You may think that your city-sized kitchen presents a challenge when it comes to preparing healthy meals for your family, but we’re betting that, when you so choose, you at least can boil water for pasta. That’s not the case in more than half of NYC’s 1,395 school kitchens, which is why lunches tend toward canned ravioli and defrosted chicken patties. Some cafeteria managers are able to get creative with limited resources, and local groups like Wellness in the Schools advocate for better ingredients and increase awareness, but we’ve still got a long way to go. So tell us: How’s the food at your kid’s school?

If you haven’t already seen this Salon.com article in defense of home-schooling, it’s worth a read-through. In his essay, Brooklyn dad Andrew O’Hehir touts the benefits of the option, especially in such a field-trip-rich city like New York, as well as trying to squash some outdated stereotypes:

“Some people suspect we have a hidden ideological or religious agenda we’re not telling them about. We may look like your standard-issue Brooklyn creative-class family—two 40-something parents, two kids, two pet rabbits and a battered Chrysler minivan—but who are we really? Home schooling has become a lot more mainstream and diverse in recent years, but familiar sterotypes endure. As Alicia Bayer, a Minnesota home-schooler and blogger who’s one of Leslie’s [O’Hehir’s wife and home-schooler of their five-year-old twins] online mentors, puts it, ‘People think we’re all conservative Christians who hate the government and wear denim jumpers.’”

If you still haven’t had your fill on this hot topic, check out our home-schooling essay from August.

By now, you’ve probably seen the headlines about President Obama proposing to cut down summer breaks in favor of more time in school, as well as extending hours and opening schools on weekends. And while inevitable moans, tears and tantrums may ensue from your backpack-carrying bunch, the effects could prove monumental—both to you and your tot.

Kids love summer vacation, but three months away from the classroom can be a scheduling nightmare for a busy parent. Instead of stressing over lining up and paying for after-school care, you might feel more at ease knowing your children are safe at school. But there are, of course, downsides. The cost would be extreme, especially in an economy that’s drowning in a swamp of debt, unable to adequately pay educators for their current hours. And we know exactly who will be footing the bill—you.

How do you feel about your youngsters spending longer hours in school on top of a longer academic year? Would you rather pay more tax money for extra school hours or are you content with your current arrangements?

Freaking out because your tot didn’t make it into your school of choice for this fall? Then hear this: The Manhattan Free School has just announced that it has openings for the 2009-2010 academic year. But don’t be fooled by the private institution’s name: This place is far from free, though they do offer sliding-scale tuition rates based on income (typically between $3,000 and $15,000 annually, a fair amount lower than many private schools). Start gathering Junior’s dossier stat, as applications will be accepted on the first-come, first-served basis.

My sister, Lindsay Esposito, teaches third grade at P.S. 36 in Staten Island and invited me in last week to talk to her class about how we review books, CDs, movies, restaurants and toys here at Time Out Kids (the students are learning to write their own reviews). After talking to them about my job as an editor (they were shocked to hear that my work also has to go to a “teacher”—aka my boss!) and what makes a good review, they broke up into groups to read and review some books I had brought with me. I was very impressed with what they had to say. Below is a sampling of their work!

“I liked City I Love because I could make a connection with the title because I love the city too. The poem “City Summer” was really funny. The pictures were really good on that page. I liked how the author matched the pictures with the poem. The poem about the taxi was confusing. I didn’t really understand it. You can read the book with a parent so you can learn about the city.” —Isabella D.

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• Resolutions, schmesolutions

Now that the holidays are over, the mom-versators are back with a post on New Year’s resolutions. Waste of time or necessary evil? You tell us.

• Forget-me-not

Few things inspire as much nostalgic as watching your little one toddle around in videos you shot when he was but a wee babe. Jeff Scher, who pens The Animated Life blog for the Times, has posted this sweet video of his youngest son, a sequel to a film he made of his older son in 2007. The footage will start you down your own memory lane…

• School admissions SNAFU
  

Just when you thought getting your tot a spot in the right public school couldn’t get any more confusing, it does. The Department of Education announced that kindergarten admissions for 2009-2010 are changing in some big ways–admissions start and end earlier, for example. What’s your take on the new policies?

• Brews for (unborn) baby

Conventional wisdom claims that consuming alcohol while pregnant is a major no-no. So what do you do when you find yourself cozied up with a bag of Snyder’s pretzels, yearning for a cold one to wash the saltiness down? Turns out you may be able to indulge after all.

It was 10am on a school day when my middle school-age daughter called. “What’s wrong?” I answered, knowing something was up. She’s not the kind of kid who sneaks in calls during the day, so I was sure it was something bad.

“I totally forgot my homework and English is in 20 minutes!” she whispered. “Can you e-mail it to me?” 

I breathed a sigh of relief before becoming annoyed. Remembering her homework is her responsibility. Yes, I could send it to her with a click of a mouse, but should I? What kind of message would I be sending along with her essay? 

Ultimately, I agreed. But within the email I added some motherly advice. “Honey, you really need to organize yourself so this type of thing doesn’t happen again.”

Then I deleted the sentence and hit send.

Thankfully, I don’t (usually) have an absent-minded kid, so this was an anomaly. But the experience made me think about my childhood: no phone access, no computer, no e-mail. If I had ever forgotten my homework, I had no cell with which to call my mom, and even if I had been able to get a hold of her, you know, via smoke signals, she couldn’t have helped me since her job was in another borough.

Kids have no idea how easy they have it today. There are no trips to the library to do research (remember microfiche?), no need to get together for a group project (e-mail and IM solved that), no typing and retyping with crusty Wite-Out blotches, they don’t even cart around floppy disks thanks to flash drives, one of God’s best inventions.

Yeah, kids today have got it easy…except for one little thing: They have a lot more schoolwork than we did a few decades ago and teachers’ expectations are much higher. Maybe I was born at the right time.