Nut-free, gluten-free, homemade-free? Options for School Parties

The e-mail request on the surface seemed simple enough. The room mother still needed treats for the goodie bag for the class Halloween party.

And then I got to the end of the message.

Also, please make sure none of the treats include peanuts (SEVERE peanut allergy) and 2 kids are gluten free!

Wow. That moment gave me pause. Because while I've learned to adjust to my child's friends' food allergies in real life (play dates, parties, etc.), I had no idea what to do in a classroom setting. And it was even made worse by a school rule that said no homemade treats.

At one of our local stores, I scoured product after product for ideas that might satisfy both requirements. I learned quickly that there is no labeling standard for nut-free or gluten-free products. I even asked a store employee, who asked two other employees for ideas. They just looked at me sadly.

If you're in the position of searching for last-minute party bag treats as I was, here are some ideas to get you started:

• Gluten-free candies: A list of many gluten-free and gluten-friendly candies. So apparently not all candy is off the list.
• Non-food items: Personally, I'm opposed to spider rings, stickers, plastic toys and any other item that can clutter up my home. But think about pencils, glow sticks for trick or treating, Play Dough or other ideas.
• Carmel apples
• Mandarin orange fruit cups decorated with a jack-o-lantern face on the top.
• Rice Krispy Treats
• Popcorn balls
• Clementines decorated as a jack-o-lantern
• Grape "Eyeballs"

Have other ideas for gluten-free, nut-free celebrations? Please share them below!

Removing letters from a shirt - Easy way to revive old school spirit shirts

Not long ago we attended our church's annual children's clothing sale, and my daughter found a volleyball sweatshirt for the school's team that was to die for. She begged for it.

It was cute, I admit.

And 50 cents. I couldn't argue much. So I said yes.

And then I got home and realized. The sweatshirt was personalized.

Luckily it had vinyl lettering, which is typically heat transferred, so I wondered if the vinyl letters could be removed with heat too.

I went basic-basic and started with my hair dryer, heating the letters on high.

And it worked...After I heated the letters, I was able to peal the letters off the shirt! Now we have a low-budget way for my daughter to wear a team sweatshirt this winter.

How apps are saving me on back to school shopping

School supply shopping: You'd think that after five years of this, I'd be a pro. But every year is a struggle. What did I forget on the school supply list? Where did I put the school supply list? What did I buy extra of? Did I get two packs of markers or not?

Each summer I found myself scouring and rescouring bags of supplies just to make sure whether I actually did pick up a certain school supply.

This year will be different.

As soon as the school posted the school supply list for the upcoming school year, I created a ZipList (free app) shopping list of all the kids' school supplies needed for the coming year. There, I'm able to check off items as I go without having to question myself later.

I've also been using Target's Cartwheel and iBotta to save money on routine shopping, and the back-to-school sales are popping up there too.

What tips do you have for saving money or sanity during school supply shopping?

Upcycled desk system for kids

My daughter has struggled her entire life with organization. She gets it honestly, as my coworkers who have seen my desk can attest.

We have tried everything to help her. Planners. The Brownie organization badge. You name it.

Our latest project came courtesy of the school pizza fundraiser. No, it wasn't a prize for selling, either.

You see, each year, we're stuck with the question of what to do with the boxes leftover from the pizzas we buy for our house. And then I got inspired by Pinterest. Somewhere, along the way, we'd seen a project about project drying racks out of pizza boxes. Granted, the post has long since left me, but the idea stayed pinned in my brain.

So this year, I took a stack of pizza boxes left over from storing them in my freezer (I don't put the boxes themselves in due to space.)

I folded in one side and stacked them, then went nuts taping row after row of peace sign, heart and flower duct tape I'd bought at the school supply clearance.

Ten minutes of effort and a few dollars' worth of duct tape later, and my daughter was blessed with a surprise on her desk: A new organizer for all of her random papers.

Now she has plenty of space for her looseleaf notebook paper, her construction paper, and her various works of art in progress!

The best part was SHE was inspired to do something as well. She took a McDonalds Happy Meal Halloween bucket that was otherwise destined for the Goodwill bin and redecorated it with Monster High duct tape for a storage bucket for her rolls of duct tape. She even took a toilet paper roll and made her own pencil holder.

What ways have you creatively reused or upcycled items to organize your home?

Starting the School Year

In one hour my baby is officially a kindergartener. And I have to say I think I'm ready.

