Tips for Packing School Lunches

There’s no ifs, ands, or buts, about it: kids’ eating habits are notoriously fickle. With how busy parents can get, it can be easier to stick leftovers in a paper bag than it is to craft a meal of perfectly balanced portions. Luckily, we have many ideas for packing a healthy school lunch for kids.

Find Balance

Aim for a balance between vegetables, fruit, starches, and dairy. Protein is also an essential component for anyone’s diet. Besides the traditional lunch meats and nuts, experiment with fish, beans, and hard boiled eggs to add variety.

Make these lunchbox classics:

Ham and Cheese Roll Ups

Bite-sized Taco Salads

Cheesy Baked Chicken Fingers

Avocado, Tomato, and Chicken Wraps

Pizza Crescent Roll-Ups

Try Something New

Add a new ingredient to an old favorite. Try different kinds of bread or switch out sandwich bread for a tortilla or pita pocket. Try avocado, hummus, honey mustard, or cream cheese instead of mayo. Incorporate leftovers into a dish for a new meal experience.

Try these new recipes:

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Pâté

Zesty Turkey Pita Pocket

Zucchini Corn Fritters

Meatball Mini Sandies

Mini Frittata

Switch up the Presentation

Use different ideas to present food to your kids. These don’t have to be elaborate ideas. Try dicing veggies or making fruit kabobs instead of serving them whole. Use cookie cutters to make fun-shaped sandwich bites. Experiment with different lunch bags or bento boxes to create a homemade and healthy ‘lunchable.’

Try out these recipes:

Frozen Fruit Sticks with Passionfruit and Lime Drizzle

Club Sandwich

Applewiches

Peanut Butter and Jelly ‘Sushi’

Butterfly Snack Break

Get the Kids Involved

Encouraging your kids to get involved will give them a more active role in their diets. Plan some time once a week to involve them in meal planning. Have them choose an item and a piece of fruit and help them assemble their lunch. Make this as regular a routine as you can—it’s a great way to spend some time together as a family.

More Lunch Hacks

• Freeze PB & Js overnight, put it in a lunchbox in the morning, and it will be thawed and ready to go by lunchtime
• Use drinks as ice packs. Freeze water bottles, Capri Suns, or juice boxes. This way they will be refreshing for a lunchtime sip, and it will free up room in their lunch boxes for more goodies
• Use empty Mio bottles (or similar small bottles) as condiment dispensers for less mess. This will also ensure that salads won’t be soggy by lunchtime
• If you use sliced apples, prevent them from browning by wrapping it with saran wrap or a rubber band
• Make a snack station in your pantry and fridge. Assemble healthy, kid-portioned snacks and kids will have an easier time finding afterschool snacks and assembling their own lunches

Lunch doesn’t need to be boring for your kids or stressful on you. Find a happy balance that works for the both of you. For even MORE school lunch ideas, check out this printable list for School Lunch Box Ideas.

Back-to-School Morning Routine Tips

*Beep beep beep* goes your alarm, and the chaos begins. Walk the dog, get ready for work, wake the kids up, get them dressed for school, fold the laundry, organize the backpacks, make the kids breakfast, (make yourself breakfast) out the door, off to school. Whew, a parent’s morning is stressful. Wouldn’t it be nice if the mornings were less chaotic? Here are some tips on how to make your morning routine a lot easier.

Organize Backpacks the Night Before

To save time, gather school supplies the night before and organize them in your child’s backpack. This will ensure that there will be no missing items and you will not have to spend your morning searching for lost supplies.

Turn On the Tunes

Listening to upbeat high-energy music in the morning will get you motivated and will get your children moving as well. Listen to music in the bathroom when getting ready and even dance around. This will add excitement and fun to your morning routine.

Provide Incentives

Motivate your children to wake up and get moving by offering small incentives that will be given throughout the morning- maybe a special cereal or breakfast food. You can even offer them a surprise treat in their lunch box.

Hair and Outfits

Picking out outfits the night before will save you lots of time. There will be no digging through closets or hurrying to find matching socks. Your child’s outfits will be prepared and ready to put on right as they wake up. If you have a little girl, consider doing her hair the night before as well. (There are a ton of quick hairstyle ideas on Pinterest.)

Create a Checklist

Create a morning to-do checklist for your children. Delegate different jobs to each and award them if they complete their checklist. This will keep them on track and will save you some time and energy as well.

Make Breakfast Easy

Make quick and easy breakfast meals that can be eaten on the run. If you plan ahead, you can prepare some of these the night before, too. Discover some healthy and quick breakfast meals here.

