A Complete Guide to Creating a Daily Daycare Schedule

All daycare facilities operate the best with a consistent routine. By having a schedule that your daycare regularly maintains, it will be beneficial for your staff and the children you care for. If you have multiple children in your daycare, creating a schedule for everyone can feel exhausting and be time-consuming. However, we have put together a guide to help you create the most beneficial schedule for your own daycare without feeling stressed out.

Creating a daily daycare schedule can be simple by breaking down the fundamental needs of the children in your care. Your schedule will cover these needs through education, play, rest and nutrition. It is also essential to include the needs of your facility in your schedule. This includes consistent cleaning, record keeping, and employee breaks. Your schedule will also be determined by your local state requirements.

Table of Contents

Scheduling Education

For the development of a child, it is essential that education is a part of their lives from an early age, beginning as soon as the child is old enough to understand the material. To provide proper education, it is essential that you have enough educational material available in each of your classrooms.

The amount of education in your schedule will be different for each age range of children and what your state may require. You can begin introducing educational type activities for children as young as infants. Some educational activities for infants may include reading books to them, introducing new sounds or playing games where they put objects of the same color together. As each specific child gets close to the toddler age, you can increase the amount of education provided to that child (while still in the infant classroom).

For toddler and pre-school aged children, the amount of education will largely increase during these age ranges and be vital to helping the children properly develop. At the toddler age, children are starting to put together short sentences and are curious about new objects. At this age range, the children will learn through activities that also include play (like educational type games that can be played in groups).

Once children reach pre-school age, they will need a larger amount of education. At this time, you will want to start to introduce literacy and math. This is also an excellent age for children to start practicing writing their own names and other small words.

Another activity that can serve as an excellent source of education for toddlers and pre-school aged children is art type activities. Art can both be enjoyable for the children and you can also use it to teach children colors, shapes, etc. Parents are also often delighted when their children bring home crafts that show what they did at daycare.

Scheduling Play and Exercise

No matter what age group a child is in, all children need play and exercise included in their schedule! Even infants will need time available where they can try and move around. Proper movement is vital for the development of children, especially from the time they are born to around 3 years old.

For infants, the amount of play and exercise may be more limited. Their schedule may include tummy time and adequate time to play with suitable toys for their young age. Play and exercise for infants can also include allowing the babies to interact with each other.

Once children reach the toddler classroom, the amount of play and exercise will largely increase. By this age, the children are much more active and will need to release larger amounts of energy throughout the day. This will be similar for pre-school aged children, who will also have large amounts of energy that can be released through play and exercise.

Play and exercise time can include time spent playing with toys inside the classroom, playing on outside play equipment or enjoying group games that include physical activity. We recommend having a list of indoor play and exercise activities available for the days when the weather may not permit outdoor activities.

Another reason why it is important to schedule playtime is to avoid outside play areas or play equipment being used by too many children at one time. By having a schedule, you can ensure the correct number of children are using the play areas. We recommend only having one class at a time in the outside play area.

If you have more than one class outside in the play area, it can make the larger number of children more difficult to watch, even with multiple adults outside to supervise. The chances of children getting hurt or beginning to misbehave can also increase. By having one class at a time outside, you increase your chances of everything running smoothly.

When scheduling your play and exercise time, you want to first check your local state requirements. Some states may require children to have a certain amount of exercise per day. To operate your daycare correctly, it will be important to make sure your length of time for exercise matches the requirement for your area and can easily be shown on your schedule.

Scheduling Rest

While children are growing, getting enough rest is vital for their bodies. For infants, toddlers and pre-school aged children, we recommend adding consistent nap times to their schedule. By having naps be consistently the same time every day, the children will have an easier time adjusting to the sleep schedule.

Infants will need the most rest out of all the children in your daycare and will need multiple naps throughout the day. We recommend scheduling both a morning and afternoon nap time for ages up to 18 months old. However, you want to ensure that the afternoon nap isn’t too late in the day, to avoid the child having trouble sleeping during the evening. We recommend waking up infants by 3:00 PM from their final nap.

For toddlers and pre-school children, it is recommended to have one nap time scheduled near the middle of the day. We generally recommend having this after they’ve had adequate playtime to release some energy and after they’ve eaten lunch. It is essential to make the classroom dark and quiet during this time, to help each child fall asleep.