My sandwich bread for school lunches was baked the other night. We scoured our home for errant scissors and other school supplies that could be reused instead of re-purchased. I stocked up at the used uniform sale (of course, little boys pants are nowhere to be found...) We made sure our Cars towel was washed and ready for naptime and the old drippy personalized mug was cleaned up and ready for a school snacktime holder.

Sure, I didn't stock up on greener school supplies (this year our budget is tight) but I made use of what we had on hand, which I admit counts for a thing or two.

With two kids starting this year, it doesn't feel quite as smooth as years past, but I think I'm ready.

Now if I can just get them out the door in time...

Excavating the Apple Mummy

Making mummies is not one of my usual fall activities for fun, but it made quite the splash for my family earlier this year.

Although my daughter's class learned about Egyptian mummies in mid-winter, I thought it was appropriate to share as Halloween approaches. It's a simple science project that's easy enough for curious kindergarteners and first-graders. My 4 year old even enjoyed the daily excavation of the mummy for his sister's homework:

How to make your "mummy:"

Slice one apple in half, and place in a bowl, covering it in salt (1-2 lbs.). You can check the apple daily to see its progress toward "mummification" as the water is drawn from the fruit. Here's how it checked out after a week:

Green and healthy lunch box ideas

Packing a healthy school lunch is tough enough, but when everything seems to be out of season, it feels far more challenging to pull together something fresh and healthy.

Still, you're not reduced to serving "fruit" snacks or bleached baby carrots as your only options. Here are some fast solutions for fixing school lunches that are as easy to pack as to manage at school.

Main dishes
The main event doesn't have to be a boring peanut butter on plain bread sandwich. With a little flexibility you can easily shake up your "sandwich" into something more creative.

• Choose homemade breads, flat breads or crackers.


• Even serve almond butter on banana or applesauce bread for something different.


• Go 'round by creating wraps.


• Slice cooked chicken or cheeses into strips.


• Serve chicken or ham chunks, cheese and small veggie chunks as as "kabobs" on toothpicks.


• Don't forget your thermos. Just a few hot meals packed in a thermos, and you'll come out ahead of hot lunches. My daughter has enjoyed spaghetti made with homemade - and homegrown - pasta sauce, and lo mein and other dishes are easily packed for a fun menu choice.

Winter veggies and fruits
It takes mere minutes to slice carrots into coin shapes or sticks, yet it's a far better alternative than bleached baby carrots. And if you can get some locally grown carrots - yes, even in January - you're in for a better treat!

If you have a salad lover, grab some winter lettuces; just pack your salad separate from the dressing, or your child could have a soggy mess by mealtime.

For an easy dip, drop the bottled ranch dressing and substitute dressing mix mixed with plain Greek yogurt.

And dont forget your seasonal fruits, which are suprisingly hardy (good for those of us whose children routinely whip those lunchboxes around!). Think apples, oranges, tangerines, tangelos, and pears. You could even add some homemade honey-yogurt dip for a fun option. Dried fruits tossed with nuts help meet that sweet tooth too.

What other options do you like for an easy - and healthy - school lunch alternative?

This post is part of the Healthy Child Network carnival on green and healthy lunch ideas.

Calla math game - and it's compostable!

Wanting to help my daughter's confidence and math skills, we made the decision she could join her school's math club again this year.


The kids do bimonthly meetings where they practice math and strategy games in preparation for the city's annual Math Pentathlon. Last year, she participated for part of a year, only after begging. A lot. (And then more begging on the part of mom to let her join so late!)


I'm fortunate that my school supports these costs 100 percent, as I learned quickly during the parent orientation session that the games can be costly. (Not more costly individually than the average board game, but an expense I was still unprepared for.)


Instead, I found an option that worked in our home, one that didn't cost me anything but a few minute's of time and some unused supplies in our home. The deceptively simple Calla game is a great strategy game and quietly teaches the kids basic math skills as well. My daughter has become more and more interested in it, though the small piece sizes are an occupational hazzard in our little house. (Our Yahtzee pieces lasted all of a month before being scattered about!)

Our solution? A makeshift board game for her to practice the concepts. Our first attempt was a fully compostable one - made from a long-leftover paper bag and dried chickpeas that have admittedly been in our pantry far too long.


Unfortunately, it didn't lie as flat as we'd like, so we created a more permanent solution using the bottom of a reusable bag (which never seem to stay with the reusable bags!).



We now have the flexibility to play whenever we want, and any misplaced pieces can easily be replaced with a few dried chickpeas. Is it as nice as the original game? No, but it works for us.

What simple solutions have you come up with to replace a child's "want"?

