Can’t make cute bento? Try message in the box!
While I do make simple lunch bentos for the family very often (almost every weekdays) and love looking at the pictures of cute & beautiful bento lunch/snack boxes like these amazing moms have made for their children, I find myself not ready to jump on the cute bento-making wagon yet.
To make cute & beautiful bentos, you will need to have the interest, time and a whole lot of patience, of which I have none. But since I really want to do something special for my little kindergartener, I opted for a more doable thing instead. I add lunch box notes to her snack box. If you haven’t heard of lunchbox notes before, they are just what they are – a note in the lunch (snack) box. 
These are some of the better looking bentos that I made for the girl recently. The boy usually has a similar but smaller bento to bring along with him on his backpack when he sends the sister to school.
When I have the time, I love to fold the note into simple origami (usually heart, flower or crane) and if I’m in the mood, I would also decorate it with some drawing. Sometimes if she is having a banana for snack, I would write simple messages or draw pictures across it, just for a change. As banana peel bruises very easily, all I have to do is to use a toothpick or a pen tip to scratch a message across the peel and the area that I marked will be dark brown by the time she has snack. It is really simple and fun. If you haven’t try it before, you should.
I started slipping notes into the gal’s snack box since the start of the kindergarten school year because the gal was a little anxious about going to this new school and I wanted to let her know that we are thinking of her while she is at school. And it worked! Now she looks forward to going to school because she wants to read her special note during her snack time.
In the beginning, I just wrote simple notes like “Mommy loves you”, “Have a good snack!”, “You are my sunshine!” etc. but I got bored of writing these lovey dovey messages after a week. Then I thought… since I’m spending time to write, I might as well write something motivating, educational and fun instead. So I started looking for age-appropriate jokes, riddles and fun facts to write on the notes. Occasionally, I will also slip in some Chinese words just so that she gets to learn to read them too.
To my pleasant surprise, it was an instant hit with not just the girl, but also her teachers & classmates! According to her teacher, Ms. K, the girl would share her notes with her friends and they are now looking forward to see and listen to what her note says at snack time too. I also heard from the girl that some children also starting to receive a few notes from their mommies too, but not on a daily basis though. I guess these children must have told their moms about the notes and their moms felt the pressure and did lunchbox notes thing too. 
Haha…
Anyway, I must say I’m so glad that I did this lunch box notes thing. DH and I often worry about her not making new friends at school because she takes a long time to warm up to people. But it seems that with the notes becoming a conversational starter, we don’t really have to worry about it anymore.
I think I should also start documenting the lunchbox notes that I wrote for the girl so that when it is time for the boy to receive them, I don’t have to do the research again on what to write for him. 
Do come by to check out my blog again soon to read about our lunchbox notes!
Here are some interesting lunchbox notes links:
Article – Lunch Box Love Notes for Your Child (link)
Blog on lunch box notes from The Tin Tiffin (Link)
Don’t know what to write? Maybe you can try free printable lunch notes from these sites…
Nick Jr – (Link)
Alenka’s Lunch Box Notes (Link)
Gingerbread Nook – (Link)
The Heart of Motherhood – (Link)
Lunch note Promise – (Link)
by Ange (Earthember)