So make your mornings less stressful by following the tips above. Also, make sure to follow Paragon Promotions on Twitter and Facebook. Stay updated on our 2015 Fall Prize Program: Here Come the Minions! Have a wonderful and organized school year!

Summer Science Experiments For Kids

As parents, we want our children to continue learning during the summer months, although finding fun summer activities that are educational can be difficult. Here are some super cool science experiments that will fascinate and educate your child this summer.

1. Guess the amount: For this experiment, all you need is a handful of paper clips and a glass of water. First, you fill the cup with water, then you have your child guess how many paper clips it will take to make the water overflow. This experiment demonstrates surface tension, which is when the water bulges on top of the glass without overflowing.

2. Chalk Rockets: In this experiment you will be creating exploding chalk rockets. (It isn’t as dangerous as it sounds.) You first must create liquid sidewalk chalk and put it in film canisters. Then you drop alka-seltzer tablets into the canister, which creates a chemical reaction, propelling the film canister towards the sky. Your children will love this, and it teaches them about chemical reactions and propulsion!

3. Bubble Shapes: This next experiment will teach your child how and why bubbles always form a circle. What you will do is make different 2D shapes out of pipe cleaners (Squares, triangles, etc.) You then dip them into the soap, and blow a bubble. Your child will see that no matter what the shape is the bubble will always turn round.

4. Clouds in a Jar: For this one you will need shaving cream, water, clear cups, and blue food coloring. This experiment will make the effect of a rain cloud in a jar. You first fill the glass with water, then you put the shaving cream on top of the water which will resemble a cloud. Then you drop the blue food coloring on top of the shaving cream, and it will create a rain-like effect in the water. This is a perfect experiment to do on a rainy day!

5. Pencil and Baggie: This experiment brings some magic and wonder to science. All you will need is a plastic baggie, some water, and a sharp pencil. What you will do is fill the baggie ¾ of the way with water. You then stick the pencil through the baggie, and watch in amazement. No water should spill from the baggie. This teaches your child about the molecules and polymers that make up the baggie.

These experiments are sure to keep your child busy and get them learning about science throughout the summer months. In the mean time check out our website to learn more about our Fall 2015 prize program: Here Come the Minions! We are looking forward to working with you when the school year begins!

Motivate Your Kids with the "Spring Cleaning" Fundraiser

It’s that time of year again -- the time for spring cleaning! While having a clean house is a refreshing feeling, parents are usually the ones who end up getting stuck with most of the work. What if you could motivate your child or children help you?

To motivate your children to help with tidying up the house, implement a “Spring Cleaning Fundraiser” at your child’s school. This will require a group of parents who want to give back to their school community, teach their children the value of helping around the house, and lessen their own cleaning responsibilities.

Every classroom teacher sends a letter home with their students. This letter will introduce the fundraiser to the parents: parents pay their kids to do household chores, but the money goes directly to a classroom (or entire school) purchase. Students could raise money for a new playground equipment, new musical instruments, or a new classroom pet!

When the kids hand their parents the letter, they’ll think they’re informing their parents for the first time. The catch is that your school’s PTO or PTA can agree upon a dollar-per-chore amount beforehand and inform all parents. For example, kids will earn $1.00 for their school each time they help clean the dishes after dinner.

Cleaning ideas include:

· Dusting
· Sweeping
· Making beds
· Watering the plants
· Doing dishes
· Etc.

You, as a parent, can explain to your child the importance of teamwork and responsibility. Cleaning as a whole family will make it more fun for your child. You could even set a timer for a chore that’s more work; and if they do it in a certain amount of time, you will give them more money.

This fundraiser can last for a week, a month, or a semester -- it depends on how high of a goal your school wants to set.

Although the money isn’t specifically for them, keep reminding your children that they are putting the money they earn to a good cause. At the end of the fundraiser, the teachers will give each student who participated a certificate of excellence or hard work.

Happy cleaning!

Cake Boss Knows Best

Buddy AKA "The Cake Boss" is one of the most famous cake decorators in the country and now his products are featured with Paragon Promotions Fundraising. Famously known from TLC’s The Cake Boss, Buddy and his crew make cakes for literally every occasion. Many of his cakes are insanely beautiful while the others are beautifully insane.

Here eight amazing out-of-this-world Cake Boss cakes: 

The “Bumblebee” Transformers Cake
Is this really a cake or did they steal it straight from the movie? Buddy and his crew created this ginormous masterpiece to help promote the third Transformers movie.

