Me: My faculty and I are talking about how we could teach Waldorf remotely.
Calvin (24): That’s actually hilarious.
Me: I know. Waldorf via Skype?
My sister: Oh, Skype is the worst!
Calvin: Well, with it being Waldorf, I’m surprised they’re not using AOL chat.
Me: Smoke signals?
Alice (21): Morse code?
Calvin: No! CARRIER PIGEONS! That’s what Waldorf should use. You know, because it’s animals and nature-y.

We had quite a chuckle. Oh, those were the days.

3 weeks ago. Back when distance learning was a theoretical conversation. Little did we know how quickly we would be thrust into a real-world consideration of how we could teach our students from a distance.

My school is currently on our 2-week spring break. We had just one-week of home lessons before the break and now we’re all grateful to have some time to figure out how to proceed. The timing actually worked out perfectly. We had a week of experimentation — a chance to try some things — and now we get to solidify our approach.

What I’m Doing

I have heard from so many of you — teachers who are figuring this out with me, parents who are suddenly home with your children. The questions I’ve received have been wide-ranging, and they’ve all contained a bit of desperation.

• What did your take-home packet include?
• What supplies did you send home with your students?
• Are you using Zoom with your students?
• How are you delivering new content?
• Can I use your take-home packet for my child?
• What digital tools are you using?
• What are you doing about families who don’t have access? Or what about parents who still have to work?
• Can I pay you to create lessons for my 3rd grader?
• Why don’t you have any 3rd grade curriculum guides on your site? That’s what I need!

We’re all trying to adjust to this new normal and it’s all a bit unsettling.

So, here are some answers to those questions.

What I Sent Home

Here’s a basic list of things that families took with them when they left school on Friday, March 13.

• Crayons
• Flute
• Pencils
• Main lesson book
• a reader
• a handwriting packet
• a “challenge” math packet
• a parent packet including a letter and an answer key to the math problems
• a daily lesson packet with our daily rhythm in checklist form and a times table practice page and a daily math practice page
• a reader (and instructions to read 20 minutes per day)

Technology I’m Using

Google Classroom

My plan was to send daily lesson plans to my families (to fill in the blanks on the “review” and “new content” portions of the daily rhythm checklist I sent them home with on Friday.) I knew that in a pinch I could just send it out via email, but a couple of our teachers already use Google Classroom, so I decided to check it out.

Ultimately, I thought that it was a good way to go for a couple of reasons.

• Assignments would be right there and ready for parents to access whenever they were ready, without needing to scroll back through their saved emails.
• The interface allows me to upload images and documents very easily and connect them with a specific day’s assignment.
• Parents can ask questions and “turn in” student work (including a picture, which I love!). Parents can even answer each other’s questions and connect with each other over the work.

So, though it was a big push, I set it up over the weekend and got almost everyone to sign-up by Monday. I sent assignments for Monday and Tuesday out via email as well, just to make sure everyone had what they needed.

Parents have been raving about the experience. They find the lessons to be laid out clearly and they know exactly what to do to guide their child to complete the work. Big win!

Recorded Audio

I was a little on the fence about this, but at the last minute, I decided to record myself narrating the new content for Monday’s lesson. I found that I enjoyed the process far more than I thought I would.

Our content for the week was about silk (we were in our fibers block), so though there was a true story, there was also some factual information to relay. Because of this, I didn’t just read a story. I reminded them about the other fibers we had studied, talked about how silk was the same and different, and then told a story about the discovery of silk.

Because the story took this format, it was much more conversational. I imagined my students as I talked about it and I felt like I was really talking to them. I threw in little things like, “I miss you,” and “I hope you’re being helpful at home.” Many parents shared that listening to my voice telling the story was comforting and reassuring for the whole family.

Just thinking about it brings a tear to my eye. I sure miss those kids!

Photographs

I did sample pages for all main lesson book content — including compositions and dictations, which are such habit by now that I don’t generally need to guide my students through the process. I figured that having sample pages would give a measure of security and confidence to their work.

