Packing lunch for a 6-year-old?

As long as the lunches will be packed in an insulated lunch box with an ice pack, you can do things like salads of all kinds. Not just green salads, but pasta salad, or tuna salad and crackers, or that kind of thing. Toss some fruit, yogurt and granola, carrot sticks with ranch dressing, or even something like Jell-O in there, and you have a pretty decent lunch. My kids also love "tacos" (and they haven't realized tacos are not exactly anything wrapped in tortillas), and my five-year-old LOVES the sun-dried tomato wrap with a little ranch dressing, grilled chicken strips (you can find it in the meat aisle, preseasoned, sliced and cooked) cheese, a little lettuce, and a pickle. Wrap it up, slice it into two pieces, secure with a toothpick or a dab of cream cheese, and put it in there. They also like stuff in pitas, so I've made all kinds of them. They really like the barbeque meat ones (and my three-year-old likes to put Baked Lays in the pocket with the barbeque.... whatever floats his boat) and pizza pocket ones (mix a little spaghetti sauce with shredded mozzerella, pepperoni slices or ham slices with pineapple chunks, and any other typical pizza topping, and spoon it in.) My older son is big on salads, so I've put some chicken Caesar salad in the pita for him before and he loved it. Pitas are great because they're a weird way to serve leftovers.

Chips, cookies and juice boxes are lunchbox staples, but be as smart as you can about it. Get the 100 calorie packs of chips or cookies, or the baked cookies (Lays, Cheetos, Doritos, etc.). My kids love chips, and I give them those, or more often the Flat Earth chips you can get in the store, that actually count as a half or full serving of fruits or veggies, and are very low in fat. They can't tell the difference between the Flat Earth cheddar chips and Nacho Cheese Doritos. The fruit ones are good, too, and they get a kick out of purple chips (the berry ones are purple). With juice boxes, make sure you're giving her something that is actually good for her. Many of them contain little, if any, actual juice. I have started buying the Motts for Tots drinks, which is just juice and purified water.

Any kind of fruit will keep in zip lock baggies....apples, oranges, berries.....just slice them up and throw 'em in a baggie. Also, bananas are great for a little energy pick up. Some of my daughters favorites are sandwich rolls (instead of bread roll the meat and stuff up in a tortilla shell), baby carrotts with ranch, fruit snacks, sliced apples with carmel dip, cheez-its, goldfish and fruit cups.

I personally buy for my six yr old the big boxes of UN-crustables (peanut butter and jelly sandwitches that are premade and individually wrapped. comes in grape, strawberry jelly, and honey) You keep them frozen until its time to pack the lunch. that way they stay fresh and the stuff stays inside the bread.
We also pack animal crackers and granola bars prepackaged sliced apples and carrots....

Juice pack, one treat ie a nutty bar or something they really like, and try to make the sandwich exactly the way they like it because I used to just throw mine away when I was a kid because I didn't like it. A yogurt would be good too if the lunch will be refrigerated.

lunchables there fun they have a juice a candy bar and sumthing to eat and you can add chips jello yougurt fruits and plenty of water

tuna sandwich
turkey sandwich
salami sandwich
lunchmeat rolled in a tortilla instead of on bread
bagel and cream cheese
bagel with peanut butter
cheese and crackers
peanut butter sandwich
peanut butter on crackers
fresh fruits - grapes, apples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries
celery, baby carrots, bell pepper strips
buy tubes of Gogurt and freeze them - will keep it cold and probably be mostly thawed by lunch

I was a counseller at a camp for 2 years so i can help with this. Things like Wraps, salads, subs, veggie sticks, yogurt, fruit cups, crackers and cheese&meat, finger foods like pickels sliced apples and other fruits are great.. Juice boxes or a refilable water bottle is good. Send your kid with a lunch bag with their name on it and an ice pack inside. Also things like granola bars, and trail mix. Anything that has been pre-cooked the night before, like a hotdog or chicken fingers.

Watching kids throw away an unbelievable amount of food, has brought me to the conclusion that you need to have your child's input in packing!! Look at the great ideas above and present then to JR to see what sounds interesting!!

string cheese, apple slices with carmel for dipping (pour some 7 up over the apples before you pack them to keep them from browning), trail mix, cheese and crackers, salsa and chips, pickles, grapes, cold pizza,

Fresh fruit (apples, bananas, oranges, etc.), crackers, string cheese, trail mix, carrots, celery, yogurt, cookies (in moderation), chips (in moderation). Hope that gives you some ideas!