Balanced Day

[sunnydays]

So does that mean the kids only eat twice a day instead of three times? I like that idea as I feel like I am always feeding them! But, I could not get them napping at 11am...the younger ones maybe, but the 2.5 and 3 year olds are not tired enough to sleep by then. I don't have any morning nappers, but everyone naps for about 2.5 hours in the afternoon for me. Since my schedule is working for me...I dont think I want to rock the boat! Let us know how it works for you!

[playfelt]

So does that mean the kids only eat twice a day instead of three times? I like that idea as I feel like I am always feeding them! But, I could not get them napping at 11am...the younger ones maybe, but the 2.5 and 3 year olds are not tired enough to sleep by then. I don't have any morning nappers, but everyone naps for about 2.5 hours in the afternoon for me. Since my schedule is working for me...I dont think I want to rock the boat! Let us know how it works for you!

That's exactly what it means. We get good and hungry and then get up to the table and eat a proper meal so it means the kids will eat 4 meals a day instead of 3 meals and 2 snacks but it means more time between eating so the stomach knows hunger enough to eat and hopefully eat better instead of grazing which is what it seems like now. Serving a piece of meat at 8:30 just doesn't have the same acceptance rate as serving it at 10:30.

By serving lunch 1 1/2 hours earlier the little ones are able to eat without falling asleep while still staying awake for most of the morning to do activities with us. They then sleep the whole time. I put the older ones down last so they were closer to their normal time but still earlier. They will still get enough sleep and be up when the babies are.

I tried pulling the morning nap and that didn't work. I tried shortening it but got tired of having to wake them up and then listen to them cry for the next hour because they were still tired meaning we accomplished nothing. I tried putting them down as soon as everyone was here but then when they got up they were thirsty so needed to feed them since they hadn't had snack - others then wanted too and had to say no you ate, but also meant it limited our activities as we had to do what was in the kitchen. So just working on some kind of plan that fits everyone's needs. I know the babies need more sleep overnight but that is something I can't control so trying to find a way to control my time during the day so that as much as possible we move as a group from event to event and there is less wasted downtime.

Here is the link to the Ottawa school board about balanced days:

http://ocasc.ca/school-council-resou...y-information/