Video

I have not yet recorded any video myself. I did, however, in my silk research, find a video of a silkworm spinning a cocoon. Ordinarily I would describe this process to them myself (which I did in the audio) but I would not share the video in class. But at the last minute, when I was putting the lesson together in Google Classroom, I decided to throw it in and let parents decide if they wanted to watch it with their children. I talked about it in my audio and tried to add a little bit of feeling to it. “If you want to watch a cute little silkworm building his cocoon, I sent your parents a video.”

I have been thinking a lot about recording video for the delivery of new content. I follow a fellow teacher friend on Instagram and she has been posting desktop videos of herself simplifying fractions. Finding a way to deliver brand new content is one of my biggest questions — especially when it comes to math — and I think that these desktop videos might be the best solution. I still have to teach long division before the end of the school year.

I sent her a message asking her to send me a picture of her set-up. This is it below. I ordered the tripod and ring light and I’m planning on figuring out how I might use them next week.

Zoom

This is a big topic of conversation at the moment at my school. We have been using Zoom to hold all of our usual meetings. Between my regular faculty, grades, section and board meetings, I’ve participated in a virtual meeting almost every day. These meetings have had varied levels of success, mostly depending on the number of participants.

My small section meeting felt good. I connected with all of those colleagues and everyone got a chance to talk. In our faculty meeting, which had over 25 participants, I just listened and didn’t contribute to the conversation at all. It also felt difficult to manage (background noise, the mute button, etc.) and did not give me the feeling that I was genuinely connecting with those colleagues.

The best meeting of the week was the Thursday night parent social that I set up. Though most parents said they didn’t really feel the need to meet and were doing just fine, when we got into the meeting, I could tell that they really craved companionship. It was actually quite sweet to see so many moms and dads, sitting side by side on the couch with glasses of wine in their hands. They’d had a hard week and deserved that relaxing social night. It was so much fun, we decided to make it a regular weekly event.

So, with all of these experiences in mind, I’ve been contemplating the role that Zoom will play in my instruction. In the end, it feels problematic.

1. With a large class, the only way to make sure instruction is effective is to limit participation. This means managing students with the mute button, which doesn’t feel great to me. Also, if you take away the participation aspect, you’re removing the primary benefit of Zoom. I might as well just record video.
2. Quite a few of my students are shy about using the phone — let alone this video platform. I know that those students would not access lessons delivered in this way.
3. Some families are very careful about screen exposure — even in this social context. I know that there are some families who would not access it for this reason.
4. Zoom is distracting. When you’re on a Zoom call, you spend a good amount of time looking at yourself. I think the self-awareness that this activity brings is not age-appropriate for 3rd graders. They would also be so distracted by looking at themselves (or each other) that they would have trouble paying attention to the content of the lesson.

As of right now, I don’t imagine Zoom being a regular part of how I will deliver content to my students. I’m pondering having a brief Zoom social time with them, but I need to give it more thought before deciding.

A couple of notes:

1. AWSNA (the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America) has been hosting Zoom calls for teachers, parents and administrators who are figuring all of this out. I attended a call dedicated to grades 1-3 and none of the attendees were planning on using Zoom for instruction. It felt good to know that I wasn’t alone in my apprehension.
2. I am feeling this way because of observation and intuition about how my students will learn best. I am not avoiding Zoom because of a dogmatic belief that all screen-time is bad. If I believed that my students would learn best with regular Zoom content, I would be on it in a heartbeat. As with all of my teaching decisions, my students’ learning is at the center. This is not about some “thou shalt not consume media” belief.

What Can I Share?

I have been hearing the call, loud and clear, to share with you some of the material I’m putting together. Unfortunately, as you might be able to tell from my description above, most of what I’m creating is highly specific to my students. So I can’t simply send it out to others.

But, I do have lots of curriculum guides on my website. I encourage you to take a look through the offerings and see what might work. You might consider adjusting your block rotation so your students can take advantage of the home environment.

• Astronomy — Stay up late and observe the stars.
• Botany — Plant a garden (thank goodness it’s spring!)
• Geography — Create an itinerary for a trip to South America (next summer). Write letters to tourism departments in other states. Take a culinary tour of Asia.

Spring is a good time for those outward-facing blocks, and though your students can’t actually go anywhere, there’s plenty they can do around home.

When we return from the break, we’ll be heading into our Farming block. We’ll study the grains, do some cooking and hopefully some growing too.

