Daily Schedules

Each group is different in terms of how long the gang can go between feeding and also depends on how much they eat when they do sit - some eat a lot further apart and others graze continuously and you will have to work with the group to establish what you want to do. If you are serving a full breakfast and a full lunch then assume morning snack is small and quick and may even be just a drink. If the one year olds are napping in the am you may also need to give them a snack before or after nap so on a different schedule than the others.

You will also need to play your day based on the hours the kids are there and not so much on the hours you are open. So set a time such as 7:30 am with the idea if a child is not in care by then they must come having had breakfast - so first meal is 7:30-8:00. Lunch for most groups is 11:30-12:30 time frame - ie noon which allows 4 hours between the two meals. Some groups will be fine the full 4 hours and others will need a snack between that timeframe. Afternoon snack is when everyone wakes up.

I don't serve breakfast and a lot of home daycares do not as I found parents were giving their children a drink and granola bar to tide them over to breakfast at daycare resulting in me cooking for no reason as they weren't eating enough and then were hungry too soon cause the granola bar had worn off. Parents feed them at home and they come ready to start the day. We have a quick snack at 8-8:30 and that holds us till lunch.