It took me until yesterday, the fourth of January, to flip my calendar to 2012. I’m not sure if I was in denial or if I was just lazy, but it’s done now and there’s no looking back. So far, there’s only one thing I’ve written on my January calendar page: kindergarten registration. (Okay, so keeping the calendar on December 2011 was probably denial.)

The school my four-year-old will go to for kindergarten does full days, which means that my daughter will be there for lunch. This is all fine and good, except for one thing: she eats a peanut butter sandwich every day for lunch and her school-to-be is a nut-free zone. This is going to be a problem.

Because I (most-often) like planning ahead, I’ve been thinking about this lunchtime conundrum and its possible solutions. My daughter is a picky eater, but one thing she does like as an alternative to her peanut butter sandwich is a bunch of little things. It doesn’t really matter what these “little things” are (as long as they’re not tomatoes), if it’s colourful and fun, odds are she’ll eat it. Enter: these three cool-looking compartment lunch boxes.

Clockwise from top left:

1. Goodbyn
The Goodbyn comes in two sizes: The Original has five compartments, while The Bynto has three compartments. Both sizes come with an 8 oz bottle and two sets of stickers so that your child can make his or her lunch box unique. The Goodbyn is dishwasher-safe and is also recyclable. US$17-US$26, available at select Canadian retail locations

2. EasyLunchboxes
If you’re worried about your kid losing his or her lunch box and you don’t want to shell out the dough for one of the other options, this is the one you want. Since it comes in a pack of four, there are extras just in case one gets forgotten, or if you have more than one school-aged child. EasyLunchboxes have three compartments (one large, two small), are dishwasher-safe, and come in four colors. US$14 for a set of 4, available from easylunchboxes.com

3. PlanetBox
The PlanetBox is, by far, the coolest lunch box I’ve ever seen. It is made of stainless steel and has five compartments, with an option of adding two more. Each PlanetBox comes with a set of magnets (there are 15 sets to choose from) and is easy to open and close. The PlanetBox is dishwasher-safe and recyclable. US$40-US$60, available from PlanetBox.com

Jen Wilson is a married mother of three super-awesome children—two girls and a boy—who range in age from 0-10. She enjoys photography, organizing, reading, TV, and sarcasm. She drinks her coffee black and dreams of one day owning a dishwasher. You can also find her on her blog, Hey Mrs. Wilson, where she has been writing about life in Saskatchewan since 2004.