And it’s true, I do not have any 3rd grade materials on my site. My rhythm is that at the end of the school year I sit down with my lesson books and re-digest the content and generalize it so it is accessible to a wider audience.

But, I’m going to do my best to put our last block — Fibers — together in a curriculum guide for you. I know that many 3rd grade teachers study fibers after spring break, and I think it is a good block for home learning, so it works out nicely that we happened to go through it before spring break. I’ll try to put all of it together asap.

Other than the actual content, my strongest recommendation is to develop a very familiar and comfortable routine. At this point in the school year, my students are at ease with our weekly and daily rhythms. They know that on Tuesday it’s likely that they are going to write a composition and that every day they are going to have a dictation. I have never been more grateful to have such a regular rhythm (I can thank my phlegmatic temperament for that one!)

Questions I Have

There is so much left to figure out about this situation. We’re being told to prepare for distance learning through the end of the school year. If this ends up being the case, there are some pretty big problems we’ll need to solve.

Accountability and Assessment

So far, all of the messages I’ve been sending parents about my lessons have been about taking it easy. I suggest that they find a good routine, but also to not stress out over it. If their child is balking about doing home lessons, let things go. Read a little, draw a little, get outside and enjoy each other. Some families appreciate clearly formed lessons with steps that their children check off as they go, but others find that stressful.

And I totally get it. In many ways, this whole situation is an opportunity to slow down and enjoy the lives that we’ve created. But, if this is going to go on until June, I feel nervous about my students not participating at all in the lessons. What is the right balance of supporting parents who never signed up to be their child’s teacher, but still making sure that skills progress?

And when the end of the school year comes around, how do I assess my students’ skill levels and write end of year reports?

Accessibility

Though all of my families are signed up for Google Classroom, they do not all have the resources to devote to completing the lessons. Many of them appreciate Waldorf’s low-tech approach and they just don’t engage much with the digital world themselves. Others are single parents or continuing to work or have older children who require more of their attention. There are a wide array of reasons why some of my students would not be able to access my lessons.

How do I support those kids? Especially the ones who were getting one-on-one support to make big strides in the home stretch of 3rd grade?

Continued Enrollment and Financial Hardship

My class is an amazingly strong community. I know that my families rely on the students and parents that have come together in this group. Parents, students and siblings are friends, companions and confidantes. Many of my families consider our school their primary social network.

For this reason, I know it would be a dire set of circumstances that would cause any of them to consider leaving the school. But, unfortunately, I have no doubt that those dire circumstances are bound to come to pass.

I’m grateful that our school is strong and we are committed to making sure that families who are experiencing hardship can continue to attend our school. I am determined that every child who left my classroom on March 13, returns, even if it’s not until September 2.

(I know that there are many causes out there worthy of our support right now, but I can’t resist inserting a link, in case anyone wants to support families who are facing hardship but wish to remain at our school.)

How are you faring through these uncertain days? After spending a few days laying low, and feeling even lower, I’ve remembered that the antidote to despair is action. I’m determined to spring into action to help however I can.

How can I help you? Reach out and let me know.

The post Remote Learning, Waldorf-Style appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

Wednesday, March 11

We received word that the topic of our weekly faculty meeting would be changing. Instead of our usual study, we would be holding a training session on how to use Zoom.

We had all been crossing our fingers that we could remain open through March 20 — the beginning of our spring break — but this was the first indication that this wasn’t likely. My class was scheduled to perform our class play on March 19 — in the evening for parents only, because assemblies and larger school gatherings had already been canceled. I started thinking about how we could possibly perform, at least twice (oh why had I double-cast?) on Friday.

Thursday, March 12

I met briefly with parents after school to pull together costumes for the play and then went to our faculty meeting where I learned that Friday would be our last day. We would close and provide distance learning options the week before spring break, have our break as planned, and then continue with distance learning the week after the break.

We had a Zoom training session and then teachers got frantically busy putting together packets. The copy machines were working overtime!

I decided to devote main lesson to performing our play twice, back-to-back, for any parents who could attend. I heard that the school communication would not be going out until later in the evening, so I sent out a somewhat cryptic invitation to attend our “unexpected opportunity” to perform our play during main lesson — “I hope you’ll make every effort to attend.” After just a couple of questioning emails, the school communication went out.

