I don’t know about your kids, but my kids are starvingggg when they get home from school. They can be a little crabby and they usually don’t feel like doing homework or talking about their day. After many difficult afternoons with fighting and meltdowns over the smallest things, I realized I need to make it a point to feed them before I expect them to be the least bit productive. Today I am sharing our favorite quick and easy after school snack and activity I put together to feed my hungry kids.
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AFTER SCHOOL SNACK AND ACTIVITY
If you have followed along with the blog or my Instagram for a while, you guys know I like to come up with really simple ways to make special memories with my kids. This after school snack and activity is the perfect way to do just that. It’s so simple yet my kids absolutely love it when I pull out one these muffin tin snack trays. I think it’s special to them because it’s different than our normal after school snacks and since we are all sharing the same tray, we sit together to eat it.
Some of the snacks we include in our muffin tin snack tray
When preparing snacks for my kids, I try to keep them as balanced as I can and I think of the snack more like a mini-meal. Without being too strict or complicated, I try to include fat, protein, and carb in our snacks to satisfy their crazy hunger and to keep them full until dinnertime. I don’t put all of these items in the tray each time. I select a few items from the list below and put at least 2 servings of each on the tray. Here are some of our favorites:
- Vegetables with hummus or ranch. My boys especially love English cucumbers, carrots, and bell peppers. We recently started making this super yummy ranch dip thanks to Auntie Cari for sharing it with us! We make it dairy-free by using almond milk instead of regular milk.
- Goldfish crackers and Babybel Cheese. Noah is obsessed with cheese despite being lactose intolerant. He really likes these Babybel cheese rolls. I like that they have 5g protein per serving!
- Yogurt and nuts. The boys like cashews (another good source of protein) and almonds and they eat Stoneyfield yogurt tubes.
- Cheese and nuts
- Crackers and peanut butter
- Crackers or pita bread and hummus
- Fruit
I always give the boys an after school snack before we sit down for homework. As I said, my boys are hungry and exhausted and just don’t focus well until they have eaten. A healthy, balanced snack will boost their energy to help them complete their homework and set us up for a more enjoyable evening.
To make this time more fun, we usually play a game together while we eat our snacks. Lately, we have been loving the game Qwirkle, but we also like to play Uno and Jenga. For more game ideas, check out this post.
When my boys get home from school I immediately want to know everything about their day. How was it? Who did they play with? Who did they sit with at lunch? What are they learning about? I want to know it all. But they usually just tell me “I don’t know.” or “My day was fine.”. I have noticed, though, that when we are all sitting together sharing a snack and playing a game, they are the ones to initiate the conversation about their day at school. And from there I am able to ask more questions and I get much more out of them. It’s a really great way to connect with your kids after a long day of school.
Connor’s tee | my tee | Noah’s tee
The little extra effort and prep for this after school snack and activity is so worth it. Looking back on the memories you create over snack time is absolutely priceless. I know it’s cheesy but the saying “the days are long but the years are short” is so true and I am feeling it more than ever lately. The boys are growing up so fast. I want to enjoy this time with them and creating these special memories is a priority for me.
I really hope this idea was helpful and encourages you to set up your own muffin tin snack tray and hang out with your kiddos! Let me know if you try it and what you put in your muffin tin.
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