Need help in organizing our "Balanced Day"

[eoinsmom]

I have a busy group with different ages and programs going on, what would you ladies suggest for my situation? I honestly would like to get rid of the morning snack for everyone but I don't know. So I have two 5 year olds who will be staring 1/2 day Kindergarten in the fall (8-10:39), and two preschoolers going T/Th from 9:15-11:45. I am across the street from preschool and Kindergarten so I do all the walking kids to and from. Then I have one 2 year old and two 1 year olds. So right now the day looks like this:

7 AM all arrive (give or take a few minutes)
7-7:30 kids eat breakfast
7:45 walk to Kindergarten
8:15 home, little kids go down for 45 min nap
9 AM - little kids up and walk to preschool T/TH
9:30 back at my house and free play time
10:30 walk to Kindergarten for pick up
11 Home lunch for 1 and 2 year olds
11:30 do preschool pick up T/TH
12 home, 1 and 2 year olds go down for nap; preschool and kindergarten kids eat lunch
1 PM preschool kids have nap, 5 year olds have quiet time
3 PM everyone up, snack and free play until pick ups start around 4:15

Do the 1 year olds need a morning snack, or can I just leave them until lunch? Should lunch maybe be earlier, like around 10 for them? Then all the school kids eat after the little guys go down for their nap? I am going to try to get another preschool parent to bring the preschoolers back and forth for me if I can once we get going in the fall and I meet some of the other parents. I already discussed this with their moms, and they are ok with it. That would cut down on some of the rush on Tues and Thurs. I'm also going to try to get morning naps phased out as soon as I can in the fall as well; I know my one May baby will be ready, but the other is an August baby so will *just* be 12 months old then. Anyhow, any advice on how to feed this crazy group would be great!

[sunnydays]

I like the idea of eliminating a snack...but I don't think I could have lunch earlier than 11am because then we wouldn't be able to go out in the morning! We like to spend the morning at the park...how would you do that if you have to serve lunch at 10am? In the summer I find it harder to go out in the afternoon as it is too hot many days so I want to be out in the morning when it is still cool enough.

[eoinsmom]

Us too. We usually do outside time from 9-1030 now, and then I have them all napping during the hottest part of the day, and back out at 3 to play until pick up. I know the bigger kids can wait the four hour stretch to eat, and my KG kids will be having a morning snack at school...its just the little ones I am wondering if they can go from 730-11 with no snack? Tried it out this morning since I only have a few kids today and it was ok. We skipped morning snack and ate lunch at 11, and everyone just cleaned up their entire lunch in about 15 minutes! We generally already do a big snack at 330, since most of the kids have at least a half hour commute home and then a wait until supper and some fall asleep on the drive home.

[Momof4]

I'm afraid I'm stuck with my current schedule as well, because it works great for us. As the groups change the hours of arrivals and departures change but I serve breakfast at 8:30 then we go outside for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, then I feed the children again 3 hours later at about 11:30, then naps and snack at about 3pm, which is about 3 hours later again.

I've been reading your posts on the Balanced Day subject and find it interesting, but it wouldn't work for me.

[Artsand crafts]

I'm afraid I'm stuck with my current schedule as well, because it works great for us. As the groups change the hours of arrivals and departures change but I serve breakfast at 8:30 then we go outside for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, then I feed the children again 3 hours later at about 11:30, then naps and snack at about 3pm, which is about 3 hours later again.

I've been reading your posts on the Balanced Day subject and find it interesting, but it wouldn't work for me.

I think you are doing the balanced day since the main point is having more blocks of time for the kids to have uninterrupted activities. Your schedule sounds like mine, the only difference is that in here parents know they need to give their children a good breakfast since they will only have fruit with me almost right after they arrive. I think my fruit just complement their breakfast. After that snack they have a block of 2 to 2.5 hrs where we usually have outdoor activities and then 2.5 to 3 hr nap and a more substantial snack in the afternoon. After that we have 2 more hours for structured activities or free play.

[Cadillac]

this is how I did it

730 - welcome and free play
8 - alphabets - singing and making games out of alphabets soung
815 - numbers in same way as abover
830 - nap
930 - game or learning activity
10 - snack then outing
12 - lunch
245 story
1 nap
3 up and free play
330 - art
4 snack
415 motor skills, game, colours, shapes (changed depending on day)
430 free play

[playfelt]

My problem was that the kids couldnt' stay awake till noon and were falling asleep even when I moved lunch to 11. But to move it any earlier was silly since we had just had snack but with no snack they were too hungry. Changing lunch totally has solved the problem.