I was wondering what your meal time setup is? I have a table that seats six and currently have have five children but and looking to get licensed so will hopefully will have around 9-12 daily and i was wondering how it would even be possible to feed them all at the same time, how do y'all feed your kids? i feed them in my kitchen because its the only laminate i have and its easy to clean, everywhere else is carpet currently.

Reply

I have three of the green round ikea tables.

I can seat up to 15, but can only have max 14.

it works well. we eat in the kithcn/dinning room area. when the weather is nice, we eat out on a covered patio.

as far as serving. we cook in advance and heat up. I cook during nap time and save it for the following day. sometimes I cook several meals and then freeze them.

I have them all wash hands and then sit at the same time. I am on the food program.

I think you just need to find what works for you, experiment with it, give it time to work and then when you find it, stick with it.

I hate meal times most days, but that is only because we have two kids that scream once they see the food. those kids get excused to nap time early, I won't fight anyone and try to make them eat.

Reply

if you have green activity tables in your dining area, where do you sit to eat when you have guests over or when you and your family sit to eat? I could get rid of my table and replace it with those little activity tables but my husband might not like sitting at the mini table for thanksgiving ya know? lol all the kids sit at my butcher block looking six seating table in the kitchen/dining.

Reply

we dont. 100% of my house is DC, excluding bedrooms.

we have 4 bedroom house. One room is set up like our dinning room/entertainment room. no tv in there, but 2 computers (it's also my office)
we have sofa in there too. its a nice size room.

I don't ever host stuff at my hosue. I am soooo not the type, so i works out perfectly for us...lol

Reply

I let my dck's watch TV while I prepare (half hour). Then we take turns washing up. The helper goes first then they will set out napkins and silverware then plates off food and milk. We rotate helpers (they LOVE it).

Reply

Also-
My kids table sits 4 plus I have 2 high chairs. Older children that are here on breaks and such sit at the adult table.

Reply

I have a pretty small eat-in kitchen. I had originally started out with my kitchen table pushed into the corner. And two little tikes tables with 2 chairs each. It just didn't work.
So, I found two nice oak benches on craigslist, they match my table pretty well. I got rid of the little tikes stuff. I can fit two kitchen chairs on the ends if needed. I love the benches! This summer was a lot busier for me, and everyone still fit around the table.

Reply

If you have room for it in your kitchen, maybe invest in a child sized classroom table? The kind I'm thinking of would fit 6-8. Then you could let the oldest children who won't fit at the little table sit at the big table. When you need it out of the way you can push it up along the wall.

Reply

If u have a kids table that seat 6 I would get another one, I use the rectangle kids table, I also have two high chairs, and a little kids table that is small plastic square.I have small space.if u want to keep your adult table put big kids at it then get a kid table that fits your space

Reply

My house is small and all summer when I'd have up to 10 dcks every day, I had a regular dining room table along with a rectangular little table that seats 6. Now that I've just got 6 dcks I put the dining table in the bedroom for storage until I need it again. No one here but me so it works well.

Reply

I have a few small tables, where they all can sit, and 1 or 2 kids are usually small enough to need highchairs

Reply