After School Snacking with barkTHINS

This post has been sponsored by barkTHINS. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This year marks the start of middle school for my 11-year-old. Like most kids, it’s a big deal for him. He’s more aware what he looks like—his hair, his clothes, something that up until now never mattered. With that also comes more extra-curricular activities like homework club, a YouTube class, all in addition to playing sports. Needless to say, its been a little bit chaotic but nothing like my first go-around with my oldest, who is now a senior in high school. I’ve learned a few things and a few tricks like making sure they stay fueled between school and sports.

First pro-tip: Always have cold water and snacks on hand in the car because the first words are never, “Hi, how was your day?” It’s usually, “I’m so hungry. Where is the water?” For my 11-year-old, it’s like he spent his 6 hours of school hiking through a desert. For the times I’ve forgotten to refill the water bottle reserve, it gets ugly—fast. Like some kind of feral dog, he is underneath seats, behind benches in my Suburban scrounging for water bottles—tipping and tapping the bottle at a 90-degree angle to extract the last few drops. Gross.

Second pro-tip: Snacks. Keep them handy and keep them well-stocked. What’s worse than a thirsty feral dog? A hungry, cranky feral dog. I don’t get it, it’s like he doesn’t eat at school. No matter how much I pack, the result is always the same when the car door opens, “Do you have food?”

As I mentioned, I’m learning. I am cooler-ready nowadays. It’s filled with lots of water and bags my family’s favorite: barkTHINS. The kids don’t care what flavor, because they love them all.

barkTHINS are offered in 9 different varieties, so I keep the below favorites on rotation:

• Dark Chocolate Almond with Sea Salt
• Chocolate Pretzel with Sea Salt
• Dark Chocolate Toasted Coconut and Almond

Lately, we are so crunched for time between homework club and baseball, so to get through snacks classwork and downtime before the next activity, we lay a blanket down outside to eat and do homework for the hour before we have to rush off. It keeps him fueled, happy and that feral dog at bay. And if we are lucky, we finish a few minutes early and we can lay back on our blanket talking about our next travel spot, how PE sucks, and his life as a middle-schooler. It’s our after-school routine that is so much more than just homework. And along for the ride is barkTHINS, which has become a staple around here as our whenever, why-ever snack.