Back to School Care Packages!

I am crying tears of joy mixed with great sadness as my oldest daughter prepares for her freshman year of college at the University of Maryland in the fall. She has already told me I am to send care packages.

So it was neat to receive a school sponsored offer in the mail "aiming for 100% participation" for the care packages they were selling! What could be more fun for her and easier for me than ready-made packages with my "personal, handwritten note" delivered directly to her dorm.

At least that was what I was thinking until I read the details on the "favorite with student" goodie boxes ? the more boxes you buy the better the value. The Welcome Package includes Nerds candies, strawberry twizzlers, fruit candies, potato chips, caramels, Laffy Taffy, atomic fireball candies, Tootsie pops, peanut chews, toffee popcorn, chewy fruit gems etc. Oh yeah there is a mini sports bottle, stationary set and sewing kit in there too.

With the exception of the first package, none of the other boxes contained anything but candy, munchies and other faux goodies, except the Halloween one which boasted a bendable skeleton and a plastic spider friend!

So mom will be making and sending her own care packages! If you have a child going off to boarding school or college, it's easy to make and fill care packages ? and certainly more personal.

Students will always enjoy food. So you may want to include some food items they can't find easily on campus or healthy items that you bake. If you are sending perishables wait until the weather is cool. Goods will easily spoil in hot weather. Cookies can be baked, layered on sheets of wax paper and place in a cardboard gift box (like the inexpensive Xmas boxes). Place this box inside a sturdier heavy duty cardboard box, add padding and your other items. Your student may enjoy baked chips, granola bars, nuts, and other tasty items that won't spoil easily.

Tuck in extras like a first aid kit, sewing notions, tea bags, good coffee, a thesaurus, gift certificate to online vendors like Amazon, or to local shops and restaurants, greetings from the family, CD's, stamps, stationary, phone card, mug, oversized tees,etc. personalize it to your student's interests.

Pack everything carefully being sure to tape down the caps of any lotions you are including to make them leak proof. Be sure you have plenty of padding in the box. Have UPS pick it up at your door by calling their direct 800 number or take it to UPS or to the Post Office.

That's the kind of package that shows you really care!

About The Author

Lee Mellott is the webhost for The PATH Weight Loss: www.fatfallacy.com.

She holds a Masters degree in Education from Hood College. Born in England, she spent most of her childhood in France and Germany. Lee resides with her husband Rusty and their two daughters Katie and Jessica in Maryland.

lee@fatfallacy.com

In The News:

Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have captured the public's attention over the decades. As exoplanet detection is on the rise, why not consider that star-hopping visitors from afar might be buzzing through our friendly skies by taking an interstellar off-ramp to Earth?

NASA is committed to finding life in the universe and new evidence shows that they might be best suited looking at "Goldilocks stars" instead of stars known as red dwarfs.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Young climate activists including Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg told business and political elites gathered Tuesday at the World Economic Forum that they aren't doing enough to tackle the climate emergency and warned them that time was running out.

A new study notes that squirrels have dominant sides to their bodies and are left or right-handed, just like humans.

NASA's plan is to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024, but the European Space Agency is working on a plan to help humans breathe on the celestial satellite — by turning moondust into oxygen.

Predators, especially small invertebrates like spiders, are more likely to be decimated when natural habitats get converted for human use, a new global study claims.

After a series of heartbreaking images of starving lions in Sudan were posted online, a global campaign is underway to save them.

Crocodiles have survived on Earth for 200 million years, but the prehistoric version of the resilient reptile was warm-blooded and not cold-blooded like the modern-day version, new research shows.

Instead of a regular apartment made of wood, concrete, glass and metal, every aspect of the space would be composed of a living fungus.

Tourists clamor to see Petra in Jordan, Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Machu Picchu in Peru — onetime megacities that now capture our imagination and fuel legends. But they’re not the only mythic spots. Here are some of the most mysterious abandoned locales in the world.

Back to School Care Packages!

Parenting Parenting