Daily schedule builder
Post a schedule and two audiences read it: families deciding whether the day sounds right, and an inspector checking that outdoor time and rest are actually in it. Build it as bars and both questions answer themselves.
Rename any block or change its length. The bar width is the time, so the printed sheet reads as the day actually runs.
- 7:0060 min
- 8:0030 min
- 8:3060 min
- 9:3060 min
- 10:3030 min
- 11:0045 min
- 11:4545 min
- 12:30120 min
- 14:3030 min
- 15:0060 min
- 16:0060 min
- 17:0060 min
- play
- 36%
- learning
- 25%
- nap
- 18%
- snack
- 20%
Outdoor time is the block that gets eaten
It is the first thing to go when the morning runs late, and it is one of the things a licensor is most likely to ask about. Several states set a minimum for outdoor play in a full-day programme, and weather exclusions are narrower than people assume.
Put it on the schedule twice — morning and afternoon — so losing one still leaves a compliant day.
Rest is not the same as nap
Children who do not sleep still need a rest period and somewhere to be. A schedule with a two-hour nap and no alternative activity is a schedule with a supervision problem for the four-year-olds who stopped napping in March.
Transitions are where the day is lost
Twelve blocks means eleven transitions, and each one costs five to ten minutes of coats, hands, toilets and lining up. A schedule that is full to the minute is a schedule permanently running late.
Build slack into the blocks rather than adding a transition block, and put the longest one before lunch, which is where a late morning does the most damage.
Read the shares, not the blocks
The percentages under the timeline are the honest summary of your programme. A day that is sixty per cent adult-led is a different programme from one that is sixty per cent free play, whatever the philosophy statement says.
Show the shares to families on a tour. It is a more useful answer to "what do they do all day" than any block-by-block reading of the timetable.
Sources
- Child Care Licensing — Childcare.govfetched 2026-09-04
- National Database of Child Care Licensing Regulations (HHS/ACF)fetched 2026-09-04