This post is sponsored by Stonyfield.
It’s official. We’re back to school, navigating the first days of online home school which is kind of like learning to ride a bike except 50 times harder. Everyone is showing up, teachers are pouring their hearts into this mess, and tech support is hustling to smooth out the glitches. We know and expect that there’re a lot of things that won’t run as smoothly as normal, and because of that, the routines in our life that haven’t changed are even more important. We cling to brain breaks and lunches–our daily solids during this interesting year.
Even though we’re learning at home, we are handling the day as much like a regular school day as possible.
A few school routines we’re keeping to cling to some normalcy:
Favorite School Lunch Treats
Packing lunches is one morning task I’m definitely happy to give up right now, a small silver lining to this situation. But the kids still love picking out special snacks for school lunches, so we’re stocking our pantry and refrigerator with their favorites to keep school lunches special. One of our favorite school lunch snacks has always been Stonyfield yogurt.
We love their yogurt pouches (we had our cooler packed with them on our road trip) and their yogurt smoothie drinks.
The smoothie drinks are convenient for quick pick-me-ups during school and, like all Stonyfield yogurt products, are made from organic milk sourced from small farms and free of toxic persistent pesticides.
They also happen to be delicious, and the perfect sized “shot” for a little energy boost.
We’ve found the kids’ Stonyfield product containers can be repurposed in so many fun ways for crafts, so we wash and save a lot of ours. Our latest repurpose? We sprayed the smoothie cups with chalk paint and then dipped them in black craft paint to make these cute bud vases:
Other routines we’re keeping to make school at home special this year:
Laying Our Clothes Out
We may be attending school in the dining room, but we’re still dressing for the day. The kids lay out their clothes at night for a smooth morning routine the next day, and we did our back to school shopping with the same enthusiasm we put into first day of school outfits for in-person school. It helps set the tone for productivity.
Creative Socializing
The hardest part about this school years is the lack of socializing like we are used to–free, fun play; hugs; crowds of kids on the playground at recess. We are working really hard to safely give our kids a sense of community and maintain their friendships. That might mean ice cream meet-ups after school (finishing our first day definitely deserved this!), socially distanced races in the park or, for Lainey, Face Timing with friends who share her online classes while they are in front of their computers learning.
We got this!
While you’re prepping for your kids’ first day or navigating the first weeks of 2020 learning, you can stock up on your favorite Stonyfield yogurt snacks by finding a store near you that carries them. If you need a good art project, you can find other ways we’ve repurposed our Stonyfield containers here and here.
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