The start of a school year can bring a mixture of feelings. Excitement, anticipation, anxiety, worry. Even if you are doing homeschool like us, you can still feel all of those things. After all, you are leaving behind the carefree, low-key summer life and replacing it with structure, order, and frankly, just more busyness. It can be hard and fun at the same time! This fun and easy back to school dinner is a fun tradition that we started a couple of years ago to help take the edge off of the start of school. It gives the kids something to look forward to, even if the next day means a big change.
How to Plan:
The Back to School Food
I try to plan something simple and that feels like a traditional public school lunch. We’ve had plenty of those over the years. Weird that now my kids are eating lunch with me everyday 🙂
This Is What We Did This Year:
- Chicken nuggets
- French fries
- Canned green beans
- Chocolate milk
- Ranch and ketchup
Other Food Ideas:
- Peanut butter sandwiches, carrots, and chips
- Corn dogs and fries
- Country fried steak and frozen veggies
- Mashed potatoes and gravy with a roll
- Nachos with a side of fruit
What really makes the food fun is using a tray reminiscent of a school lunch tray. I just bought these ones at Walmart. They were inexpensive and they work perfectly. The kids love using them!
The Back to School Decor
I kept the decorations really simple this year. Honestly, it’s because I didn’t plan it in advance. I just ended up using a checkered picnic table cloth with colored pencils in mason jars for a center piece. The My daughter let me use her cute fox stuffed animal as a shout out to the name of our homeschool, Foxgrove Academy.
The Back to School Activity
Since eating dinner together is the main activity, I didn’t plan anything too fancy in addition to that. I simply printed off a free I Spy printable (you can find the one I used here). The colored pencil decorations in the middle of the table now served a double function. The kids searched and colored while we ate and talked about the upcoming start of school.
And that’s it! Pretty simple, but it’s a tradition that my kids always look forward to each year. Even though we have switched to homeschool, we still are trying to keep some of the excitement and fun alive with the start of a new school year. Good luck with your own future back to school dinner and with your own family’s school experience!
~Rachel
