Back to School with Hartley’s jelly pots

With what feels like the blink of an eye the summer holidays are over and the weather is turning chillier. Parents everywhere are in an organising frenzy, as we all slide back into out autumn/winter routines. Ava starts school today and we have been so nervous and excited (me nervous – Ava excited!).

Although Ava adores packed lunches, it isn’t possible to do that at her school. I know lots of her friends will be taking their cute little lunch boxes with them every day though. It can be tricky to find yummy things to pop in their lunch boxes, making sure you’re mindful of healthy and the sugar content. Some products can be so deceiving!

Hartley’s No Added Sugar Jelly Pots have always been a firm favourite for dessert in our house and they’re perfect for lunch boxes too. Who doesn’t love jelly?! No, I have no idea either because EVERYONE loves jelly! Hartley’s sugar free, but you would never guess from the taste. 

I’m always quite conscious of the amount of sugar Ava consumes and try to limit it where at all possible. So I LOVE these jelly pots, for making lunch times (and dessert time!) much easier.

Hartley’s no added sugar jelly pots come in five flavours – Apple and Blackcurrant, Strawberry, Raspberry, Tropical and Orange.  They have no artificial flavours or colours and are fat and gluten free too!  

Hartley’s worked with a child psychologist Dr Sam Wass, who’s behind the awesome Channel 4’s Secret Life of a Four Year old. Sam revealed that conversations children have on their lunch breaks are actually preparing them for their real world.

One girl said: ‘I want to be a policeman because I want to defeat bad guys.’ While her classmate said she wanted to be a doctor so she can ‘fix people’ and another is planning to be a horse-rider, but ‘doesn’t really know what they do’. 

Dr Wass said: ‘Kids pick up on everything around them so it is no wonder that they like to talk to their friends at lunchtime about the same things they hear their parents chatting about.

‘From the research we know that almost half of kids love to speak to their friends for up to 30 minutes over their lunchbox. Having an exciting and interesting lunch will help stimulate this conversation and give them new and exciting topics to discuss. 

‘School lunches are preparing kids for the dinner parties of the future, learning important social and communication skills that makes it one of the most important parts of the school day.’

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post