As a child, one of my favorite parts of back to school shopping was choosing my lunch box for the year. When a list says 12 yellow pencils or 24 count of Crayola, it’s not that exciting to shop for. But, oh the joy of standing in front of a shelf full of color and choices!

One of my favorites was a metal Popples lunch box, I think I was in the second grade.

Don’t you love how you can find photos of anything on the internet? I do. This was a cherished lunch box for a long time. The only other box I really recall was a plastic magenta colored box with a Lisa Frank image on the front, probably a unicorn, given my tastes at the time.

Lunch boxes have certainly come a long way. With my twins making the transition from half day kindergarten to full day, my lunch requirements have jumped from one to THREE lunches a day! <sigh> I’m exhausted just thinking of it. School lunch will be a big deal very quickly in my house.

Several months ago I began to be a bit concerned about it, especially with all the BPA news swirling around. How can I find affordable (times 3) lunch kits that are safe without having to go disposable all the time. Thankfully I received an e-mail from Thermos brand recently about their products.

Thermos is taking care of all that wondering and concern with transparency about their products. If you have a Thermos product you can visit www.thermos.com/cpsia, enter the product UPC or product number and you will be able to download a certificate to prove your Thermos products meet all safety standards. Make sure you save your tag from your products so you can identify not only the UPC but also the manufacture date printed on the tag.

Thermos also sent us an IronMan 2 lunch kit to review. The kit is a rectangular shaped soft side, insulated bag with a plain white water bottle. I really like the size of the bottle and that it has a squeeze bottle style cap. As a child of the 80s and 90s, I must admit I was disappointed that the bottle did not have a matching IronMan 2 design like I had as a child. We’ll have to come up with a way for my son to identify his bottle on the school lunchroom table.

The soft sided insulated bag feels a lot thicker than others we’ve owned and other brands I’ve seen in the stores, so I was pleased with that. I would have liked have seen a sandwich size box added to the “kit”. When I think of the word kit, I think 3 or more pieces. Maybe that’s just me though. But for the cost, especially compared to other lunch kits, it’s not bad. I’ve seen similar kits at my local store for $8-10.

While at BlogHer last weekend, we also had the chance to see the new Foogo line of products for infants and toddlers. I have to say, those are really cool. I wish they would have had those when my kids were younger. I may have to pick up a couple of the straw bottles for my daughter.

If you are interested in learning more about Thermos, the ability to check online for safety certifications, or the new Foogo line of products, be sure to be on Twitter tomorrow, August 10 from 2-3 p.m. EDT for the Thermos Back to School Twitter party. Use the hashtag #ThermosBTS to be entered to win lunch boxes and FUNtainer products from Thermos. You can also find Thermos and Foogo on Facebook.

I received a complimentary Thermos brand Lunch Kit to review courtesy of Thermos. These are my personal opinions, no other compensation was received for this post.

Middle School

Originally uploaded by Stephanie Tillman

]]> http://wistfulwrists.com/2009/08/back-to-school-wordless-wednesday/feed/ 0 http://wistfulwrists.com/2009/08/back-to-school-separating-our-twins/ http://wistfulwrists.com/2009/08/back-to-school-separating-our-twins/#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:44:36 +0000 wistfulwrists http://wistfulwrists.com/?p=216 Yes, you read that correctly. Our twins turned 5 a few weeks ago, and although they’ll be on the young end of the age spectrum in the classroom, we are sending them on to kindergarten this fall and yes, we are separating them.

Before those of you within the multiples community hang me out to dry, I thought I’d share my thoughts about it. First, as you read yesterday in my back to school post, we take each kid on a case by case basis, and each year as a separate issue. There’s always room for re-evaluation and change. This is our families’ choice, guided by the kids, and the school professionals.

For those of you considering it, I know there are numerous articles and posts out there about keeping twins together, but let me share some of what we hope will be advantages of spliting them.

#1 We have BOYS. Have you ever spent any serious amount of time around 5 year old boys? Do you know what kind of mischief they can cook up? Then when you add the twin factor in… oh. my. goodness. Mario & Luigi (not real names, our family online names) are crafty. They do this incredibly accurate impersonation of the two-headed monster from Sesame Street. I kid you not. And when they decide something is funny, it’s like the never ending inside joke. Frat boys have nothing on my twins.

