AFTER SCHOOL SNACKS - WHAT DO YOU GIVE THEM?

[SPARKLER1]

I'm always wondering what to do for the best at this time of day. DDs are always starving when they come out of school so I never know if it's best to get organised and give them their evening meal early - then they are pretty guaranteed to clear their plates . They are free to have whatever they like after that.
Mine usually have a bag of crisps or bag of sweets - occasionally I can get a piece of fruit into them.
Just interested to hear what ideas you peeps have out there.

Thankyou, never seen that before.

but with ecloths even wiping is a pleasure

I have one that I use on the kids

my ds has just had two biscuits and a lolly

slice of malt loaf
carrot sticks
raisins
apple
banana
piece of toast and marmite
breadstick

I'm with gingerbear: no crap till after tea!

2 biscuits, glass of milk.
Mine have already had a piece of fruit at morning break and one with their lunch. And at 4pm they just want something to take the edge off their hunger until tea-time which I don't think fruit does particularly well. Don't think biscuits will do them any harm, but would probably draw the line at a whole bag of crisps due to high salt content.

There must be lots of calcium in a cornetto (somewhere)

My two ds's have school lunches, I give them dinner at 4.30 or so (it gets mostly ignored but we're still trying to balance that- last week's scrambled eggs weren't enough). We're trialling pasta tomorrow, it was savoury mince and a granary roll today. They then get a snack (toast or crisps) at beedtime. At school they had dried apricits for morning snack, then a roast dinner and a cake.

Mine all have fruit or a biscuit for morning break, then proper cooked lunch. I can't be doing with cooking for the kids then again once they're in bed! Cause they've had a proper lunch I don't do snacks in the pm unless we're at the park or beach in which case it's ice cream. They have a nursey tea at 4.45 ish. boiled egg and soldiers or something like that.

nursery not nursey

raisen bread
cheese sticks
cheese dippers
fruit
rasiens
bread sticks
olives
raw carrot and dip etc

Water

they gte that about 3.30, then tea at 5

looks like the after school snack is more popular than an early evening meal then.

Like the idea of the fruit leather - DS1 has seen his friends eat those horrble fruit winders and always says he wants them. They are full of crap.

Having said that we usually call in at the sweetie shop after school and get an ice cream or a small bar of choc (like a fudge bar or something). he had tea at about 5.30 and it's normally something pretty healthy.

I started giving mine there meal earlier. then toast as a super later on. but have drifted back into my bad ways!!! Plus DS1 isnt ready for his so early.

Fruit and then an early evening meal.

I find that I can't give DS tea at 5 if he eats a lot after school so he generally has dinner with us at 7pm (when he has had a bath and is in his pjs). He always eats well so I have no bother there.
I have a very basic rule ... he can have treats but only AFTER he has had a piece of fruit ... so, first he has some fruit, then he can have a bag of crisps ... if he is still hungry after that he has to have some more fruit before having a biscuit or a milkshake or something and so on. That way, as he isn't big on fruit, I can work out if he is really hungry or if he is just after the snack fix. If he isn't really hungry he won't bother with the fruit and so won't have the snack ... IYSWIM?
Sometimes he is so hungry that he will eat all afternoon till about 5.30 and then still have a big meal at 7pm.
He astounds me with a) his appetite and b) his in built preference for healthy/savoury stuff ... he loves vegetables and will eat absolutely anything ... he doesn't like sweets and isn't big on chocolate.
You may think I am boasting but I feel I am allowed to be proud seeing as DS has never slept through the night for 12 hours his whole life (he is nearly 6) so I have a good eater but am a zombie from sleep deprivation

fruit
hummous and breadsticks
this has not changed in 4 years
dd 3 also eats this around 4.30pm and she has we all eat again at 7

Not sure - will DS need something. They have fruit in the afternoon at school. He has school dinners and I cook for us all for about 6 pm. He had a yoghurt at the CMs yesterday though and ate all his tea but made a fuss which I put down to tiredness (first full day of CM and school).

My kids must have hollow legs - they never seem to stop eating.

Breakfast of cereal and toast.
Fruit at school break.
DS1(8) - school dinners, DS2(4) home for sandwiches or pasta and fruit.
Fruit/veg at school break.
Sandwich or toast and spread after school. Sometimes choc biscuit as well.
Main dinner at about 6 - 6.30
Supper of couple of biscuits and milk.

They can manage to fit crisps and sweets in on some afternoons, between the after school snack and main dinner.