Family Lists

Having children is great, right? The sound of children's laughter, the cuteness overload, and the pride of seeing them succeed and grow. Of course! But, it's not always fun family time. Children can be unreasonably energetic. As a parent, you need to not only keep them fed and healthy, but also sustain and cater to their rampant energy needs. A good grocery list for kids will certainly help.

Why a Good Grocery List for Kids is Important

Children, from toddlers to pre-teens, and even adolescents, are always buzzing with energy. Where does it all come from? Even though trying to keep up with the pace of your children can be tiring as a parent, it's still important to meet the needs of these prolonged bursts of energy.

But there's a catch.

When you're feeding your children to keep their energy levels up, you need to make sure that their health won't suffer as a result.

Child obesity is a growing problem. In America, 20% of children are classed as obese. Childhood obesity can lead to health issues later in life such as type 2 diabetes, asthma, liver disease, heart disease, and more. Obese children are also more prone to bullying, and tend to perform worse in school than their healthier friends.

But keeping them healthy is not easy. 

Children love sugary and unhealthy food, often avoiding food that is actually good for them. Even when you do find something your little darlings like, their tastes can turn on a dime, especially when young. Their favorite food one day may become their most hated the next!

So, knowing how to make a good grocery list for kids will ensure you'll do an A+ job of keeping your kids active and healthy. Read on to find out the what and the why behind the food you put on your healthy grocery list for kids, or skip straight to the free if you wish.

The 3 Main Goals of Keeping Energetic Children Fed and Healthy

#1 Keep Their Energy Levels Up

Even though it may be tiring for you, keeping your child's energy levels up is a good thing. But, you need to ensure that the energy from the food you're feeding them is good energy. What you'll want is food that is full of slow-release energy.

But what type of food contains this?

The answer: complex carbohydrates.

Complex carbohydrates are energy sources that take a while for the body to break down. This means the energy that your kids will get is sustained and constant. What's more, such food is usually high in fiber. This will keep your children feeling full for longer, and less likely to be reaching for those tempting sugary and fatty unhealthy snacks.

The opposite of complex carbohydrates is simple carbohydrates. These carbs break down fast giving kids a quick rush of energy, only for them to crash and burn in an energy slump afterward. The most notorious of simple carbohydrates is refined sugar. But they can also be found in the form of starch in items such as milk, and even some fruit.

However, it's sugar that you should make the most effort to stay away from.

#2 Nourish Them With Vital Nutrients

As well as keeping their energy levels up, children also need a balanced diet full of important vitamins and minerals to make sure they grow and develop properly.

So what nutrients do your children need?

Protein

This is one of the most important nutrients for children. It helps build muscles and their immune system.

Iron

Iron helps red blood cell development, making them carry oxygen to other cells more effectively. A lack of iron in a child's diet can lead to amenia.

Calcium and Vitamin D

Both calcium and vitamin D are essential for healthy bone growth and development.

Healthy Fat

Healthy fat helps build nerve systems and aids brain development. It also helps to boost metabolism.

Vitamin C

If you could name only one vitamin, it's probably this one. We all need vitamin C to help build our immune systems and healing ability. But it also nourishes the brain and aids its development, as well as enhances the absorption of iron.

#3 Make Food Look Attractive

It's all about the presentation! No-one likes to eat odd or unappetizing-looking food. Children especially. So, you need to make sure what you serve to your children looks good enough to wolf down without any fussing or complaining.

Even healthy food, which children might turn their noses up at, will be munched on if it looks great.

While there are plenty of examples online of parents who have done amazing things with their children's' food, not every parent has that amount of time to do things like cut apple slices into the shape a fish, or cookie-cut countless banana stars.

However, you can keep food attractive to children by keeping dishes colorful. You can also find food that is great for kids and is playful to eat. String cheese and fruit strips are great examples of healthy but fun food.

Also, you can try and find healthy alternatives to their favorite food, should they want to enjoy something more appealing, such as paleo snickerdoodle cookies.

