The "Lunch Lady" did NOT have an easy job.
One of the reasons that I embarked on my career in real estate is that I wanted to be able to spend more time IN the lives of my children. And today has definitely been a rung in that ladder. I volunteered to help the small kids with lunch at Arcado Elementary School in Lilburn, GA.
Basically, the kindergartners need a little wrangling as they go through the lunch line. And it is kind of like herding cats... cats that don't really know what they want to eat, but have a plethora of choices in front of them... and, since they are cats kindergartners, they can't read.
Which led me to a few thoughts... 
First, though, let me quickly run through the options for today:
- Milk
- Skim Milk
- Chocolate Milk
- Strawberry Milk
- Water
- Orange Juice
- Peas
- Carrots
- Rice
- Applesauce
- Pear
- Peanut Butter and Jelly
- Veggie Wrap
- Veggie Burger
- Ravioli w/Roll
- Nachos w/cheese and meat
Basically, the kids had a choice to make in each one of those groupings. And for a kindergartner, that is a LOT of choices. So, while working lunch for the kids at Arcado Elementary School, the challenge is to get the kids to make a decision in a timely manner. And a lot of the kids aren't ready for that kind of pressure.
As Parents, we can fix that!
To start with, we need to train our children to be able to make good decisions. We can do that by allowing them to make choices (from approved possibilities) when we can observe them. Let them pick what they want for dinner when we go out to eat. Let them decide what they might want for lunch on the weekends. Let them decide between good choices... We don't open it up to anything, but we will give some limited choices for our kindergartner to pick from.
The next thing we can do is to coach our kids. Everyone studies for tests... why not help them study for this as well. We sit down with our child each evening and talk about the lunch choices for the next day. In the morning, while waiting for the bus, we try to talk about it again. In both cases, it is a low pressure environment (some strange Mom or Dad isn't asking the question while the line backs up).
In order to help accomplish the goals, you can reference Nutri-Cafe on the web. I should mention that there are often choices that seem to show up in the line that aren't shown in Nutri-Cafe, and there might be some that are in Nutri-Cafe that won't be available at school... but at least it is a good idea. Arcado Elementary School and other local schools might run out of, or have left-overs of, a specific item.
And one more thing...
Volunteering at school is a great way to see what your child's day is like. You won't be hovering (you will actually be pretty busy), so you can watch from across the room as your child interacts with peers. It is a great way to help out the school, get a better glimpse into your child's life away from home and to also see what challenges your child might face that you never thought about... I know that I never thought about the issues my son could face in trying to decide about lunch. I know that the Arcado Elementary School PTA would be thrilled to have the help... especially from us Dads.
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