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How to Create the Best Daycare Schedule for Children

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A daily daycare schedule is an important aspect of the curriculum for infants and toddlers as it allows them to learn and develop. This is due to the abundance of learning opportunities in their schedules, such as washing their hands after using the restroom.

Because they know exactly what to expect at different points during the day, reliable daycare schedules help toddlers gain independence and develop their own patterns. Predictability also gives them a sense of security and stability, as well as promotes emotional stability. You can manage your daycare schedules and share them with parents by using daycare software.

Since scheduling is a proven strategy to relieve stress and anxiety in children, our post sheds light on routines for children of three ages, primarily infancy, toddlerhood, and preschoolers, and how Illumine helps your daycare center stay on top of these schedules.

Table of contents

  • Daycare schedule for infants
  • Daycare schedule for toddlers
  • Daycare schedule for older children
  • Daycare reports
  • Things to consider when creating a daily daycare schedule
  • Upload daycare curriculum  for multiple days with Illumine

Daycare schedule for infants

For babies aged 6 weeks to 18 months, daily baby daycare schedules are established. They must be adaptable and should follow their biological clocks. This is because, unlike toddlers and preschoolers, newborns are still unable to govern their bodies and needs, let alone fit into a strict group schedule.

As a result, infant daycare schedules should allow for diapering, feeding, and sleeping when a child requires it rather than when the schedule dictates. Because newborns have varying levels of need, flexibility is also necessary.

Language development

The following are some language development milestones:

  • Babies begin to babble and imitate noises around the age of four months.
  • They can hear noises and begin replicating sounds and gestures at the age of nine months.
  • They have a few words and can repeat a few words between the ages of one and eighteen months.
  • Effective routines help youngsters anticipate changes and prevent behavioral issues such as tantrums, yelling, and striking.

Physical development

Here are some physical milestones to keep an eye out for:

  • Babies should be able to keep their heads up without assistance, reach for toys, and roll over by the age of four months.
  • Infants should be able to sit up alone by 9 months, pull themselves to a standing posture, and crawl.
  • They begin walking, standing, and having more coordinated motions between the ages of one and eighteen months.

Daily daycare schedule example for infants

infant daily schedule
Time Activity
7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Breakfast and arrival
8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Changing diapers
8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Time to work in groups

Sing some tunes

Have fun with storytime

10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Morning snack/bottle
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Diaper change
Nap time
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sensory play
2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Gross motor skills
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Nap time
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Activity to develop language and emotional skills
Evening snack
6:00 p.m. Wrap up and check out

Daycare schedule for toddlers

The toddler daycare routine is usually tailored to the needs of children aged 18 months to three years. This group is still getting used to being mobile and is working hard to communicate verbally.

Language development

Toddlers require a lot of group play time in order to learn the basics of language development.

  • They will speak in 2-4 word sentences and will be able to follow simple commands.
  • They can follow multi-step directions, are starting to have dialogues, and can be understood by most people at the age of three

Physical development

As you assist your toddler to improve on all of their developmental milestones, make sure to schedule plenty of time to work on physical development.

  • They will be confidently walking, throwing a ball, and holding a crayon by the age of two.
  • They will be running, jumping, pedaling a tricycle, and climbing stairwells and playground structures by the age of three.

Extra reading:

10 Tips to Write Meaningful Observations in Early Years

Daily daycare schedule example for toddlers

toddler daily schedule
Time Activity
7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Breakfast and arrival
8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Stroller and gross motor skills
8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Sensory playtime

Music and movement

Fine motor skills activities

10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Morning snacks
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Nap time
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sensory play
2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Gross motor skills
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Nap time
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Activity involving language and emotional skills
Evening snack
6:00 p.m. Wrap up and check out

Daycare schedule for older kids

Preschoolers are youngsters between the ages of three and five. Because this age group typically has a wide range of abilities, it’s critical to have activities that represent these variances.

Language development

This age group continues to benefit greatly from upgrading their language skills.

  • They’ll be telling short stories and singing nursery rhymes by the age of four.
  • They will follow fundamental grammar rules, like the usage of articles, etc.

Physical development

Preschoolers also require increased physical activity.

  • They can walk backward, use scissors, replicate shapes, and dress by the time they reach the age of four.
  • They can skip, execute a somersault, swing, and draw shapes and people by the time they are five years old.

Daily daycare schedule example for preschool kids

preschool daily schedule
Time Activity
7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Breakfast and arrival
8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Group play
8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Center play
10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Morning snacks
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. One on one with Science and Math teacher
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Music, Spanish, art, or gym depending on the child’s preferences
2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Rest and quiet time
Quiet activities for non-sleepers
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Outdoor play
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Evening snack
6:00 p.m. Wrap up and check out

Things to consider when creating a daily daycare schedule

Here are a bunch of pointers to keep in mind when designing a daycare schedule:

Time of Arrival

Illumine makes arrival time efficient and fast-paced with contactless check-in, eliminating repetitive manual entries every morning when a parent drops off their ward at school. Parents are notified when their child checks into the daycare, raising the bar for child security in today’s world.

Eating

Daycare teachers can notify the parents about the frequency of feedings to their child with the Illumine daily activities and updates feature. The activities are already fed into the database. All a teacher needs to do is upload an image or jot down a few quick notes on the child’s eating pattern and send the message to the parents within the app directly without being redirected elsewhere.

Sleeping

Each youngster takes naps on his or her unique schedule. Parents may see how long and when their child slept by logging into the parent dashboard of Illumine. They can like, comment on the activity update, and also download videos and pictures of their child deep in slumber.

Diaper changing

The note feature allows parents to provide the school with additional information about their child’s potty training progress and diaper changing frequency. They can add a description, pick the number of times they’d like the instructions to be repeated, and add an attachment if necessary, before saving it. This way, the app keeps teachers in the loop about the child’s needs and requirements at all times.

Time for Preschool

Between sleeping and eating, each infant will spend time with their teacher during the day playing and doing activities to strengthen their language and physical development. The teacher can share weekly lesson plans on the Illumine app to keep the parents abreast of the latest developments in the daycare schedule.

End of day

With Illumine’s contactless check-out feature, parents can rest assured that their child is in safe hands during panic-frenzied covid times. You can collate all the activity reports, share pictures and videos, create and send bulk daycare reports, and update parents about their little ones by using daycare reporting software.

Upload daycare schedule for multiple days with Illumine

Let’s take a look at how you can create your daycare schedule using Illumine. First, go to Learning and then to Lessons. In order to create lessons, you first need to create categories. These are basically subjects. Add the category name and then click on Add Category. Then, go to Manage Category and you’ll be able to see the list of categories. Then, go to Create Lesson and add a lesson title, a lesson category, and a description. You can add milestones and labels too.

Finally, select the classrooms you are creating the lesson for and select the duration. You can also add attachments if you want. Attach YouTube links to your lesson plans, if any, and then click on Save. Your lesson will be successfully added to your daycare schedule.

For a detailed understanding of the process, book a free demo with us or take an 11-day trial of Illumine with all features included.

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