School Box

[weluvgators]

I am getting ready to prepare my kids' boxes for the school year. I am using 18x11x7 Sterilite containers. I plan to pack the following into the box (my kids are going into Kindergarten and 1st grade for reference):

-a change of clothes

-disposable plates

-disposable bowls

-disposable napkins

-disposable forks and spoons (Zoopals have been a big hit for us)

-placemat (my kids always use placemats when eating at school)

As for the snacks, these are my thoughts (I rotate and restock throughout the year):

-Chocolate chips by Tropical Source (worked very well last year)

-Dum dum lollipops, Swedish Fish and Sourpatch Kids (this would be a new addition, as last year I did not include any candy - we are still discussing this)

-Santa Cruz applesauce cups

-Pacific Foods chocolate/vanilla almond milk singles

-Juice boxes (apple/grape/lemonade/orange)

-Fruit leathers (cannot remember brand off top of my head) . . . my kids are saying they want safe gummi worms LOL

-Microwave popcorn - this is an awesome sharing snack that our teacher really seemed to appreciate so this is a constant separate supply

-Dried cherries

oh, yeah - we need art project stuff . . .

hhmmm - dried fruit worked well last year - raisins (DD wants to use the cherries instead), dried cherries (these were a really big hit for *everyone*), almonds

ACK - need safe, dried pasta too! I may throw dried beans in there as well. ugh - I hope they don't do the Applejacks project again this year - any ideas for a good substitute for the class - that project is early in the year - letter A! We also struggled with the "Friendship Snack". That was really sad, but I am not sure how to work with that one, but it is later in the year.

Oh, and the gluten free playdoh and tools will also be provided by us for the classrooms, but they will be in a separate container.

Last year we also provided a dedicated gluten free cutting board and knife so that fresh fruits and vegetables could be safely prepared (we provided them at times for the classroom snack). We plan to do the same this year, and I hope the cutting board and knife also fit into our box.

I would love to hear specifics from others preparing their gluten free children for school! I am trying to get everything together now, and it would be really nice to see what everyone else does to get more ideas.

My daughter shared that she was not able to easily access her container because stuff would get stacked on top of it. Not ideal, but I haven't come up with a better storage place in the classroom.

Hhhhmm . . . should I get motivated and make a batch of cupcakes for the freezer at school? Would anyone that keeps "cake" stuff at the school please share with me how that works? How and where do you store it at school? Thanks so much!

[andrea2]

WOW! That's a lot of stuff I haven't thought of!

You made a comment on my post today and I just want to say thank you! My son will be starting school next week and am not prepared at all for all of this. As I said before I just found out he tested positive for Celiac but haven't seen the GI doctor for him yet. He will start on August 9th and I am totally lost about what I need to do. My daughter who is 2 has results much higher and really needs to worry about cross contamination but I don't know if I need to worry about that for my son yet. Do you talk to the school ahead of time every year? Have the teacher's and staff been helpful with everything? Where do you find special playdough? Do you make it?

I feel so lost right now. I am not ready for any of this. I thought I had awhile because I only thought my daughter had it and we have more time before she goes to school!!

Thanks for the ideas of what to take for school. I guess I'll add those to my school supply list.

[StephanieL]

I am sure you already have checked this out, but are you sure there are no kids with nut allergies in the kids classes?

[weluvgators]

I am sure you already have checked this out, but are you sure there are no kids with nut allergies in the kids classes?

No one in the class last year had nut allergies, and we also confirmed that everyone was doing well with corn. I haven't heard of any other food allergies in the new kindergarten class either, and about half of them were in the pre-k with no allergies.

I think they make rice milk singles if that were a problem for anyone. I wish I could figure out how to make and store our own "milks"!

[StephanieL]

Not sure if you have any interest in this. I have never tried it myself but have a bunch of friends who have.

Open Original Shared Link

[weluvgators]

Thanks for that link. We have successfully made some really awesome milks - primarily hemp, almond, hazelnut, cashew and pecan. But I cannot figure out a way to make it in bulk and store. It seems to have a shelf life of not quite a week for the ones that were not drunk immediately. I have considered a canning method, but don't know if that would work well - has anyone tried that? I also haven't come up with a great container for on the go. We have water bottles, but they are heavier and don't have the same storage/preservative qualities of the boxes. Any ideas?

Andrea, I did talk with my second child's instructors the spring before she entered school, and the school nurse was present for that meeting. I didn't meet with my older child's teacher specifically because we were not sure if she would have any issues or not. We did review our general policy and procedures when we visited her teacher and classroom in the spring, including a review of cleaning procedures with the janitor. We had our pediatrician complete all of the necessary paperwork for our schools so that our children were allowed to always have access to their food and water from home when appropriate. We bought the gluten free dough from Discount School Supply online. Please don't feel too much pressure. You have time to figure this out, and a lot of it is trial and error to some extent. Learn as much as you can from resources like this forum, and apply it as it makes sense in your situation. We had been gluten free for three years already when I started meeting with the school, so we had already established the protocols that were working well for our situation. And for our oldest we simply had NO IDEA the extent of her sensitivity, so it was impossible for us to have been completely prepared for how the school year unfolded. We were lucky and had an awesome school principal to work with, although my daughter still suffered for most of the year - long story. And now we have a new principal to work with, so it is hard to know how it will go.

Good luck! I hope you have an awesome school year, but please let us know if you need support. I know how trying working out the logistics can be at times. I was definitely very frustrated at times last year, and I expect we will have some frustrations this year as well. The school is incredibly limited in being able to accommodate our needs.

[andrea2]

Thank you for the info. I signed up my son for school yesterday and talked to the nurse at length about what he can have and cannot. They also gave me paperwork to take to our GI doctor next week. I think we will figure it out, it will just take time I guess to find out what we need to do for him. I appreciate all your help. It is nice to know of other people going through the same issues because sometimes I feel like I'm the only one around here with children with Celiac.