Should My Kids Go Paleo?

This is a question very few people have probably asked, but it's actually a good one.

The answer? Yes!

While the first thing that comes to mind about the might be that it's some fad weight loss diet, many of the recipes for a paleo diet are actually perfect for feeding children.

Why?

Because paleo food tends to be high in protein and healthy fat and very low in unhealthy fat and simple carbohydrates. Unlike other popular diets, paleo also encourages the eating of fiber and vitamin-rich fruit and vegetables.

However, you still need to ensure that your children are getting a balanced diet, and that might mean not keeping them on a strict paleo diet. But many paleo food, snacks, and meals are perfect for keeping children healthy and energetic.

Your Healthy Grocery List for Kids

What could be more glorious than having a new addition to the family? Having a child is a labor of love and care. But with all the doctor’s visits, baby-showers, and dealing with the changes pregnancy has on you and your family, have you even started to think about a newborn baby shopping list for all those newborn essentials you need?

Baby Boom

It really goes without saying that looking after the physical and medical side of pregnancy is most important. But at the same time, thinking about what you need to be buying and preparing for your baby’s arrival shouldn’t be left by the wayside. Not only will you be experiencing a lot of physical, mental, and emotional changes leading up to labor, there are still many extra challenges after the birth. This means you might find putting together lists of things you need a little difficult either side of your baby’s birth.

So, let us help take some of the pressure of pregnancy and early parenthood by providing you with a newborn baby shopping list. We’ll also go through some handy dos and don’ts. But, you're more than welcome to skip straight to the newborn baby products list.

Newborn Baby Shopping List Dos & Don’ts

Dos

Get others to help - if you’re the baby-carrying parent, you’re going to be going through a lot. So don’t feel bad about delegating things and getting some help on board. Even if you’re the parent providing support, you’ll also face some challenges and might need an extra pair of hands. But remember, too many cooks spoil the broth. You don’t want the people who are supposed to be helping you ironically cause you more stress.

Prepare as early as possible - there are so many things to sort out when having a baby that makes this point much easier said than done. But, if you can get everything together as soon as possible, should any sudden events or unexpected things happen, you’ll have everything primed and ready to go.

Check your local laws - did you know that some hospitals won’t let the baby come home with you until you have an approved baby car seat properly fitted in your vehicle? Is the name you want to give your new baby acceptable? In some countries, you can only choose from an official baby registry of names. Laws and rules like this are really worth checking. Finding you’re not ready for such things can be a real unexpected bugbear.

Prepare for a long hospital stay - it might turn out that you won’t need to be spending extra time at the hospital. But if you do, there’s nothing worse than not being prepared for it. Making sure you’re equipped for any extra nights there certainly doesn't hurt. You needn’t bring it all with you when you get admitted into hospital either. Your supporting partner, family member, or friend, can bring the extra provisions when needed, meaning you won’t have to worry about bringing too much with you straight away.

Share your newborn baby shopping list - using a with a sharing function can really help get people on board to help you prepare. Those who you’ve shared it with might even have some of the items you need and might lend, give or sell items cheaply to you. You can also make a wishlist for your baby shower using one and share it with your friends. This is another great and popular way to get some of the items that you need without duplication.

Don’ts

Buy everything new - if you’re not careful, the costs of having a baby can mount up even before they’re born. You can save a lot by looking to see if you can get hand-me-downs from friends and family.

You can even buy some items second hand from thrift stores and charity shops. You can also look for online support groups that might have members that are able to sell unneeded items or even give them away from free in your area.

Newborn Baby Products List

We know you’re pressed for time, so we’ll get straight to providing you with your list for the hospital and for when your baby comes home.

Bouncing Baby Joy!

We hope that this shopping list will help you better usher in a new baby boy or baby girl into your family.

So, you’re sorting out your school supplies list for the new academic year. A good way to figure out what should be on your back to school list is to start with your pencil case. It might seem like a pretty easy task. Just grab some pens, pencils, and color pencils from the shelf in a shop, right?

