The way they are doing the balanced day in the schools was just to eliminate the lost time of kids getting dressed and undressed for recess. What we can do in daycare is have the luxury of letting kids take as long as they need for eating and give them more food. If you look at the suggested meal plan the school board offers they suggest either breakfast or snack foods for the first break. My kids come having had breakfast but finished that by 6:30 am. So by 10:00 they are ready for a full lunch not just a snack. Then after nap they wake up hungry again and are given a snack that borders on a cold plate ie lots of finger foods but all food groups represented including meat. As was discussed earlier on milk it also means only two servings of milk so 8 oz is given although we have been doing a drink and a graham cracker or arrowroot biscuit at 7:30 before we head down to the playroom which then equals everyone out with me adjust amounts so those that ate early and arrived early get slightly bigger piece than the last arrival so total of 12 ounces of milk.