Need help in organizing our "Balanced Day"

[Sassygirl]

Good morning everyone! I have read so much about this "Balanced Day" and I can really use some help implementing it here in my daycare.

My age group is 4 12-15 month olds.

Current Schedule:
Arrivals 6:45-7:30
Breakfast 7:30
Morning nap 8:30-9:30 (ALL of them nap still and I have to wake them after 1 hour)
Lunch 11:00/11:30
Afternoon Nap 12:30-3
Snack 3:15
4:00 Pick ups begin

I could really use all of your help! Thanks in advance :-)

[bright sparks]

Hi Sassygirl, What specifically are you looking to get help with? Is it in terms of planning activities around naps and meals or something else?

[Sassygirl]

All of the above... LOL... I will in the next couple of months begin to phase out morning nap so that may help but as of now ALL of the little ones (including my son) need it. I don't know if they should be eating more often as well.

[playfelt]

Do any of the kids eat breakfast before coming or is that their first meal of the day? Most of us do not serve breakfast and expect kids to come to care having eaten. My gang arrives the same time as yours but would have eaten from 6:00 - 6:30.

Until they are needing less morning nap you will have to work on the schedule gradually. I know you are starting the naps early just to get them in but how long can you actually let the kids go from the time they arrive till they are in the meltdown phase of overtired? That is when you start the balanced day in that they need to eat something at home or be in care to eat at 7 so all food is done by 7:30. Then they play and do activities for the morning. In my case I serve lunch at 10:00 and then they are in bed for 11:30. With mine though I had gotten past the need to sleep first thing upon arrival but could not keep them up to last till noon to eat. This way they eat before they have gotten so tired they can't. Then they are having a 3 hour block of sleep instead of two 1 1/2 hour naps.

To start you will need to work on your early morning routine adjusting breakfast to only be for those arriving prior to 7 - 7:15 and then pushing them to stay awake most of the morning.

You might have some success having meals you can prep and serve quickly so you would play as long as you can and then serve them something to eat and then let them sleep. Then play again with a possible late afternoon top of nap so the big nap is mid morning to just after noon and the short nap is 2:00 - 3:00.

[Sassygirl]

Thank you Playfelt! I was wondering that about lunch time. Once I start phasing out the nap we will do lunch 10ish and nap 11/11:30... one big one hopefully!
No, none of these kiddos have breakfast. I serve a breakfast style morning snack at 7:30 when the last one arrives and I have moved up the morning nap so its earlier and its only an hour. I am going to start cutting it to 45 mins next week, then half an hour.
The afternoon snack at 3:15 if often picked at and not eaten. Probably because most have bottles before their naps.
If I start doing lunch at 10:00 then nap 11-2ish then a bigger snack 2:30 that would work. Maybe a little cookie for the ones whose pick up times are later.

[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.

[Sassygirl]

Thanks everyone! Today we have been outside all day long! None of these kiddos eat before they arrive. Most of them are half asleep still actually so eliminating morning nap may take awhile. I started making it shorter and earlier now. I was doing it 9-10 and it was becoming a nightmare. Meltdowns tend to start 8:15/8:30 as most of these kids have been awake since before 6am. The nice weather helps. We did brekkie/snack at 7:30, free play outside in my yard until 8:15 then did diapers and warmed bottles and nap was 8:30-9:30. We went to the park 9:30-10:30, cleaned up had lunch 11, played out in my backyard in the pool and with the water table and sensory table then meltdowns started just before 12 and they all went for afternoon nap at 12. Its been 90 mins already and I am hoping for at least 2 hours today so we will see how that works. After they wake we will probably go back in the backyward and have snack and storytime there and play again until pick ups.

[playfelt]

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.