But there are a lot of different types of supplies to choose from, and depending on what you’ll be doing at school, it’s important to choose the right ones. Why? Because whilst some accessories encourage and assist studying, others are not as useful or comfortable to use as they may seem.

As a teacher of English as a foreign language, the sister of a 10-year-old and a former student myself, I have experience about what school accessories parents buy for their children, what students choose for themselves, and what they should have on their school items list. Some parents tend to choose accessories because they are currently popular, like pencils with cartoon characters on them. Other parents are just not aware of the advantages and drawbacks of certain products. As a result, they can opt for school supplies which are cheap or a familiar brand but are not optimal.

So let’s think about what school accessories should be part of everyone’s back to school supplies and the variations for different educational stages.

Basic School Supplies List

Everyone’s pencil case and school supplies list should always include a:

• Pencil
• Pen
• Pencil sharpener
• Eraser
• Ruler

In many schools, writing with pencils is more common than using a pen so be sure to have plenty of these.

You could choose a standard school pencil as they’re cheap and easy to find. But it can be quite messy to sharpen its tip with a pencil sharpener. Therefore, you might consider a mechanical pencil.

The size of its tip is always the same and there’s a great variety of sizes. This kind of pencil is more precise, making it perfect for technical sketches. A drawback of a mechanical pencil is that you always need some spare refills as the tip is much thinner than a standard pencil and breaks easily. Therefore, you might need to refill it sooner than expected.

A pen is another of the most basic school accessory and there are plenty of kinds that you could add to your school items list:

• Ballpoint - this type uses a small ball to transfer the ink to the paper. These have a long lifespan, are inexpensive, and easy to find and replace. However, you do need to apply a significant amount of pressure to write with these compared to other pens, making writing for long periods of time potentially uncomfortable.
• Rollerball - liquid ink is used in these pens to help create a finer line on paper than ballpoint pens. Writing with a rollerball pen provides a smoother writing experience as less pressure is needed when writing.
• Gel - gel-based ink provides the smoothest and fastest writing, but is not as economical as a ballpoint or rollerball pen.
• Fountain - this is better for the environment as the reservoirs may be refilled giving them a longer life. It’s a classic pen with which you don’t need to apply much pressure to write. However, it may be difficult to write as a fountain pen needs to be held at a specific angle, and are best suited for older children.

Elementary School

When your little one starts education, the number of school accessories you need to put on your school supplies list can be a little overwhelming, especially if it’s the first time you’re sending a child to school. Apart from the basics above, there are some extras you’ll need to add to your school items list.

Elementary school students mostly need art supplies, as students will mostly explore the world through creative activities such as drawing, painting, and art projects.

• Color pencils
• Crayons
• Washable markers
• Non-toxic glue stick
• Blunt-tipped safety scissors

The colored pencils you’ll need to buy must be durable as young children tend to drop, step on, smash, break, and throw their school supplies. Such colored pencils may be difficult to find, but their tougher barrel means they’ll last longer. Regardless, you should make sure that those you buy should be easy to use and hold.

Two important features that you should consider when buying crayons is size and safety. For children in kindergarten and the first three years of primary school, regular sized crayons are recommended instead of jumbo ones. Jumbo crayons are more suitable for toddlers, who hold a crayon with their whole hand and use their whole arm to draw. Regular sized version helps to develop the proper grip in an elementary student’s bigger hands.

Safety of crayons and pastels is related to the ingredients they’re made of. It’s better to choose crayons made of materials such as beeswax. Ingredients to be avoided are:

• Asbestos
• Lead
• Paraffin
• Aromatic amines
• PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons)

Washable markers are perfect for children in elementary school. This is because any stains and marks on skin, clothes, and walls, are easy to remove with a wet sponge. The most important thing to look for when adding them to your school supplies list is that the formula used is non-toxic.

Middle School & High School

When putting your back to school list together for your child in middle or high school, you’ll need to be a bit more discerning about what to include. This will be based on your child’s age and the number, difficulty, and type of subjects they’re taking.