Sew what? Stuffy and the Sandwich Bags

Last weekend I was excited to have scored both a "grown-up" and a kids book on sewing at our local library's Friends sale. To which my very own mother retorted, "Will your daughter learn to sew first or will you?"

First off, I can sew. And my sewing machine? It's been lovingly packed in its box since I got it...11 Christmases ago. (Of course, I was in graduate school and working full-time, then in the middle of a move, then became a parent...blah blah blah.)

Last year, I decided my first dive into actually using it as a sewing machine instead of a potential first step for my son in his closet would be making reusable sandwich bags for school lunches. I had the chance to review a few last fall, and realized that they are fairly simple contraptions...if you have the time to make them!

So with the best of intentions, I picked up nylon scraps and velcro at a fabric store...last fall. Summer passed, and I realized that I really could use a few more sandwich or snack bags, but was hesitant to pay for more cloth wraps (or for their plastic counterparts).

So this weekend, armed with $4 worth of materials, the fabric from my beloved pink wrinkle-free Coldwater Creek shirt that ripped after four years, and a hovering six year old, I went to work. Without a pattern. Or reading the instructions for the sewing machine!

My daughter, to her credit, made felt finger puppets patterned (loosely) after those in her kids sewing projects book. And that's when I learned a few things:

1. My daughter doesn't like directions any more than I do.
2. Imperfect is OK too.

For a few hours' of work, four dollars and minimal swearing, we wound up with two sandwich bags, two snack-size bags (great for crackers or the dried mango she loves), and Stuffy and Floofy (her names) finger puppets.

For two girls who don't listen, I don't think we did bad work! And, thankfully, I have up to another year to convert my other ripped wrinkle-free shirt into blue baggies for full-day pre-K. (Oh, and mom, I guess you could say it's a tie. And I could use a few more Coldwater Creek wrinkle-free shirts for my birthday.)

Putting plastic out of schools

"Plastic is good," my daughter announced to me one afternoon on the way home. I think my eyes bugged out of my head.

What I didn't realize until we talked further is that that my recycled toothbrush-toting child had interpreted a plastic recycling message into "It's a good thing" after her Earth Day lessons.

But what if our kids were really taught that plastic is a good thing? That's what may be happening in San Francisco, and it's a scary thought. There, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the plastic lobby has influenced children's textbooks, adding statements like plastic bags are convenient to use and use less energy than paper bags. (Yes, and they hold one to two items, have to be doubled up because they constantly rip out before even one use, and will still be here for generations to come!) You can read other edits the American Chemical Society proposed and were incoporated into school textbooks on the Chronicle's website.

If you live in California, stand up about this interjection into your children's education by signing this petition.

Talking school lunches

Coupons littered my living room floor this weekend, spurred on by my husband's insistence that we actually do something with them rather than just collect them from the Sunday paper.

Trying to enlist my soon-to-be first-grader to help me sort just brought on new challenges as she created her own shopping list.

Sponge Bob yogurt.
Dora yogurt.
Granola bars.
Disney princess fruit chews (though the fruit part is questionable.)

I could have simply said no. Instead, we spent a good part of the afternoon having a conversation about what makes a healthy lunch for school. We talked about the need to add fruit or vegetable. To drink milk (hopefully the white variety). To enjoy things like chocolate pudding cups in moderation. That there are healthy foods and sometimes foods.

After last year's concern with not eating enough, I've been hesitant to put on too much pressure when it comes to what she eats - quantity, that is. But she certainly can be enlisted to make healthy choices along the way.

I'm thrilled that she wants to take on packing her own lunch each day, though I wonder how long that will in fact last. She'll be happy to make peanut butter sandwiches...but for how long? Just to prepare, I'm expanding her options by buying a stainless steel thermos (hot pink trim, of course) for her to pack hot lunches on cold winter days and stocking up on a few more reusable containers for her to pack berries in.

Needless to say, I'm still on the lookout for some fun, easy-to-assemble ideas for making lunches. Have a great idea? Share them below!

Backpack Blues

No new backpack this year. You'd think this small thing wouldn't have caused a big stink.

Other than her name scrawled in pen across the front - the result of boredom one day in after-school care - my daughter's backpack is in reasonably fine shape and can stand another year's abuse. First grade is not particularly challenging in terms of bookload or backpack weight, one would think, so I think we'd be fine for another year with our $5 used kid store find.

But no. When I picked up my daughter for daycare this week, I announced she needed to bring her back home to wash it, so I could see what shape it was in for school.