The important factor to remember for naptime is an adult still needs to be in the room to supervise the children. This is not a time for a caregiver to take a break outside of the classroom. However, this can be an excellent time for the caregiver to get needed tasks done within the classroom like record keeping or light cleaning.

Scheduling Nutrition

For every age range, you will need to schedule meals and snacks. By creating a schedule for meals and snacks, you ensure that the children in your care do not go hungry and have the energy for their play and exercise time. Some children will often start to get upset or emotional when they start to get hungry. Providing snacks at the right times will prevent this.

For lunchtime, many daycare facilities choose to provide lunch for the children. If you are supplying the food, your schedule must also include time spent to prepare the meals. We recommend having designated staff members assigned to preparing lunch. By having a schedule and designating an employee, you can ensure that all classrooms still have the amount of required supervision.

Another benefit of having a designated person prepare lunch is they can also keep track of what food is available in the facility and can make a list of what food will be needed. It is recommended that this designated staff member also have basic knowledge of food safety and preparation to ensure the food in your facility is handled properly.

For infants, they will require more regular nutrition often through bottle feeding. Depending on the stage the child is at, some children in the infant class may also start eating some solid foods during lunchtime and for their snacks.

When adding lunch to your schedule, you want to make sure to include enough time to allow for cleaning up after the meal. We recommend scheduling lunch for at least around 45 minutes to an hour. This allows all the children to have time to settle down, be given their meal, eat and clean up afterward.

Scheduling for Your Facility

To help your daycare run smoothly, your schedule must also include the needs of your facility. If you don’t include your facility in your schedule, important tasks can easily be forgotten, and the needs of your employees may be ignored.

The first item we recommend scheduling for your facility is break times for your employees. Working with children can often be a very emotionally and physically demanding job. To help your employees operate their classrooms the best as possible, it is important that every staff member take regular breaks, even if the breaks are short.

Breaks must be scheduled to ensure that children always have adult supervision. Even if a classroom has two teachers, most states will require that one adult is only left with a certain number of children at one time. If one teacher takes a break, another adult must fill in, to ensure all regulations are still being met.

By scheduling the breaks, all staff members will know upfront what time their breaks are, when they need to fill in for other teachers and who is in the classroom at any given time. This will allow your facility to run much more smoothly than it would without a break schedule.

The second item you need to schedule for your facility is regular cleaning times. In the daycare environment, germs can spread quickly, and cleaning is one of the most important aspects of keeping your children safe. By creating a cleaning schedule, your staff members will have a clear understanding of what is expected of them.

We recommend wiping down or spraying surfaces that children consistently touch a minimum of 2 times a day. This includes tables, chairs, and doorknobs. For toys or play equipment the children use, we recommend cleaning these items at least once a week with a multi-purpose cleaner that will destroy all the germs.

For cleaning items and surfaces in the classroom, an excellent time to do this is during nap time when all the children are asleep. For cleaning areas like play equipment, bathrooms, and dining areas that may not be in the classroom, cleaning times will have to be scheduled for these to ensure proper supervision is still maintained.

Another benefit of scheduling cleaning time is it ensures that all employees are cleaning for a fair amount. It prevents one team member from cleaning more than the others. Employees can take turns cleaning common areas like bathrooms, play equipment and any dining areas that all children may use.

The last aspect of your facility that needs to be scheduled is record keeping. In a daycare facility, it is vital for employees to keep proper records of each child. Some states may require records be kept for any incidents that may occur, what time the children nap, when diapers are changed and when the children are fed.

We recommend scheduling time for employees to update their daily records during naptime while all the children are asleep in the classroom and at the end of the day once all the children have been picked up for the day.

Sample Infant Schedule

Creating a schedule for infants is often the most difficult schedule to create in a daycare facility. This is due to infants needing the most attention and care. Although some daycare facilities choose to not stick to a standard schedule for infants, we recommend at least having an outline of what activities you plan to follow for this group.

During the infant age range, children will need more consistent nutrition and rest. Instead of only one nap like toddlers and pre-school aged children, infants will need two separate naps throughout the day. They will also need regular bottle feeding.

Although they can’t move around as much as older children, it is still important to allow infants time on the floor, to crawl around and interact with the other children. Movement and attention are both vital for development at this young age.