Regardless, there are still some items that are useful in all of these situations that should be on your middle or high school supply list. They’ll also help students focus more on organizing notes and study materials.

• Highlighters
• Correction fluid/pen/tape
• Erasable pen
• Stapler
• Staples
• Hole punch
• Protractor
• Set square
• Compass
• Scissors
• Adhesive or washi tape

When you’re putting highlighters on your middle or high school back to school list it’s easy to be bedazzled by the choice of colors and shapes. But, more importantly, look to see if they non-bleeding, fast-drying, or anti-smear.

If you want to include correction fluid/pen/tape on your school supplies list then you need to consider several factors that affect usability.

• Fluid - good for correcting a larger surface but it may be quite messy. These also take longer to dry than other types.
• Pen - precise and perfect for tiny corrections. It doesn’t spill, so it creates less mess. However, it may take a while to dry and can leave a small indentation on the page when pressed too hard.
• Tape - this gives a nice precise effect for correcting long lines of text. It also dries very quick. It can be bought in refillable versions, too. However, sometimes the tape can break or the correction strip doesn’t stick to the page properly.

Instead of correction fluid, pen, or tape, you might want to consider buying an erasable pen. It allows you to erase the thermo-sensitive ink with an eraser added to the pen which is made of rubber cement.

There are many types of staplers and staples you could add to your school supplies list, such as heavy-duty, electric, handheld, or long-reach. But none of these are necessary for school purposes. A desktop stapler or a mini stapler is perfectly sufficient as they’re easy to buy and quick to use.

A classic desktop stapler is most likely suitable to staple about 15-20 pages, whilst the mini version will staple up to 15 pages. However, the mini version is much smaller and lightweight so it can easily be carried in a pencil case.

As for adding a hole punch to your back to school supplies list, standard two or three-hole punches are usually best for use at home. Otherwise, they’re a bit too big to carry around in your pencil case. But you can instead find a mini one-hole or two-hole punch if really think you need one on your school supplies list.

Hopefully, we’ve given you a good basic school items list to build upon, helping you to create a robust elementary, middle, and high school back to school list. You’ll undoubtedly be adding extra items to these lists depending on the particular school’s compulsory and elective subjects. So, feel free to expand, omit, or change anything on this school supplies list. You can even .

School Supplies List Essentials - Pencil Case

At this time of year, children’s imaginations are working overtime. Whilst some children may be a little scared, there will be many who can’t wait until they are able to put on their costumes, go trick-or-treating, and eat lots of Halloween candy. What helps to engage this burst of creativity is making Halloween kids decorations.

However, many traditional decoration activities and Halloween crafts, such as carving Halloween pumpkins, can be a little unsuitable for children as they may get hurt or the tasks are too difficult for them. Instead, allow them to make decorations for their room on their own, or with your help. This can also help you cut down what you spend on Halloween party decorations as these handmade decorations are made of mostly paper and adhesive tape which usually don’t cost too much.

Check out ideas for cheap DIY Halloween kids decorations.

DIY Halloween Kids Decorations Shopping Tips

Do focus on simple Halloween crafts. The products used for such decorations are not difficult to use and are cheap and easy to work with.

Do recycle decorations and accessories for other celebrations, such as birthdays, and adapt these to become Halloween party decorations.

Do make shopping lists. By making a shopping list you can keep better track of what you’ve bought and what you still need to buy, reducing the potential for missed items or duplicates. You may use an electronic shopping list, such as Listonic, which has many convenient features, such as a and a function.

Do check at home first for whether you have the materials needed for the crafts. It may prevent you from buying unnecessary items, saving you even more money, and helping you be a bit more environmentally-friendly by recycling.

Witch’s Hats

A witch is one of Halloween’s most recognizable symbols. A homemade one doesn’t take up much time or money.

1. Use the adhesive tape to stick a birthday cone hat to a paper plate
2. Paint the hat black
3. Thread a piece of string through the top of the hat
4. Hang it wherever you want

Additionally, you may cover the witch’s hat with glitter or cover it with fake cobwebs.