I stayed at school until 8pm putting together a packet to send home on Friday. I sent another email inviting parents to come to pick-up early so I could go through the packet and give some “home lessons” instructions.

All of the teachers at my school, including the subject teachers, scrambled to put together home learning packets and materials for students. It was an inspiration to behold.

Friday, March 13

We started our day as usual and at 8:30 we started costuming students so we could perform. At 9am we walked into the performance space, singing a beautiful Hebrew song called Hine Ma Tov, and greeted our small audience of parents and teachers. The students did a beautiful job and as soon as it was over, the lead parts quickly switched and we began again.

We performed the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and I was moved to tears as I contemplated the strength and unity that the Hebrew people gained as a result of that hardship. It was quite a lesson for us all that morning.

Once the performance was over, our school day continued as usual, including a big wool dyeing project that we’d had planned for the afternoon. It was a whirlwind of activity!

Then, at 2:45, the parents came into the classroom and I started going through the “home lesson” packet I had put together. I am telling you, it was something to have our entire class community in that room. The children were overflowing with enthusiasm for their home lessons and the parents were busy taking notes. I gave them a parent packet with a suggested daily rhythm and the answers to the math problems.

After the introduction there was a flurry of activity as parents and children gathered supplies, put them in their school bag, cleaned out their cubbies and said goodbye. There were tears and hugs (yes, we hugged) and an enormous amount of appreciation — for me and each other.

To say I feel privileged to be a part of this community doesn’t even begin to explain the depth of my gratitude. These people bring out my best and it is through these children that I make my mark on the world. What a gift! And it is moments like this that bring that realization so clearly.

What now?

Since Wednesday, every night I’ve been waking up at 3am, unable to fall back to sleep.

My mind has been reeling with thoughts about my family — my brother-in-law still away from home on a work trip, my daughter still at college two hours away, my youngest who is crossing his fingers that he’ll be able to take IB exams and have a high school graduation ceremony.

I’ve been thinking about the people I know who are in the at-risk population and hoping that this “social distancing” will help protect them.

But mostly, if I’m honest, I’ve been waking up thinking about my lessons. I know it’s crazy to be so preoccupied with my lessons when there is so much going on, but this virus has turned my everyday teaching life upside down. Now that I’m learning new methods of delivery and supporting parents with providing their children with some semblance of a normal routine, I feel like a brand new teacher again.

Back in my brand-new-teacher days, everyday life was constantly interrupted with thoughts and inspirations about my students and their lessons. Sometimes it felt like a burden, to constantly have thoughts of my classroom and students on the forefront of my mind (like at 3am!). But mostly it was lovely. Blessed inspiration seemed to be everywhere I turned.

These “social distancing” COVID-19 days feel similar in many ways. I’m home, with my dog (who can’t figure out why I haven’t left yet) and once again, inspiration is everywhere. The ideas are flowing and I’m excited to act on them!

• I could set up Google Classroom!
• Maybe I could record myself telling the story and send it to the parents.
• Will the students be able to write the composition for today without my help?
• How can I check in on their reading progress? Maybe we could schedule phone calls?
• Are there enough remaining main lesson pages in the books I sent home?
• Should I change my block rotation so that the parents have something simpler to teach after spring break?

I’ve also been receiving the loveliest texts and photos from appreciative parents who are doing amazing things with their kids.

I’m so grateful to the parents who are continuing this work and sending me these little glimpses of success.

But I’m also thinking about the families I haven’t heard from. The single moms who are figuring it out on their own. The parents who are still working — bringing kids to work with them, hoping they’ll entertain themselves quietly — to say nothing of completing a composition. I wish I could have those kids over to my house and have our own little lesson at my dining room table. Somehow the abstract conversations our school has been having about diversity, equity and inclusion feel all too real. What are the moral implications of delivering lessons that only some of my students can access?

Teacher Collaboration

At the same time that my thoughts are so much on my students, their parents and their work, I’m also thinking about all of the other teachers out there who are figuring this out.

My colleagues and I had a lower grades section meeting via Zoom and we all talked about our various comfort levels with using technology to teach our students at this unprecedented time. It’s so inspiring that we’re all feeling so open to finding new tools for teaching. But the learning curve is steep!

