How to Create Lunchbox Cards and Notes

It's back to school time! The time of year when parents are rushing around trying to fulfill the school supply lists, buy school clothes, as well as planning and shopping for school lunches.

Lunchtime is a very important time of day. In my opinion it is just as important as learning time in school. During lunchtime, the kids fuel up on good food that will help give them energy for the rest of the school day and allows the kids to socialize a bit. It also gives the kids a chance to relax from a morning full of classes before hitting the books again after lunch.

A great way to tell your kids that you are thinking of them, tell them how proud you are or just give them a little extra boost of confidence to make their day is to add a little special touch to their sack lunch. Try making some lunchbox cards or notes to put in their sack lunch.

A lunchbox card is just a little piece of paper or cardstock that has a special note or joke to make your kids smile when they open up their lunches. It is super easy to make these cards. You can make them on the computer or hand make them with stamps, cut out pictures from magazines or coloring books, etc.

To make a lunchbox card on the computer, open up a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. If using Microsoft Word, after you have opened new document to work in, click on the Table tab, Insert tab and then Table tab. You will see an Insert Table pop-up box and then select 2 columns and 3 rows and press ok. In the first cell where the cursor should be blinking, press the space bar once and then press the Enter key 14 times. Then go to the next cell directly underneath and press the Enter key 14 times and again on the last cell. You should end up with 6 perfectly spaced boxes that you can now fill in with clip art and text. After you have filled in the boxes, print the pages and cut them out. Next time you go to pack your kids lunchbox, pick a lunchbox card that is appropriate for that day and slip it into their lunchbox.

The very first lunchbox card I did was last year when my oldest started Kindergarten. She had a rough first couple of weeks getting used to going to school all day and being in such a big school with all those kids... it was quit overwhelming! So I thought I would put a little hand written note in her lunchbox that said, "Have a Fun Day, Love Mommy!" She was so excited when she came home from school she said she even showed her teacher what was in her lunchbox.

Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference. So every week I would try to pick a random day or two and put in a special lunchbox card and maybe even a special treat like a mini candy bar or Hershey's Kiss...something that would not normally be in an everyday sack lunch. I think it really made her week and it also helped her with her reading skills. As she progressed through the year with her language and reading skills I would create messages on the cards that had a greater reading difficulty. And when she got home I would see if she was able to understand the message. It became kind of a fun little game between us!

Here are some ideas on what to put on your lunchbox cards:

• Create cards for all the holidays: i.e. Happy Halloween
• Create countdown cards for special days like their Birthday or Christmas: i.e. Just 5 more days until your birthday party!
• Write a silly joke or riddle on the cards
• Encouraging words: i.e. Reach for the stars or Work hard and have fun
• Spiritual sayings: i.e. Bible Verses
• Proverbs: i.e. It's no use crying over spilled milk
• Trivia or Fun Facts
• Sight Words: i.e. his, him, her
• Words: i.e. sun (with a photo of the sun)
• Add clip art, photographs, stamped images, cut out images from magazines or coloring books

So this school year add a little love to your kids lunchbox by slipping in a little note to brighten their day and remind them of how much you love them!