Hot or cold lunch

[Tiger Lilly]

Do i have to do a cooked meal at lunch time? or can it just be sandwiches, wraps, roll,ect....Mindee is with me for 9 hours a day.....:panic:

[sarah707]

We have cold at lunchtime and hot at tea time. :D

[Tiger Lilly]

We have cold at lunchtime and hot at tea time. :D

Mindee is with me untill 5pm, so am i right in thinking she will be having tea at home with her family, we dont normal eat untill 5:30pm. thanks.

[Andrea08]

Mindee is with me untill 5pm, so am i right in thinking she will be having tea at home with her family, we dont normal eat untill 5:30pm. thanks.

this you will have to ask the parents as some families eat at different times and some families expect meals for their children esp after the fees they are paying. 9hrs is a long time hun and you have to fit the 5 a day into that time!!

good luck have a chat with the parents as they will not fit the 5-a-day into the few hrs they have b4 bed and at breakfast..

xx

[fionamal]

I have a mixed lunch menu of hot and cold meals to fit into our schedule.

So somedays it could be a sandwich or homemade soup or pie and beans or noodles with chicken and sweetcorn.

I dont do evening meals as a rule as I like to sit down with my family for it.

[sweets]

i don't do tea for mindees as i think its nice if they have that with parents, i give them a snack about 3ish tho to keep them going. lunch varies, sometimes we have hot sometimes cold, it depends on what we are doing on the day. i don't have a set menu either but always write in daily diaries what the children have had.

[sarah707]

Mindee is with me untill 5pm, so am i right in thinking she will be having tea at home with her family, we dont normal eat untill 5:30pm. thanks.

Our teatime is set at between 445 and 515 - if they are here they eat with us :D

[Mollymop]

It's up to you what you want to do, if you don't want to cook a tea for the child then tell the parents you don't provide mindees tea. I would have thought the child would have a hot tea when they get home, but everyone is different.

I provide a cold lunch, but don't do tea - I have tea at 6pm you see and I want to eat with my family on our own.

[ZoeAlli]

I do a mix of hot and cold lunches depending on what is planned for the day. The children I have go home at 5.30pm, and then I have dinner with my family. I have said to parents that I will not do tea as I think children should share that meal with their parents (it gives them chance to talk about what they have done in their day)! Also we eat after children have gone so I can have time with my own dc's.

[DIPPY DOUGHNUT]

hi

Ido cold lunches at the moment but when the weather turns a bit colder i shall start to introduce a mix of hot and cold lunches.

Im sure on my course we got told that if you had a child for over X amount of hours a day then you had to provide a hot meal. I cant remeber if it is 7 or 9 hours im sure the more experinced childminders will know!

i would ask parent if they want the child to have tea at theirs or with you.

[DIPPY DOUGHNUT]

didnt realise it was you!! hope your first day is going ok.

Beccy X

[helenlc]

I do a mix of hot and cold lunches.

At the moment, I only have one LO all day and she is here til 6pm so I do her dinner. I asked Mum if she wanted her to have her dinner here and she said Yes. When they leave mine, they have to get a bus home so it would be too late when they got hoem for dinner. LO is only 15 mths.

Others I have had til 5pm, I have done an after school snack and then they have dinner at home.

We have our dinner when mindee has gone home at 6pm.

[Tiger Lilly]

didnt realise it was you!! hope your first day is going ok.

Beccy X

LOL LOL
It went really well, we are going to try making play dough tomorrow (never done it before)?x

[buildingblocks]

I used to provide a cooked lunch and a snack tea when I first started. This became harder to do with pre-school pick up as as children slept straight away and were falling asleep in dinner so a snack lunch became easier to do and a cooked tea.

Then I had a parent taking the mick wanting a breakfast for child and cooked tea for child at 4pm and picking up at 4.30pm. Child also informed me mummy had breakfast sat watching TV while he played (mum also let this slip to me) but giving this child breakfast was a nightmare because of time he arrived and school runs.

So I started to charge extra for breakfast and said child had to be here before 7.45 in contracted hours and extra for a cooked tea and children had to be booked in until six and tea was served after 5.30

[mushpea]

mine have a cold lunch then a hot tea at 5pm, when parents arrive i tell them this is the time they have tea then its up to them if they want them to have it or not, 4 of the mindess are here till 6pm each day and 2 of them are
10hours a day and i think leaving a 6pm is to late then for them to be getting home then eating dinner.

[The Juggler]

We have cold at lunchtime and hot at tea time. :D

I do the same