If your children have ‘tea’ at after school club / nursery...

[Enigmasaurus]

...do you feed them again before bed? My youngest has ‘tea’ at nursery at 3.30pm and bedtime is not until 6.30/7pm. The others have something at after school club which tends to be more of a meal (though still earlier than we would normally).

At the moment we end up having to top up with toast or bits of leftovers or cereal but I’m keen that they get something a bit healthier.

So what does everyone else do? I’d be keen to hear examples of what works for other families

Good question, I always wonder if I'm doing the right thing.

Mine has "tea" at nursery at 3:45 and that is usually sandwiches or toast, and fruit. I then give her dinner at 5 when we get home. My aim is for this to be a small portion of whatever proper meal I'd like to have for dinner that evening but, in reality, I usually just end up cooking something like pasta and serving with cold cuts of meat or veg.

It's hard because I'd like her to be hungrier for dinner so I have more chance of getting something more nutritious or varied in her. But she's never hungry enough to be motivated to eat something new because she's had her fill at nursery.

Spaghetti on toast is a full tea here, definitely not a snack!

I would give a small tea like cereal, toast etc before bed.

Mine get a snack at after school club and previously childcare. Things like cereal, breadsticks, hummus, bagel, cheese, toast & beans. It certainly is not an evening meal.

My two DC's go to after school club twice a week. They offer a hot meal, but we also offer them something when they get home at 6:15pm. Usually yoghurt and fruit. But if they are particularly hungry toast/crumpets.

Thanks all.
Seems we’re not going too far wrong with toast / weetabix / leftovers.

I’d love us to all be able to eat together (which we do on my non working days and weekends) but on working days I get home at 5.45/6pm and bedtime is 6.15-7pm depending on presence/absence/duration of naps.

We do what you've just described op. My dc have a light tea at their childminder's and then some cereal before bed. As they get older and bigger and can stay up later they will have a more substantial meal with us at around 7 or 8 p.m. instead of the cereal but at the moment, at 7&8, they go to bed at 7.30-8. I think good sleep is probably more important than eating together every day at this stage.

Why do nurseries organise food this way? A kind of bigger than a snack but too early to be tea at 3.45? Wouldn't it be better to give a small snack at 2.30-3 and a meal later for those picked up later ?

Nope - there's snacks there if they want them (toast, cheese and crackers, fruit and veg etc) - but I've seen the amount mine shovel away in after school club and it's the same kind of portion they'd eat here anyway.

Mine sulk when they're at home for tea instead of after school club - because after school club give them pudding and I don't!

Our nursery do a freshly cooked hot meal at lunch time, which is the kind of thing I’d do for dinner ie a roast and then at 4.30 they have tea which is a quicker but still generally hot meal such as a variation of pasta, pizza, rice. They can have as much as they want so good eaters generally have their fill, plus fruit and a pudding.

I’d imagine they go home without needing anything else unless they are fussy eaters.

Shut at 6/6.30 so they can’t start later than 4.30 due to the length of time it takes to eat and clear away. Lots go home from about 5pm if they have stayed for tea.

When mine were at nursery , they had tea there then something like toast & fruit when they got home. At after-school club, they had a snack, which was usually a wrap or sandwich, so they had a proper meal once they got home.

I usually offer something. If we are all eating before her bedtime, she will have some of what we have. If we are not eating until after she has gone to bed, I will give her porridge or hot cross bun and a banana. Sometimes she is hungry and sometimes she is not.

Mine are currently sulking as I've changed their after school club days and they prefer the after school tea options on the day we've dropped to the home tea options! (even if I buy and serve exactly the bloody same meal)

It’s usually two hot meals at my son’s nursery and he usually eats most of them with the second being at 15.30-16.00. So I usually give him fruit and/or toast or oatcakes, sometimes with a little bit of cheese, depending on what is in the house. He definitely needs something to tide him over to breakfast time, but not a full meal

Snack type meal for my 3yr old at nursery at 4pm, which is generally filled wraps, sandwiches, baked potato type thing. I offer a small portion of our normal cooked dinner at 6.15pm to her, sometimes she eats sometimes not. I think they are pretty self limiting in how much they eat. We did exactly the same with her older brother when he was at nursery, he has a snack of fruit when he gets home from school and then his dinner at 6.15pm.