpkin Muffins (check with teacher first to make sure they don’t get thrown out with the cupcakes!)
• Waffle sticks (apple, banana, or pumpkin flavor to make them sweet even without syrup.)

Are you sending food in to the class?  I’m interested to know if you have any special guidelines.