A while ago, I tried leaving cups of water out for the children. It made me have to spend my entire day monitoring and refilling cups of water! The kids obviously weren't really thirsty, they just kept wanting to go back and forth to the cups on the counter to take sips constantly and began running games to see who could get there faster. They would often drink from someone else's cup - which made it so I had to constantly monitor the cups. They also went through 2-3 cups of water for each child per day which made me have to constantly fill up the cups. And of course, from drinking water constantly all day long, they were also spending half the day going to the bathroom!

My basic routine is breakfast 9am (including a drink), circle time, educational activities morning snack 10:30am(including a drink), free-play, educational activities, lunch 12pm(including a drink), nap, snack 3pm(including a drink), free-play, and, if the child is here after 6:00, dinner 6pm (including a drink). Trust me, the children are getting plenty of drinks throughout the day with their meals. They really should not need a drink in between meals here.

I have worked in 3 daycare/preschool centers. The water fountains were in the hallway. I honestly can only remember 1 time when one child asked to get water during class time. It simply didn't happen. The kids just waited for meal time.

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