Need help in organizing our "Balanced Day"

[bright sparks]

My kiddos all eat at home between 7 and 7:30am. It is a question I ask all new starter families as it effects the need for morning snack as typically lunch in my house is at 11.

So right now my guys don't always need a snack in the morning and it has been a case of trial and error for a while as I learnt that if they had a snack most days then at 11 a lot of lunch was being wasted. At about 8:30 the kids will have a piece of fruit and cup of milk which ties them over nicely till lunch at 11. I switched my lunchtime to 11 as once I transitioned kids out of their morning nap, they can not last any longer to eat. They ended up not eating and then only napped an hour in the afternoon as they woke up hungry.

Once your morning nap has been taken out it will probably be easier to have a smooth and consistant balanced day. Lunch at 11 till 11:30 followed by washing up, toileting/diapering and then everyone is down no later than 12 for their afternoon nap. Nap can go as late as 3/3:30 and I make sure they have a more substantial afternoon snack ready or ready to go within a few minutes of them getting up and having a trip to the toilet and fresh diapers put on.

In terms of your morning routine, I would suggest having a written schedule planned out into short blocks so any playtime goals you may have such as free play, themed play, outdoor play, craft time are all achieved. Trying to just fit them in around such a busy naptime and mealtime schedule is difficult without some kind of plan and schedule. Even if its just 20-30 minute blocks, at least you will feel like they are doing something other than just eating and sleeping.

[playfelt]

In terms of your morning routine, I would suggest having a written schedule planned out into short blocks so any playtime goals you may have such as free play, themed play, outdoor play, craft time are all achieved. Trying to just fit them in around such a busy naptime and mealtime schedule is difficult without some kind of plan and schedule. Even if its just 20-30 minute blocks, at least you will feel like they are doing something other than just eating and sleeping.

That was what I was trying to get out of by switching everything around. All we did was change diapers, wash up, eat - which for me was get 3 of 5 into highchairs and bibs on, 2 at the small table and bibs on, then eat, wash up, clean up as in wipe down trays etc. It just seemed like the end of one feeding to the start of the next wasn't long enough and they lost concentration. IF we took time to clean up before snacks and meals it also wasted time but if we left the mess to return to they had lost what they were doing so just went to something different creating more mess on the floor on top of what was already there. The goal is to eat (breakfast at home) then play as long as we can, clean up eat a hearty meal and then drift off to dreamland for some quality sleep then repeat in reverse - eat a hearty snackish meal and then play for a long block of time which in the summer is outside time for me till hometime.

What I am liking is that the wake up time is earlier in the afternoon so we can do diapers and eat without me feeling like I have to rush them so we can get some quality outside time in before they are picked up.

The planning for the day takes what is normal but the timings just seem odd. For instance some of us have kids that arrive 6:30 - 7:00 and others have kids that don't arrive till 8:00 and yet which means they are eating breakfast at corresponding times. But then we all just assume lunch is at noon. The people that say oh no problem breaking morning nap habit and keeping them up till normal lunch are generally not the kids that come at 6:30 in the morning. By taking the 4 hour rule the need to move the meal schedule around becomes evident so timings are based on the clock not on convention. I truly think we shoot ourselves in the foot too many times by going with convention and thinking that is the way it has to be and then complaining when the kids don't cooperate. When we change our thinking no matter how radical it is to accepted norms everyone gets their needs met in a better relaxed manner. Much less whining and frustration for sure and afterall that is the name of game for sure.

[ECE53]

Are you referring to the balanced day in the school system? If so the children have two nutrition breaks (one in the am one in the pm). Each nutrition break should be followed by outdoor gross motor activity. You eliminate a "lunchtime" in the middle of the day. Something to keep in mind when developing a day schedule is making it follow the real world, ie easier for parents to keep their children consistent on weekends and for older children closer to a future schools lunch breaks.

I now work in kindergarten, many schools that had embraced balanced day( as it makes planning teachers duty / prep planninig time easier) have started to go back to the conventional way, and new schools are going with the conventional day scheduled more often.