Witch’s Hat Shopping List

• Birthday cone hat (from $1.50)
• Paper plate (from $2)
• Double-sided adhesive tape (from $3)
• Black paint (from $2)
• String (from $1)

Total: $9.50

Witch’s Legs

If you have a pair of tights and a pair of old and battered boots, you have almost everything to make these witch’s legs. Preferably, the color of the tights should be purple, black, orange, or a combination of these colors.

1. Fill tights with any kind of fabric or dry waste
2. Put on the boots on the ends of the stuffed tights

You may place the legs under the bed, the couch, or even the doormat.

Witch’s Legs Shopping List

• Tights (from $5)

Total: $5

Paper Bats

Making bats made of paper are classic Halloween kids decorations. Despite their simplicity and easiness to make, these can still look quite impressive.

1. Fold a sheet of black paper in half
2. Draw a half of a bat with a pencil. Make sure the body of the bat is where the fold in the paper is.
3. Cut out the bat
4. Unfold the paper to see the full bat form

You may thread a string through a bat’s head and hang it somewhere, or use double-sided adhesive tape to stick the bat to the wall or any piece of furniture.

With this Halloween kids decoration you can also add as many extra details as you like. You can cut out fangs using pieces of white paper and stick them to the bat, or add some googly eyes. You might even consider painting a used toilet roll tube black and attaching it to your paper bat to make it more 3D.

Paper Bats Shopping List

• Sheet of black paper (from $2)

Total: $2

Spider Web on the Floor

A spider web on the floor using string may not be the safest option. Instead, create a spider web using electrical or washi tape.

1. Choose a place on the floor where you want to have your spider web
2. Use electrical or washi tape to create a spider web

Spider Web on the Floor

• Electrical or washi tape (from $2)

Total: $2

Mummy Juice Bottle

Creating a mummy out of a plastic bottle is a great way of recycling waste. It’s also easy and quick to make so that even small children can have a go at creating one.

1. Take an empty bottle of juice
2. Cover the bottle with narrow white elastic adhesive bandage
3. Glue the googly eyes on the front

Mummy Juice Bottle Shopping List

• Juice bottle (from $4)
• White elastic adhesive bandage (from $3)
• Googly eyes (from $1.50)

Total: $8.50

Black Cat Balloons

Balloons are often used for decorating parties. But even if you’re not planning to throw a Halloween party, you can still use balloons to decorate a child’s room for Halloween.

1. Blow up some black balloons
2. Cut cat ears and whiskers out of black paper
3. Use double-sided adhesive tape to stick the ears and whiskers to the balloon

You may also create bat and spider balloons in a similar way using similar materials.

Halloween Balloon Shopping List

• Black balloons (from $1)
• Black paper (from $2)
• Double-sided adhesive tape (from $3)

Total: $6

Monster Door

Monsters can be pretty scary as costumes, but have you ever thought of creating monster decorations, such as a monster door?

1. Cut small circles out of black paper
2. Use double-sided adhesive tape to stick these circles to white paper plates to create eyes
3. Use double-sided adhesive tape to stick the eyes to the door
4. Use masking tape to create a mouth

You can also be as creative as you want with these. You can create as many eyes as you want, and also use different pieces of colored paper to create different features such as hair and teeth.

Monster Door Shopping List

• Black paper (from $2)
• Double-sided adhesive tape (from $3)
• White paper plates (from $2)
• Masking tape (from $2)

Total: $9

Have a Spooky Halloween!

Creating these Halloween kids decorations should be all about fun and spending time together. Be creative and adjust these ideas to your needs and your imagination.

Read our other Halloween shopping list ideas to get more inspiration for Halloween decorations. Let us know what you think of these ideas for Halloween kids decorations or share your own ideas for DIY Halloween kids decorations in the comments. For more inspiration, check out our other articles in our Halloween section.

Shopping Guides

Shopping List Ideas

Blog