Small Child absolutely loves making his own lunches. I'd let him do it more often but we are usually rushing around in the morning and it takes him quite a while, so for the present he only makes them on the rare occasion that we have extra time on our hands. Recently however, Small Baby has taken to waking up at 5am, and as he likes to let the whole house know about it we have all been up and about earlier than usual. One day last week I therefore once again gave Small Child free access to my bento supplies and let him make his own lunch, as he'd been asking to do so for a while. As usual I gave him free reign with his food choices - offering a range of options in each food group from what we had available and letting him choose what he wanted to use.
In this lunch Small Child packed some seeded flatbreads, roughly broken so that they would fit, then decorated with an edible marker pen, raw red pepper strips (under the cucumber), cucumber slices, cut into shapes using mini bento cutters, and a funny face, also made from cucumber, German sausage slices, rolled and skewered on a polka dot pick, rabbit pick and eyeball picks, an apple, decorated with eyeball picks and a mouth cut out using a mini bento cutter, and a mini Babybel Cheese.
I was fascinated watching him deal with the apple. He wanted to eat it whole, i.e. not sliced up, and started by decorating it with the eye picks, but then it wouldn't fit in the box. He therefore cut a slice off the front so that it would fit, and then cut out a 'mouth' from the flesh (using a bento cutter) to decorate it. I was really impressed with his problem solving abilities!
Small Child wanted me to show you all a close up of his decorated crackers, as he was very pleased with his funny faces!
I also filled a reusable food pouch with organic natural yoghurt, and popped it into his lunch bag along with the lunch box. He ate absolutely everything, so letting him make it all himself is obviously a good thing.
I'm very proud of my boy, he did a great job again with his own lunch, it's so lovely to see him getting creative with food!
Grace
Items used to make this lunch:
Keitha says
What a great job! I love the funny faces on the crackers. Well done, Small Child.
Grace says
Thanks Keitha, I'll pass that on, he'll be delighted!
thebeesleybuzz says
i love those flatbreads - i could eat them all day. Especially cute drawings he's done on them! Well done Small Child! x
Grace says
Me too, I have a weakness for munching on that sort of thing - so tasty with a dash of butter or houmous! Thank you, he was very pleased with himself!