"But I NEED a new backpack!" she said. "Mine has my name on it! It's a mess!"

We talked about choices - it certainly wasn't mom's writing on the front - and that we didn't need to replace something that wasn't broken. I don't know that she's convinced. But truthfully, the thrill on Aug. 17 will be on seeing friendly faces she's not seen all summer, not whether the Tinkerbell backpack is back for round 2.

A Uniform Exchange?

Uniforms save you money on clothes, my mother used to remind me.

Except have you priced them lately? Thirty dollars for a skort. Twenty for navy slacks. Fifteen for a polo. And these babies don't go on sale.

Uniforms are noticeably void from the back to school sales each year. Easily I could rack up more on costs for my growing girl than I could for one in public school. And I doubt somehow I could get away with the deals I found last year.

So I brought up to some moms I know from the school a simple idea: Why not create a uniform exchange? Those teflon plaid skorts could be traded to smaller girls, closets get cleaned and families are helped. Then I posted it in our parish bulletin: A no-strings exchange of uniforms, simply email the needs and I'd match them up with a family.

I have exactly four takers. And I have a bag full of kindergarten-sized clothing waiting to be picked up from the mom who said weeks ago she was interested.

Is there a stigma in wearing second-hand uniforms? It's hard to tell. For me, I'm surprised that parents wouldn't want to save a few dollars on their August expenses, not to mention eliminating the need to travel to various stores searching for navy slacks.

Sure, we want our kids to look good, but doesn't one wear qualify an item as "used?" And, even if you didn't want used for yourself, what's the harm in helping others?

School supply savvy

The end is here!

School, that is.

Today, my baby will come home with her bag bursting with the last of her drawings, worksheets and half-used school supplies. Sure, from a clutter-busting perspective, I could recycle the papers and toss the rest. But I think there's a better purpose for my school supplies.

Last year, local story featured a public school teacher determined to have supplies ready for each of her students this fall. So determined she was, and knowing that many of her students were impoverished, she ended up dumpster diving at the very affluent Carmel Public Schools. She ended up with three carloads worth of school supplies, many of them in wrappers.

The reality is, in this case, your trash could be someone else's treasure. So if you're determined to toss your half-used school supplies before summer strikes, at least do it with purpose. Donate it to:

1. Scout troop.



2. Freecyle.



3. Vacation Bible Schools, preschool programs and Parent's Day Out.



4. Day care centers.



5. Homeless shelters.



6. Any social service organization - many clients may have to take their children with them, and art supplies and notebooks would occupy them while they are waiting.



7. Goodwill.



8. Garage sales.



9. Survival packets to take to church (or any other place where kids have to be quiet but struggle.) It's great to be able to hand a frustrated parent some extra crayons and pages to color on!



10. Retirement homes. You'd be surprised what craft supplies will do to help our older generations who just need some stimulation!

Any place else I missed?

Mother's Day Seed Cards - A Preschool-Friendly Project

Mother's Day is fast approaching, and I wanted to do something fun for the grandmothers this year. Being hours away limits my options, however.

Remembering that last year, my daughter wanted to buy her grandmothers flowers, I stumbled on an easy solution that's simple to mail and easy to make: simple watering can seed cards. This 10-minute project was a great solution for my preschooler and kindergartener to help with, as well.

I found a watering can template at Family Fun magazine and printed on some cardstock, let the children color them and then cut out the cans and slots at the top and bottom of the can. There, I inserted a small package of flower bulbs that could be planted in our region through June.

Simple to make, easy to ship, and the grandmas get flowers after all!

We also did a variation of this for the teacher appreciation week next week, which my kindergartener insisted on signing herself.

Linked to Motivation Mondays at alifeinbalance.net.

Light bulbs for Haiti - a little lesson in empathy

"We need to buy light bulbs for Haiti," my daughter announced one afternoon as I picked her up from school.

Wow. Heavy response from a 5 year old, who usually reports in on what she played at recess. But, as she explained to me, the kids in Haiti don't have lights in their classrooms. And that day, they colored in the dark to see what it's like.

"I didn't have any problems," she reported. But something stuck with her nonetheless. For the first time, she talked about sharing her toys for the Haiti sale and giving away clothes and shoes that didn't fit her - instead of dramatically insisting how "special" each item was.

This week, priests from Haiti are visiting our church. And my daughter, just 5, is learning about life an ocean away and a little bit about generosity as well.

