2 Breakfasts

[Unregistered]

I have 2 kids that arrive at 6 when the rest arrive at 7:30-8. They come in hungry and waiting until 8 for breakfast would be too long for the early ones. I just signed up with the food program and honestly I am overwhelmed by the process. The lady came out and really didn't even go over the basics like enrolling new kids, claiming different age groups, let alone how to handle 2 separate meal times like this. I have a call into her for clarification but I bet you guys answer first.

SO, How do you handle hungry early arrivers? Can you claim a meal for some kids at one time and another at separate time?

[SilverSabre25]

I think one solution for the early ones would be to ask the parents to provide them with a quick snack in the AM (granola bar, bag of dry cereal, etc) OR you could do this for them.

I'm not sure about claiming the same meal at two different times; someone else will.

[wdmmom]

At 6am, they're not hungry, they're bored and tired. Kids want to eat. If you get your kid up and throw food at them first thing in the morning, that's what they are programmed to expect.

I used to have kids come in at 6am and the rest would come in between 7 and 730am. The kids that came in at 6am got an hours nap before the others would come in and I would feed kids all at once.

I doubt the food program would consider 2 of the same meal acceptable. They're only going to pay for 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, and 2 snacks per day per child.

[MyAngels]

You can claim one meal at two different times, but you can't claim the same meal twice. In other words, you can serve the early arrivals breakfast when they get there and serve the late arrivals when they come later. You would not be able to serve the early arrivals breakfast twice and claim it both times. I believe they call this a "split shift" or something like that.

[Cat Herder]

I put my early arrivals back to bed when I allowed early drop off. If not the kids were all on different schedules all day.

Breakfast is at 8, so now I don't open until then.

Minute Menu will help you with figuring out menus for each age group. No worries.. It also shows you how to add kids.

It takes a few minutes to get the hang of it, but once you do it goes quickly. I do mine a year in advance, Rotating Menus.. Simple.

[daysofelijah]

I have three 6:30 drop offs. Two of them go right back to bed until breakfast. The other has a snack before he comes (bagel, granola bar, bag of cereal). And then eats breakfast with us at 8:30. Like the others said you can do a split shift, but not two breakfasts. You could do an earlier breakfast and a morning snack and claim both (but then you couldn't claim afternoon snack, if you also claim lunch).

[Meeko]

Play around with MM. I have two shifts for breakfast during the school year. Early eaters eat between 7:30 and 8AM. Then schoolies leave and 2nd shift eats between 8 and 8:30AM. If I claimed them all as one shift...it would look like I was over on numbers...when in fact my schoolies leave and others take their place. So I may claim 20 for breakfast...but only 16 here at a time. Hope that makes sense!

However......I put my very early...6AM kids.... back to sleep as soon as they get here. Feeding them at that hour would wake them up completely...then they'd be ravenous again before the other kids had snack...and so on....and then over-tired by nap time. They get up at 7:30 when I turn on the light.

[nannyde]

My parents give them first breakfast at home. I do second breakfast once they are all here. I do a full but simple breakfast of a grain, stewed fruit, and a four ounce milk.

I don't do a.m. snack. We eat lunch at eleven.

Just tell the parents of the early kids to feed them before they come because it's too much time in between when they arrive and when you offer breakfast. It's not against the food program rules for the kid to eat breakfast at home and then eat again at day care. The food program doesn't care what they do at home... just what you do in your house.

[heyhun77]

You can claim one meal at two different times, but you can't claim the same meal twice. In other words, you can serve the early arrivals breakfast when they get there and serve the late arrivals when they come later. You would not be able to serve the early arrivals breakfast twice and claim it both times. I believe they call this a "split shift" or something like that.

This is exactly what they'll have you do. You can serve split shift meals (like when you have half day kindergartners or something that need to eat before the rest of the kids- i used to feed in 2 shifts because some left for pm kindergarten and the others came back from am kindergarten and they all needed to eat).

If they aren't going back to sleep and seem hungry, I'd put out some cut up fruit or small amount of whole grain snacks to nibble on to get them through til breakfast time.