I’ve also been hearing from so many teachers and parents who read this blog.

• Parents have offered to pay me to provide them with daily lesson plans or practice packets.
• Teachers are asking for suggestions on what to send their students.
• Many teachers and parents are purchasing my curriculum guides. Though they’re not “open and go” for students, they give a good amount of guidance. (I’m also offering a 50% discount through the end of March with the coupon code HOMELESSONS.)

It’s truly remarkable how collaborative this effort feels, even though we’re all safely “social distancing” from each other.

If you’re a teacher or parent looking for help and insight on how to provide your students with worthwhile experiences during this time, reach out! If you haven’t joined the [Facebook group], now is the time. There are a lot of ideas being shared there and it will help you connect with others in the same boat.

I’m here for you and would love to hear your ideas about how I can help. Just email me at meredith@awaldorfjourney.com.

What is your COVID-19 story? Share in the comments.

The post Our COVID-19 Story, so far appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

How much screen time is okay?

What about educational shows?

Is it really that bad?

Will the Waldorf police come after me?

Making decisions about media use for your children is one of the most charged issues in Waldorf Education. There are so many shoulds that parents can feel completely unsupported in their decisions. That’s what this episode is all about.

This episode is being brought to you by my new course The Practical Art of the Waldorf Classroom. My Summer Productivity Course is winding down and I’m getting ready to lead a new group through a whole new set of topics all about the tasks Waldorf teachers need to think about while they’re in the classroom. Topics for my Practical Art course include:

• Rhythms and Routines
• Classroom Management, part 1 — engagement
• Classroom Management, part 2 — discipline
• Imagination in the Classroom
• Working with Parents
• Working with Students

You can also sign up for my free classroom management workshop, which goes live September 10. Just put y0ur email address below and you’ll be on the notification list.

Resources in this Episode

• Ben Klocek’s Website
• AWJ 12 | Managing Media and Screentime

The post AWJ 46 | Screen Time Reality Check: How to Make the Right Decision for Your Family appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

Just as I was putting together my thoughts for this episode, an article from The Waldorf School of Philadelphia came across my facebook feed. There are also a few other resources that you might find useful in figuring out how to get through the summer. 

Article from Waldorf School of Philadelphia

Whole Family Rhythms article

This episode is being brought to you by my ebook The Waldorf Home. If you’re interested in reading ideas, suggestions and tips for making your home more aligned with your children’s Waldorf Education, check out my book at www.thewaldorfhome.com.

Also, if you’re a homeschooling parent or a teacher, check out my curriculum guides at www.awaldorfjourney.com/shop. There you can find my first grade bundle where I go through how to introduce the consonants and vowels through the fairy tales. It’s one of my most popular guides, so I hope you’ll support the podcast and check it out.

Or consider sponsoring the podcast through Patreon.

My main tips:

• Rhythm
• Get outside
• Structure
• Freedom
• Working
• Compromise

The post AWJ 42 | How to Be a Waldorf Parent in the Summer appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

You try to keep your children sweet and avoid materialism, but the grandparents are asking for Christmas lists.

Usually your family sticks to a consistent rhythm with plenty of time for sleep, regular meals and lots of outside time, but visiting relatives, family gatherings and cold winter days turn everything upside-down.

You want to instill in your children a sense of reverence and wonder for this time of year when the spiritual world feels so close, but the images they experience are silly characters like Rudolf, Frosty and the Grinch.

Holding true to a vision of what the holidays can mean for your children is a challenging task, indeed. What is a thoughtful, conscious parent to do?

After years of parenting my own children through this season, and watching my class parents struggle to maintain a conscientious and values-driven approach to the holidays, I’ve learned a few things.

Rhythm is important.

We all know what can happen to our children when everything goes off the rails. Even visiting relatives and devoted grandparents don’t want to spend the evening with a tired and hungry toddler. Do your best to keep the big three — bedtimes, mealtimes and outside time — consistent. Your child (and the rest of the family) will be happier with the usual healthy dose of each. Even when everything else is topsy-turvy, good sleep, nourishing food and fresh air are battles worth fighting. Step up and insist on the afternoon nap. Get up early and feed your child breakfast before the kitchen gets busy. Children just don’t get brunch. Grab the coats, open the front door and get your child outside. Don’t be surprised if all of the cousins join in the fun.