In recent years, my parish has made an affiliation with a church and school in Haiti. The wonderful thing about this mission is that they have made it very real for the families. We support it through an annual children's clothing sale, and fundraisers include buying a desk (about $30-40, by my recollection). It makes it real, as few people are actually able to make the mission trips.

But what's impressed me most is what they've impressed upon the children. My daughter did her school work in the dark to see what it was like without lights. They talked about how little the children had, how many needed shoes or school desks. Each day sparked a little lesson, and our conversations this week have been sprinkled with facts about the Haitian people - from the earthquake, to the fact they speak Creole, to their diet of rice and beans.

In fact my daughter, whose refusal to eat black beans led me to donate my stash to the food pantry last weekend, announced she wanted beans for dinner. When I told her I donated them to people who were hungry, she told me, "But the people in Haiti already have beans!"

Still, we've had many conversations this week about life in Haiti and about poverty - each sparked by a blossom planted by my child. I'm grateful for those. As she grows, she'll become an amazing member of this world!

Hey Carmel, here's where you can stick your school supplies

I don't know whether you read the Sunday Star, but the front-page feature was on a public school teacher determined to have supplies ready for each of her students this fall.

So determined she was, and knowing that many of her students were impoverished, she ended up dumpster diving at the very affluent Carmel Public Schools. She ended up with three carloads worth of school supplies, many of them in wrappers.

This story really struck a nerve with me. And the more I've thought about it, the madder I've gotten.

It's not even about the wastefulness of tossing these supplies. It's that these could have with very little effort gone to brightening someone's day.

So, Carmel (and any other school where this occurs), here's where you can stick your school supplies:

1. Scout troop.
2. Freecyle.
3. Vacation Bible Schools, preschool programs and Parent's Day Out.
4. Day care centers.
5. Homeless shelters.
6. Any social service organization - many clients may have to take their children with them, and art supplies and notebooks would occupy them while they are waiting.
7. Goodwill.
8. Garage sales.
9. Survival packets to take to church (or any other place where kids have to be quiet but struggle.) It's great to be able to hand a frustrated parent some extra crayons and pages to color on!
10. Retirement homes. You'd be surprised what craft supplies will do to help our older generations who just need some stimulation!

Any place else I missed? Where else would you tell them to stick it?

Squishy food

Packing school lunches is an interesting task for us. The good news is my daughter loves a lot of food.


The bad news are 1) I think her classmates' habits are rubbing off on her and 2) she's lost a front tooth. Which means along with it, she's lost her confidence.


Gone are the baby carrots we bought the first week of school. Gone are the shiny, red apples. Gone are crackers, or anything else with a crunch.


In the hopes of packing any kind of produce in her lunch, I've been reduced to the "fruit-only" bars and prepacked containers of applesauce.

Any other suggestions to make a meal?

The public school problem

This week, we did the seemingly unthinkable. We signed our child up for kindergarten.

I realize parents do this every year, and for many of us, our hearts wrench at the idea of our babies growing up. But for our family, we had a challenging decision to make. It was whether or not to go public.

You're probably wondering how a family who's underemployed can seriously consider going private. Here's why.

I'll set the test scores and desire to have my family's values reinforced at a greater level than can be done in the public schools aside. Those were serious considerations, but we thought still that private school tuition was unattainable given our limited budget.

But we had to face reality. In Indiana, a cut in property taxes is causing chaos for school districts. Teachers are being cut. Services are being cut. Transportation is being weighed.

And even if we're at status quo for the next school year, we'd be forced to drive over our lunch hour to the schools to either pick up or drop off our child, as kindergarteners are only bussed in one direction. For working/student parents, it's difficult to rearrange schedules on a consistent basis.

In other words, IF we were lucky, I'd be able to do a swing from work to school and back in maybe an hour. Consider the time wasted, the mileage, the gas and the wear on our vehicle.

I don't necessarily believe school should be scheduled at the convenience of the parents, but the realities of this society are that many parents are balancing multiple work and school responsibilities. And the fact that you now have several classes of families making special round-trips to the school each day is an environmental mess.

We finally did the math, and we were surprised. We factored in the cost of daycare and after-school care (only needed on my husband's school days), the impact of the mileage. The full-day kindergarten tuition we thought was vastly unaffordable actually made better financial (and environmental) sense than anything else. And the shorter drive to the school - even without bussing - was a much better decision for our family. In the end, we'll save some stress and have less hours in the car. And that's the best choice for us.

What I'm saying is, if you're making a big decision that you think's already made for you, you might be wrong. What's on the surface unattainable might in reality be the best decision for you.