#2 They are identical. When discussing with the boys individually the potential benefits I asked them how they felt when they were called the other’s name, even when it was an accident. I was shocked at how much it bothered them both. Strangers do it all the time, family does it less often but it still occurs. And I, like any mom, frequently have to go down the list of names to get the right one. Heck, I’ve even called a child by the dog’s name while yelling before. With two separate classrooms comes a bit of space. Some of the kindergartners may not know for quite a while that they are even twins, helping them to establish their own identity.

Truthfully, like any twins, they get treated like a 2 for 1 package deal all the time. Sometimes even by myself. We try our best not to, but because they share the same room, are the same age, are both boys… there is quite a bit of this. My prayer for them is that they each find out who they are.

#3 They think differently. So why wouldn’t 2 different teachers be a good thing? The school has a system to place kids with the best teacher possible. We fill out a survey about who they are, games they play, strengths and weaknesses. If we insisted that they are together, one of our children could potentially get shortchanged and not end up with the best classroom teacher for their style of learning. How would we choose which child is sacrificed for the sake of togetherness?

Those are the major logical points, but it really came down to God’s intervention. I’d been praying for all the boys; for what was best for the coming school year; that God, who knows more than I, would lead our family. I spoke with the school counselor about considering splitting the boys, while it was uncertain whether the new teacher would be an AM or PM teacher. I expected a call if it would fall into our category, but the call I received was that they’d already been split. We of course had a few days to consider it and request a change. After more prayer and discussions with my husband, we opted to let it ride. We know we’ve been led to put our children into public schools, we know we were led to purchase this house in this district, we believe God knows what’s best and we are at peace that this is the right decision for our family.

I know this is a hot topic among parents of multiples, but I thought I’d share with you part of our family’s thoughts and processes. I’d love to hear about your choices and your reasons for them. Drop me a note in the comments and a link to your blog!

When my husband and I dated, we talked at length about how when the time came, we wanted to home school our children. My husband went to private Christian schools, was home-schooled and attended public school. I am a sole product of public schools, though I went through gifted education programs. All the “brainiacs” I knew, those kids really great at math and science, all had home-schooled in their early years. Who doesn’t want to have the smartest kids? They are the ones that will make the big bucks to pay for the fancy retirement home when I’m old, right?

My world began to change about a year and a half ago. It was spring and we were caught a bit off guard by kindergarten registrations – in January and February (for school that didn’t start until August). It was also about this time we were beginning to feel our life in the “big house” with all my in-laws was drawing to a close. (That’s a story for another day.) I had some hesitations about home-schooling our oldest child, so I began to pray about it. I prayed fully suspecting God would change my heart and I would get over my issues and go on with the home-school plan. I was wrong. The more I prayed, the more I knew we were supposed to send Yoshi (our oldest son) to public school. I didn’t want to, I don’t want to have to drag myself out of bed, play by someone else’s schedule and UGH… don’t even get me started on the whole PTA mom thing. That’s so not me. I argued back and forth with God for a while, begged my husband to pray about it, secretly hoping he would demand I homeschool. No, I was sure and he was sure, we had to send him to public school. Then came the housing issue.

We fell in love with our house at first sight. We were shocked when the realtor told us what school district it was in, because we thought it was a different one (district lines are crazy here in St. Louis, quite complicated). It was okay though, because it is still one of the best districts in the state. I waited until late in the summer to enroll my son, because I didn’t know any better. I seemed to be dancing to the wrong tune when it came to getting ready for school. The first weeks were horrible, I cried a lot. We had a lot of phone calls, issues with obedience, a whole mess of things.

In time, things settled, Yoshi turned things around an got into the groove. I made friends with the parents, volunteered a bit, worked things out. By summer, I knew it was a good thing, that we had met some families, that our family had a purpose and a place in this school community. It was hard, it was a struggle, but anything worthwhile is.

We are returning to the same public school this fall. Already we’ve had our first speed bump in the road. One of the families we met and grew to love this past year has suffered tremendous loss, the loss of a parent. We’re grateful that we’ll be sharing a classroom with the child again, that we get to retain that friendship. We know it won’t be easy, it never is. But life is about relationships; the good, bad and ugly, they are what makes life worth living.

I’m not saying everyone should attend public school. If I’m advocating anything it is that each family looks at each child and each school year individually and makes the decision that is best for the next year. Then, at the end, re-evaluate.It’s totally okay to one thing one year, and to change. Life is always changing, so why should we get stuck in a rut?

Stay tuned tomorrow for the details on our twins going to separate classrooms as they start kindergarten.