Looking for a good parenting book to help with establishing rhythm and other simple parenting strategies? My favorite is Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne.

Choose your battles.

Consider carefully the aspects of your child’s day that contribute most to general health and well-being and choose your battles accordingly. For most, it’s the top three mentioned above. Everything else is extra. Case in point. . . 

Does this scenario sound familiar? You and your family arrive at Grandma’s house and all of the adults are in the kitchen chatting and cooking. You peek into the living room and find all of the cousins sitting in front of the TV watching Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer claymation. What do you do?

Now, I’m in full support of pulling the playdough or beeswax out of your purse and tempting the kids away from the screen with a fun craft project. But YOU might want to actually visit with your out-of-state sister. And the kids might actually want to snuggle up next to the cousins. Do you find yourself resentfully attempting to switch things up?

Settle in. Tolerate the inconvenience. Enjoy your family. Choose a different battle. Or at least a different moment.

You can’t make or break a childhood with one claymation video. 

Creating a joyful, nourishing childhood is what we all strive for. My ebook A Waldorf Home is full of inspiring ideas for crafting the Waldorf childhood of our dreams.

Keep your eye on the big lessons.

Don’t let your strict Waldorf values get in the way of truly recognizing the meaning behind the season. Let me tell you what I mean.

When my oldest son was six-years-old, I was just starting my career as a Waldorf teacher. I was full of idealism and I had a fierce a determination to hold true to the new set of values I had learned about in my training.

I recognized the value of rhythm. I thought carefully about my children’s daily experiences. I prioritized outside play and plenty of sleep. I eliminated screen-time from my children’s daily experiences. And because I was on my way to becoming a teacher, I plagued myself with a question that is asked far-too often in Waldorf circles — “Am I Waldorf enough?” The pressure was real!

Want to know more about creating a Waldorf home? Put your email here.

You can imagine my horror, then, when my son came home from a holiday celebration with his father and grandparents with a collection of toys from the film Toy Story. He received not only Buzz Lightyear himself, but also Buzz Lightyear’s arch-enemy, the robot-alien Zurg, delightfully designed as a motion-activated, moving, talking piggy bank. Calvin ran into the house with pure delight on his face. “Look what Grandma and Grandpa gave me!”

I confess that for a moment I shuddered at the idea that this robotic voice would greet me anytime I walked into my son’s room. Though I had not taken Calvin to see Toy Story myself, Disney blockbusters were a regular part of his experience on Dad-weekends. I had already reconciled myself with the fact that this media exposure allowed him to connect with his dad, and I couldn’t begrudge the fact that he had a loving, actively-involved non-custodial father.

But still, ZURG!? Even if I tried, I could not come up with a toy MORE out of line with my Waldorf ideals than this mechanized, robotic, noisy, motion-activated device designed to encourage my son to save his pennies and become even MORE materialistic! I swear, it was Ahriman incarnate!

Thankfully, hard as it was in the moment, I had the presence of mind to set aside my “Waldorf-enough” concerns and consider the situation through my son’s joyful eyes. Those eyes were filled with love for the givers of this gift, his grandparents. He had a genuine expression of gratitude and I am so GLAD this is what guided my response.

What kind of message would it have sent if I had quietly tucked Zurg into the closet and dodged my son’s questions about where it had gone? He was young enough that it could have easily disappeared, forgotten after a few days.

What good would have been accomplished if I had quietly fumed that the grandparents completely ignored the Christmas list of silks, wooden figures and dress-up clothes that I had carefully curated for my beloved 6-year-old?

Though either of these responses could have been acceptable, and would certainly have been “more Waldorf”, as you might guess, that’s not how the situation unfolded.

No, Zurg took the front-and-center position on my son’s dresser and for weeks (months?) he somewhat-violently greeted me whenever I entered the room. And though I definitely bristled, I’m quite confident that my son gratefully thought of his grandparents every time he put a penny in the bank. 

Don’t let your Waldorf ideals get in the way of recognizing and appreciating the true gifts of the season. Let aunts, uncles and grandparents give from their hearts. Share favorite holiday traditions with your children, even if they include sugar cookies, late night Christmas light tours and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Don’t forget that CONNECTION is what we’re all here for. 

p.s. You don’t have to replace the batteries.

