Wanting to add more structure to my day home.

[Brooke91]

Hi Ladies,

Right now my daycare is more free flowing and I would like to have more structure.

Especially for the summer as I wil be watching 6 young ones

Ages range from 12 months-5 years.

Just wondering what you all do?

We usually start off with a cartoon or movie. That's around 7:30.

We have snack at 10-10:30

Lunch 12-12:30

Quiet time from 1-3

Snack from 3:30-4

4-5 outside play ( when the weathers nice)

Indoor play/cartoon 5-5:30

5:30 pick up..

This is how I'm doing things now, but I'd like to add more structure, just not too sure what to do or where to start??

[mommyof2princesses]

This is my daycare schedule right now and it seems to work well...

7:00 am - Daycare opens, indoor freeplay
8:35 am - Walk school children to school
9:20 am - Morning snack
9:50 am - Craft
10:15 am - Circle time, learning activities
10:45 am - Outdoor play (weather permitting)
11:45 pm - Lunch
12:20 pm - Nap/quiet time
2:30 pm - Afternoon snack
2:55 pm - Walk to pick up school children
3:40 pm - Outdoor play (weather permitting), indoor freeplay
5:30 pm - Daycare closes

I don't follow the times exactly but fairly close and aside from the school run times, everything else is pretty flexible. Once summer comes and I don't have to do the school run then we will do longer freeplay/outdoor freeplay and more crafts/circle activities. Hope this helps a bit.

[AmandaKDT]

My day:

Free play/arrival of kids
circle time - Calendar, weather, felt board activities, finger plays, story time, etc.
morning snack
Art or learning activity
Free play/outside play
lunch
Quiet time
Snack
Group activities/Free play/outdoor play

Learning activities include science activities/experiments, math, fine motor skills activities (like cutting, tear, gluing, scooping) and sensory bins (sand, water, etc). These can be created/adapted to suit a wide range of ages.

I do different things each day of the week - Monday is Art, Wednesday is Science, Friday is Sensory Bins. I leave Tuesday and Thursday as more of my variety days, they could be math activities, fine motor skills activities, etc.

I really like the following website, it has lots of great ideas and it doesn't involve a lot of prep for you...

http://www.preschool-plan-it.com/preschool-themes.html