Infants will also require more consistent attention than any other age of children. One caregiver should only have around 2-3 infants alone at once. It will be especially important to pay very close attention while the infants are playing and moving around on the floor.

7:30 – 9:00 AM	Parent Drop Off, Bottle Feeding
9:00 – 9:30 AM	Diaper Changing
9:30 – 10:30 AM	Group Time (Playing new sounds, reading books)
10:30 – 10:45 AM	Bottle Feeding
10:45 – 11:00 AM	Diaper Changing
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM	Morning Nap Time
12:00 – 12:30 PM	Bottle-Feeding and Lunch
12:00 – 1:30 PM	Individual Play and Movement (with Toys)
1:30 – 2:00 PM	Diaper Changing
2:00 – 3:00 PM	Afternoon Nap Time
3:00 – 3:30 PM	Bottle-Feeding and Snacks
3:30 – 4:15 PM	Group Play Time
4:15 – 4:30 PM	Diaper Changing
4:30 – 6:00 PM	Individual Play, Parent Pick Up

Sample Toddler Schedule

Children in a toddler classroom are typically around the ages of 2 to 3 years old. This age range is also often when children are beginning potty training. Due to the children being in various stages depending on their development, you will still have children in this group who will need regular diaper changing. Those who are more advanced in potty training may still need regular reminders about going to the bathroom.

During the toddler age, you want to start increasing the amount of educational type of activities throughout the day. At this age, they can put together short sentences and are learning how to play well with other children. Therefore, group games are vital at this age.

Toddler aged children also learn best through play type activities. To help children learn at this age, we recommend including plenty of educational games and art type activities. By including more play type activities, you’ll also help the toddlers release some of the boundless energy they tend to have at this age.

7:30 – 9:00 AM	Parent Drop Off, Breakfast
9:00 – 9:30 AM	Circle Time, Read Books
9:30 – 10:15 AM	Group Games with Physical Activity
10:15 – 10:30 AM	Morning Snack
10:30 – 11:30 AM	Art Activities
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM	Lunch Time
12:30 – 2:00 PM	Nap Time
2:00 – 3:00 PM	Learning Activities
3:00 – 3:30 PM	Afternoon Snack
3:30 – 4:30 PM	Outside Playtime (or with Play Equipment)
4:30 – 6:00 PM	Individual Games and Playing, Parent Pick Up

Sample Pre-School Schedule

Once children have reached the pre-school age, these children will begin learning at a more advanced rate and will need more educational material involved in their schedule. At this age, you can start introducing more literacy and math.

During this age, the children are starting to become more self-sufficient. In most states, the number of children one caregiver can watch at one time will increase during the pre-school age range (verse what one caregiver can watch for toddlers).

Like toddler aged children, pre-school children will require large amounts of physical activity to help them develop. We recommend including activities outside, in groups and through games. Physical activity is also important to help them release some of the energy children of this age range have.

7:30 – 9:00 AM	Parent Drop Off, Breakfast
9:00 – 9:30 AM	Circle Time, Read Books
9:30 – 10:15 AM	Group Games with Physical Activity
10:15 – 10:30 AM	Morning Snack
10:30 – 11:30 AM	Practice Literacy & Math
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM	Lunch Time
12:30 – 2:00 PM	Nap Time
2:00 – 3:00 PM	Outside Playtime (or with Play Equipment)
3:00 – 3:30 PM	Afternoon Snack
3:30 – 4:30 PM	Art Activities
4:30 – 6:00 PM	Individual Games and Playing, Parent Pick Up

Sample School-Age Schedule

If your daycare has children older than 5 years old, you will also need a schedule for school-aged children. This schedule will be different than your other schedules because it won’t begin until after the children get out of school for the day.

Typically, in order to have school-aged children in your daycare, you will either need to be located walking distance from a school or have a company vehicle that is qualified to use for picking children up from school (like a van).

School-aged children will be the most self-sufficient out of all the children in your daycare facility and will be able to do many activities on their own. However, for their schedule, it is still essential that you allow time for them to work on their homework and release energy through playing.

2:00 – 3:00 PM	School Pick Up
3:00 – 3:30 PM	Afternoon Snack
3:30 – 4:30 PM	Work on Homework
4:30 – 6:00 PM	Individual Games and Playing, Parent Pick Up