The post Waldorf Real Talk: Parenting Lessons I Learned from Buzz Lightyear appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

1. Make it at home. The lunch you send along with your child each day should come from your kitchen. A can of soup warmed on your stove and packed in a thermos counts. A burrito or sandwich from the grocery store deli doesn’t (even if that store is Whole Foods.) The best option? Leftover dinner packed in a thermos.
2. The less packaging, the better. I know those pre-packaged foods are easier to pack, but all of that waste builds up. We recycle when we can, but (at least at my school) recycling and compost options are limited, so I encourage kids to take home their trash and recycling.
3. Make sure your kids can open their containers. This is a big one, folks. It’s not easy to get around a class of 20+ kids and open all of those thermoses!
4. Not all granola bars are created equal. Dipped in chocolate, chocolate chips, chewy, caramel — just stop. How about you throw together some oats, peanut butter and honey and make your own? Fruit snacks are in the same category. Fruit — yes. Fruit snacks — no.
5. Don’t repack. If your child didn’t touch the carrots on Monday, you can guarantee they won’t be gobbled up when they make a repeat performance on Tuesday. I know it’s not fun to unpack untouched lunches. I’m sorry.
6. Involve your child as early as possible. 1st and 2nd graders can empty their lunches at the end of the day and put the containers in the dishwasher. 3rd and 4th graders can help pack (I usually did the main course, the kids did the snacks.) 5th grade and up can (and should) pack their own.
7. If your older child is continually forgetting to pack or just deciding not to, don’t allow it to go on. You don’t need to take back the job, but build incentives, double-check on your way out the door and make sure the cupboard is stocked with acceptable lunch options.
8. Don’t pack sweets. Fruit is fine. Oreos are not. Candy often finds its way into lunches just after Halloween, so please keep the stash under your control. Check with your own teacher to be sure, but I don’t mind the occasional (once/week at most) homemade treat in the upper grades. One of my students used to bring a little jar of homemade tapioca pudding every Friday — perfect.
9. You know this, but yes, protein is important. It may not be the filler food that is going to take up space in the lunch and make it feel filled out, but it is the thing your teacher will require your child to eat first. Make it count.
10. Don’t forget to pack the fork or spoon. I used to keep some extras on hand but forks and spoons in a classroom are like socks in the dryer. No one knows how it happens, but they just disappear.

Here are some of my favorite lunch-packing life-savers. (These are affiliate links. If you click and shop a little bit gets sent my way. Thanks for the support!)

This is the Zojirushi Mr. Bento lunch kit. It’s not cheap, but we bought ours 3 years ago and it’s still going strong. The best thing about it is that the four containers gave some form to our lunch-packing. There’s a bottom water-tight container that is great for soup, curry or stir-fry meat and veggies. Next is a large insulated container for rice or pasta (or on non-leftover days, a sandwich). Then two more containers for fruit, pretzels, nuts or granola. I can’t recommend this lunch kit enough.

We used this 3-Tier Metal Tiffin for years before getting the Zojirushi. It doesn’t provide insulation, but I do like that it is more compact than the Zojirushi and it provides the same kind of lunch-packing structure. A few of my students use lunches like this and they’re great for reducing waste. An added bonus — they’re super easy for little ones to open! If you regularly pack soup, you’ll have to come up with an alternative solution, but this is great for non-soup days.

Another great option are glass leftover containers. When you and the kids are cleaning the kitchen after dinner, just divvy up the leftovers into these containers and they’ll be ready to go in the morning. These containers are great because the big plastic tabs are easy for kids to lock and unlock. (Pro tip: On burrito night, have the kids make themselves an extra burrito before you put everything away. Wrap it up in foil and lunch is half-packed!)

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the whole reusable snack bag thing until an anonymous student left one in my classroom and it became a part of my lunch-packing collection. (This is one of the perks of my job — I own a diverse array of unclaimed lunch containers and water bottles.) I started using that reusable bag and found that it washed up more easily than I expected. It’s been in regular use ever since.

What are your best tips for packing lunches? Are you a teacher with some words of wisdom you wish your class parents knew? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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