Seattle Family Calendar
Subscribe
The four essentials
School supply lists are pretty darn specific these days, as in “five packs of 12 Ticonderoga No. 2 wooden pencils.” But the world is your oyster when it comes to the four essentials: backpacks, lunch boxes, water bottles and lunch bags. Here are our picks for the best gear for kids in pre-K through early elementary school. Our criteria: It needs to be easy to clean, easy for little hands and not cost a fortune (because it will get forgotten somewhere).
Best backpack
Top pick: Pottery Barn Mackenzie large backpack
For pre-K, a mini-backpack works just fine because all your preschooler totes around is a snack. Skip Hop makes adorable animal packs and Wildkin backpacks hold up great, too.
Once the kids start elementary school, their stuff multiplies: lunch bag, snack, water bottles, library books, art projects … They’ll need a real backpack. Pottery Barn backpacks are durable and come in cute (if cloyingly gender-specific) patterns. There’s sure to be something to appeal to your kid’s passions. Tips: Buy a darker color to hide stains, and never pay retail. At the very least, sign up for the email list to get a discount.
If your kid isn’t picky about looks, the High Sierra backpack has outlasted our much pricier North Face and Marmot backpacks. It’s the roomiest and most rugged backpack we’ve found yet.
Parents also swear by L.L. Bean and Lands’ End backpacks, which they say still look good as new after several years of use. Both companies often send out coupons, so find a code before you order to bring the price down to something palatable.
But there’s something to be said for that cheapie backpack. Part of the thrill of starting school is picking out new gear, and it’s fun to shop for a new one every year. Buy a backup during the back-to-school sales, just in case someone drags their new backpack on the ground and it busts a hole the first week of school. (Don’t say we didn’t warn you.)
Best lunch box
Top pick: Sugarbooger Good Lunch bento box
Time is of the essence during that blink-and-you-miss-it lunch break, so don’t make your kid mess around with opening lots of little containers. (That’s more lids and pieces to get lost, anyway.) Sugarbooger’s Good Lunch bento box has one lid covering three roomy compartments. The dividers go up to the lid, so even little things like raisins don’t slide around. (Raise your hand if your kid is particular about certain foods not touching.) Tabs on the sides make it easy to open and close the box.
Prefer stainless steel? LunchBots and PlanetBox are popular with plastic-phobic parents. They are an investment, though, so be prepared to sprint to the lost-and-found when your kid comes home sans the $50 lunchbox.
Best water bottle
Top pick: Klean Kanteen 12-ounce stainless steel water bottle
We only fill our water bottles with water, and still, anything with a straw gets disgusting after a while. There’s just no way to clean the gunk out from that area. After throwing away too many expensive Camelbaks, we’re now sticking with straw-free.
We like the screw-top water bottle from Klean Kanteen because it’s dishwasher-safe and leak-proof. They also sell packs of replacement caps, if the lid gets lost. If your kid has trouble with twist caps, another great straw-less option is the On-The-Fly Lock Top Tritan Bottle by Nalgene. And, of course, if your family needs straws, this option still works great.
Best lunch bag
Top pick: PackIt freezable lunch bag
Finally, some genius came up with a lunch bag that’s also an ice pack. Throw the bag in your freezer at night and it’ll keep your lunch fresh during the day. It’s roomy enough to fit a water bottle inside and closes with Velcro on top (bonus for little hands still working on fine motor skills). They come in jazzy prints, too!
But does buying a $20 lunch bag make you want to throw up a little? Because we know certain kids, ahem, who’ve lost enough lunch bags that they wind up toting takeout bags to school. And they do just fine. Hey, we all used brown paper sacks and somehow survived.
Tips for you and the kids!
Label everything. Sharpie, label-maker, be as fancy as you want. Just put your kid’s name on it to increase the chance of it coming home again.
Practice using that gear. Go on lots of picnics! That beautiful monogrammed lunch bag and stainless steel lunch box aren’t going to do any good if your kid can’t open and close them quickly.
Learn to wolf down lunch. The school lunchroom is utter pandemonium. Bell schedules vary, but it could very well be 20 minutes for lunch. That includes time to find your lunch bag, sit down, open the containers, eat, clean up and line up. (So really, three minutes for eating.) It’s no wonder kids come home ravenous. In between the lunch monitor calling out, “Five-minute warning! Two-minute warning!” and all the kids shouting, it’s enough to give anyone indigestion. Send your kid off to school with a belly full of breakfast, and have a mega-snack ready after school.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2018, and updated in July 2022.
