If your kid is headed to day camp this summer, it’s time to do a little inventory of their lunch supplies.
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You know the back to school routine: Each year, a short time before school starts, parents receive a list of the specific notebooks and folders and glue sticks or calculator their children need, with barely enough notice to make a trip to Target. But the stocking-up scramblejust happen before the fall return:
If you live somewhere where the weather gets hot, you may find that your standard school lunch-cooling routine just doesn’t work come July and August. Non-insulated water bottles get as warm as bathwater. Sliced fruit that did okay in spring turns sludgy by the end of a day’s heat. Cheese is, well, it’s best not to talk about what happens to cheese.
If your kid is growing fast—and eating more every day—it could be that the kindergarten lunch box just doesn’t have enough space on the eve of first grade; you may need a freezable snack bag to send along, too. And if you got through this year remotely or on a hybrid schedule, you might not have required quite so many reusable food containers and bags, but you’ll need them if full-time camp is your summer plan.
Here are a few of my favorite options to get your kid ready for lunch at day camp, including stay-cool, never-leak water bottles and the one bug spray that will actually let them finish a sandwich in peace.trials, clean well in the dishwasher, but sometimes need a few hours to dry, so I like to keep a few in rotation so there’s always a backup. I use the sandwich size, but there are also larger options, and stand-up versions with flat bases.