Create the Perfect College Finals Survival Kit

When my oldest girls were in college, I belonged to a county mom's group for that university. Every spring and fall they would offer a finals kit that we could purchase to be delivered to our students during finals week. This was always a fun time for the moms group to get together and assemble the kit with items one of the club members purchased in bulk. A creative container was always part of the finals kit, too.

While I loved the idea of a finals kit, I was never very crazy about the contents: candy and junk food. This made absolutely no sense to me. During a time when the students would be having more stress, less sleep, and erratic meals, we were going to provide more sugar and processed food to their already weakened immune systems?

My solution was to create a personalized finals kit
and give it to my student at the end of Thanksgiving break as finals week was usually soon after that break.

My suggestions for a healthy, but still fun finals kit:

Vitamin C, a chewable multi-vitamin, or Airborne to boost their immune system

Tea: herbal, green, black - whatever is their favorite

Microwave popcorn - a good alternative to chips for a snack

Nuts- peanuts, almonds, mixed. A quick protein fix

Small jar of peanut butter - another protein option

Graham crackers – for the peanut butter

Protein granola bars

Packages of peanut butter crackers or cheese crackers

 Small boxes of dried fruit (raisins, craisins, etc.)

Gum

Homemade granola 

Bottles of water

Instant soup  

(sodium can reduce stress hormones)

Instant oatmeal

Fruit that keeps well

 (oranges, apples, grapefruit)

Favorite chocolate bar or candy -

 a little splurge is ok if you balance the kit with healthy things

Homemade cookies 

 Coffee mix  or hot chocolate packets

I made my cookies ahead and froze them

Gift card to their favorite pizza, sandwich, or yogurt shop

Chapstick

Pens or pencils

Highlighters

Fun toy

Yes, the Hot Wheels Mega Bloks is a study aid; it gives your brain a fun rest.

These are just suggestions. Personalize it for your student and their living situation.

For containers, consider:

Cuties clementines wooden crate

a basket

a plastic bucket from the toy department

re-usable shopping bag

string backpack

large plastic bowl

I bought my basket at Dollar Tree.

Many colleges have a club on campus that will offer finals kit, but they are also usually pre-packaged, processed junk food.

Personalize the kit for your student and they will know you are thinking about them during finals, plus you will know that you at least tried to keep them healthy during this stressful time.

This is the 'perfect' finals kit for my student because he lives alone and provides all his own meals.  I would probably not have this much food in his kit if he lived in the dorm or with other others.  The kit you create will be 'perfect', too, because it will be for your student. 

This was shared at Whole Hearted Home