Dylan’s Candy Bar Cake

How sweet is this cake? It's like being a kid in the candy store! This cake was made for an actual New York candy store, Dylan’s Candy Bar. The featured treats on this cake are Dylan's Candy Bar products. 

The Black and White Wedding Cake
This wedding cake has so many intricate designs that took an extremely steady hand to make. Although the flowers look real, they are all made out of fondant. This cake was made for Brides Magazine.

Two-Tiered Sea Shell Cake
Who needs the vacation when you can get one on a cake? This cake practically brings the ocean to you (minus the water). The sea shells look so realistic; we'd like to take one home as a souvenir!

Marco’s First Birthday Cake

This not your average birthday cake, especially for a first birthday! This cake is bouncing with bright colors and designs. Buddy made this for his son, Marco. Of course he had to spoil him a little, or depending how you look at it, a lot.

Haagan-Dazs 50th Birthday Cake
This cake looks like heaven in your mouth. At their 50th birthday celebration, this cake was served with Haagan-Dazs ice cream. Sounds like our kind of party! 

The Giant Flip Flop
Myrtle Beach was celebrating its new oceanfront boardwalk and wanted a big cake. Two-hundred sheets of spongecake were used to make this creation and its total weigh reached nearly 2,000 pounds.

Sweet 16 Cake
A cake with flowers and pink is every 16 year old girl’s dream cake. This cake is sophisticated yet fun at the same time. The birthday girl, Ali, was one lucky girl.

The Cake Boss and his crew will literally make any kind of cake you want. They put a lot of effort into pleasing every single one of their customers. Have a photo of your own unique cake? Post it (or a link to it) in the comments below. Show off your artistic side and see what masterpiece you can create. Maybe you will be the next "Cake Boss"!

3 Ways to get Your Child Excited for School

School Should be Fun, Right?

Welcome to 2014! How excited was your child to go back to school after a carefree, fun, and relaxing break? Chances are he or she was not too thrilled. They just had a couple weeks of late night slumber parties, movie nights, sleeping in every day, and most importantly, no homework. Getting your child back into the routine of waking up early and doing homework can be quite a struggle, that’s why it is important to get them excited about learning. Here are some tips that will help your child get excited about going back to school.

1) Start Fresh

Maybe your child didn’t have such a great first half of the year. If they have negative thoughts towards how they are going to do this half, help them shake that feeling off. Let them know it’s a new year and they will have plenty of opportunities to succeed and do rock star work. If able to, get them a new writing utensils and notebooks, a back pack and lunch box; maybe even personalize them. They will for sure be starting out completely fresh now. Just staying positive with them is key. Let them know you will be there 100% when they really need your help.

After school, ask them how their day went; that’s when they know you really care about them. If it wasn’t such a good day, listen and give them you’re advice. If they had a great day, praise them and let them know how proud you are of them; this will make them want to succeed all the time.

2) Get Back into a Routine

Waking up early is so rough when you’re a kid, especially after you were up all night gossiping and watching movies with your best friends. A few days before break is over, start back up with their school bed time; that way it will be easier for them to get up in the mornings. Once break is over, you won’t have to drag them out of bed. Start their mornings out with a fun and well-balanced breakfast. Remember it’s the most important meal of the day!

3) Get them Involved in Extracurricular Activities

Sign your child up for an activity or two. Playing a sport or having a piano lesson gives them something to look forward too instead of having to go straight home and do more school work. It will also help them blow off some steam if they had a bad day. Maybe they will make a new friendship! Make time to watch their practices and games, and attend lessons; you know they want to show off their mad skills to you.

Now that you know a few tips that will help your child get back into the groove of things at school, try them out! You will have a much happier child and they will want to go to school every day.

From Fundraisers to Fulfilling Student Needs

Children’s education is one of the most important investments a community can make. Since 1989 Paragon Promotions has successfully completed over 20,000 fundraisers for over 1 million students. Schools have successfully raised funds to benefit their student’s various needs. For example, the PTO from William Tell Elementary purchased new equipment with the money from their Paragon fundraiser sales. The equipment was installed last spring in an existing play area nearly the size of a full-size soccer field. Students have been enjoying the new equipment and play area, especially this large group of fourth grade students who ran and played hard and had a great time during recess.

From Kick Off Day to Money Day Paragon Promotions provides programs that are fun, safe and easy to use. Click HERE and read what other customers have to say about Paragon Promotions Fundraising. For news, updates, & fundraising tips and tricks follow us on Facebook & Twitter. 

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