The Business of Back-To-School - It's Not Just Pens and Pencils!

Bensalem, PA July 16, 2004 -- Preparing your child to go back to school requires more than just purchasing the supplies on a designated school list. The power to learn cannot ignite without a good nutrition plan. Hyperactivity, listlessness and an inability to pay attention impairs a child’s ability to learn. Parents don’t need a medical doctor to tell them that a daily diet of junk food, first thing in the morning, is not compatible with learning. Teachers often witness students retrieving chips, cookies, sugary cake substances and similar junk food from their lunch boxes during snack time. Under these circumstances snack time can be an educator's worst enemy. An attentive teacher will often observe children who eat these foods peak at a high level of unnecessary energy only to take a sharp dive into listlessness and a lack of focus by afternoon. An education curriculum is at its most rigorous pace during the morning hours. Breakfast meals regularly missed to accommodate the "on-the-go" lifestyle of today's families is to the detriment of a child’s focus, energy and ultimately, their education. Substituting a nutritious mid-morning snack for an insufficient or at worst non-existent breakfast, can be a wise choice made by parents. Quality education at its best requires that students learn while educators teach. A listless, tired, or over-sweetened student must now jump physiological hurdles to learn. One vital building block to helping your child to learn this year is to provide a nutritious, healthy meal when you cannot be there. An excellent snack that can substitute or supplement a nutritious breakfast includes toast or bagel and fruit, oatmeal, French toast sticks and similar choices. Lunch can include your child’s favorite meat and vegetables left over from dinner. This year when you purchase pens, pencils and other school supplies you might consider a Lunch & Go? Lunch tote, relatively new on the market. While traditional lunch boxes merely transport meals from one place to the next, this lunch tote provides portable heat or cold lasting 4+ hours that makes these meals possible. Using this type of lunch tote makes it possible to send nutritious hot or cold meals to school with your child for snack and/or lunch. You can view the vast menu possibilities with this type of lunch tote via the web site below. Equip your child this year for back to school with a healthy diet. When you do you will fire up his brainpower and ensure that the learning process can begin. Once this foundation has been laid, then bring on the school supplies, pens, pencils, etc! Lunch & Go lunch tote website - www.warmandtote.com. Marie L. Page Reading Specialist Abington, PA schools