KIDS | Back to School 2021! Must Haves + Homework Cart

Hello! My girls ages 10 and 7 are both going back to school tomorrow, so I thought it would be fun to round up some school must haves for them! We also re-organized their homework cart, so I thought it would be helpful to share that as well.

First up, water bottles. My girls always bring a refillable water bottle to school, and these from Simple Modern are their favorite. They are stainless steel, come in a ton of colors/patterns, and they are dishwasher safe! Oh, and you can get them on Amazon.

how cute, right? The water stays cold all day!

Next up, some vitamins. I don’t give the girls a multivitamin since they have a well balanced diet, but I do give them vitamin c/elderberry gummies every morning. Especially with all of this Covid stuff, I figure it can’t hurt, right?

They love the taste of these gummies. I put them into this mason jar so that they could easily open them…and it’s more aesthetically pleasing to me 🙂

Speaking of Covid (ugh), I want to share their favorite reusable masks to wear. It is challenging to find masks that are comfortable and breathable, and we have found some that they really like.

My 10-year old Allie likes the cotton ones from Cat&Jack at Target. These have a metal little nosepiece and are very breathable and comfortable for her.

It was a little bit challenging to find masks for my 7-year old Ashley. She is very small for her age, (barely 40 lbs) and so I found these toddler ones on Etsy. They are kind of like bathing suit material, very stretchy, and they have the built in ear loops. She LOVES these and wears them just for fun sometimes!

I put both kinds into a laundry bag every few days and wash them in the machine and then let them air-dry.

Let’s talk lunch! It’s the best part, right?

I love to include notes in my girls’ lunchboxes every day. They do buy school lunch about half of the time, but they love to bring their lunch too. I found the BEST notes on Amazon.

These come in a pack of 100, and have 50 different patterns, so they are perfect because I can give the girls the same one each day. They have the cutest little sayings and would be good for boys or girls! I know it makes the girls really happy when they get a note. I also like how there is space on the back to write something. It’s just a little something special to let them know how much I love them!

Here are some other little things I like to use for their lunches.

I love to use cookie cutters for their sandwiches, it just makes it more fun for them, and also using little toothpicks to make little turkey/cheese roll ups, and silicone muffin cups to separate certain foods. Also, these little reusable snack bags are so cool! I can put their afternoon snack in here and machine wash these. I usually don’t need to, I can just wash them out really quick by hand so they’ll last longer. I put goldfish crackers, cookies, pretty much any snack will fit inside and I don’t have to buy the plastic snack baggies anymore.

At our house, a homework cart is necessary. We keep this little cart in the kitchen, and it has everything in here that the girls will need to do their homework.

They like to do their homework in the kitchen while I am cooking dinner, so that is why we keep it in here. We have everything in here, so that they won’t have to run to their art table in the playroom to get something.

On the top here we have a little plastic caddy, two cups for each of their pencils and pens, some glue and scissors, and we use the space at the back for any important papers and homework due at the end of the week. Also up top we have a little hair-do caddy. We keep elastics, ponytail holders, hair clips, and a brush in here so that I can do their hair in the morning while they’re eating breakfast. It’s just easier than going over to their rooms to do it.