School is back in session but work schedules and school schedules may deplete quality family dining time. One answer is to share lunch themes so that the dinner conversation progresses into a meaningful exchange. Students can easily relate to themes. Help develop a young student’s decision making skills by selecting a weekly or monthly theme. Consider international themes and have the child select a featured country. Tape a map the selected country to the inside top of the lunchbox and pick a menu based on the culture of that country. These teachable moments can enhance the study of geography, nutrition, cuisine and artistic interpretation. An intriguing lunch theme can lead to an interesting dinner table discussion that evening. Weekly theme considerations are holidays; current events; poetry; music history; famous artists; continuing education planning; sports; vacation planning; science inventions; riddle solving; new cars; new airplanes; new phones; new computer programs; the metric system; good books; biographies; good movies; pets and the history of food. Boring thoughtless lunches are out and initiative and ingenuity is in. So, wrap it up with a big positive outlook bow. Think outside the box – the creative lunchbox. Many more creative ideas can be found in my book, School Lunches That Make The Grade. © Kelly McBride Loft