Quick Lists

When its lunchtime at your daycare or childcare center, it is always important to be mindful of kids with food allergies! But, what if you kids with food allergies in separate rooms? Is there any easier way to keep track of this?

With Tadpoles, you can set up quick lists to group different kids depending on food allergies, playtime, interests, etc. In this scenario, we have a new student with a peanut allergy! Follow the steps below on how to add a child to a quick list and view one. 

First, start at the homescreen of the Director's Dashboard. 

Here, you can view all of your children that are in attendance at Amanda's daycare. 

Jacob has a peanut allergy, and so does our newest toddler, Brendan. 

Once you click on Brendan's profile, you can view his personal info. 

At the bottom of the screen, you can add him to a quick list. 

After typing in "peanut allergy", he is now grouped into that quick list, 

which you can use for future reference. 

To view all of the children in a quick list, click on the yellow tab in the top right hand corner that says "quick lists". Once you click on it, you can then select the quick list you wish to view. In this case, we want to view all the children in Amanda's daycare in the "peanut allergy" quick list.

After selecting "peanut allergy", the Director's Dashboard is reorganized to show the children that have a peanut allergy. It shows how many are in, and which rooms they are in. 

Brendan, our latest addition, is accounted for and ready to be checked on! 

Having a clear count of students with special needs makes running a daycare or childcare center a bit easier! Download the Childcare by Tadpoles app today and view your account on the Director's Dashboard to use features such as this one!

Sending Notes and Reminders to Parents

At any daycare or childcare center, it is important to be able to record, save, and share important memos with your students, staff, and parents. You should be able to record and share notes regarding special events, personal reminders, or emergencies at the touch of a button. 

With Tadpoles, you can record an observation or note, tag the affiliated child, and send it to parents. Very helpful for sending out class reminders! 

Follow these steps to access the feature!

Start at the home screen a touch "share".

Touch "write note" to record the observation. 

Tag the children under "pick kids" by tapping each profile picture.
Then, touch "edit notes". 

Select "parents" for visibility and either activity or incident for the type of reminder. 

Below, record the note. 

If you select the visibility for "parents" and touch "send note", 

this is what the email to parents will look like! 

If you select visibility for "portfolio" and touch "send note",

this is what it will look like under the Director's Dashboard in the child's portfolio. 

 Download the Childcare by Tadpoles app today and try it for yourself!

We love our customers!

I would like to personally thank our Tadpoles customers! We love and depend on your feedback. Receiving customer emails or app store reviews is one of the most important pieces in our company DNA. In fact, most of our product features have been at the request of childcare directors or teachers.  If you have an idea, question or would like to suggest a feature please talk.to.us@tadpoles.com.  

We are fortunate to have so many great customers that have helped us build the Tadpoles solution.  As we grow please continue to send us feedback and request on new features or guide us on how we can support you better.  A special thanks to Kelly in Schwenksville, Liz in San Diego, Pam in Lewes, Kellieann in Olde City, Sue in Meriden, Priscilla in Hawaii and many others that have helped shape Tadpoles vision. We always love to hear stories from Child Care providers on how Tadpoles has helped them. Please share with our Facebook friends your Tadpoles story or refer a friend to start using Tadpoles.  http://www.tadpoles.com

Cheers, 

Andy

The First Day of Preschool

The first Day of Preschool can be Tough... for Parents, Children and Childcare Providers

For Parents, sending your kids to preschool can bring about a slew of fears—will they receive good care, will they make friends, will they behave well and will it affect your relationship with them are just a few that come to mind. However, it’s important to keep in mind that your child is probably just as much, if not more concerned!

Even if your child is used to attending daycare, the preschool environment will have a stronger focus on early childhood education, in addition to all new classmates. If this is your child’s first time away, they may even experience some separation anxiety. Here’s some tips to help make your child’s experience as pleasant as possible:

1) Set Up Play-dates
Prior to the start of preschool, it’s important that your child experience what it’s like to play well with others. Try arranging a play-date with one of your friends’ or neighbors’ children to make sure they’ll be able to play well with others when their first day comes.

2) Create Excitement
Approximately two weeks before they’re scheduled to enroll, create excitement by circling the enrollment date on the calendar and adding a sticker with your child each day leading up to it, or even create your own advent calendar. A few days before, offer a surprise reward for having a successful first day.

3) Control Emotions
On the big day finally arrives, give a simple goodbye hug and kiss, trying not to get too emotional so the child’s anxiety does not increase. If you promised a reward, don’t forget it!

4) Stick to a Routine
After the first day of preschool, be sure to follow a routine on how you say goodbye and how you pick your child up everyday so as to avoid any separation anxiety.

For Preschools, the first day can be just as tough. With a whole new set of parent and children information to learn, it can seem overwhelming at first, but with the right tools, it can definitely be manageable. Using childcare software allows providers to quickly take attendance, easily access parent information, record student progress, check payment status, create lesson plans, validate pickup, and best of all, take photos and videos of children to send to parents, offering peace of mind. In addition to using childcare software, it’s important to encourage parent involvement, both in and out of the classroom.

Parents, if you’ve already started your children in preschool, what are some additional tips to ease their (and your) first day? Providers, share your stories of first day jitters on our Facebook or twitter pages.

Free Daycare Software, Tadpoles Pro, Featured in Parent Express Magazine

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Tadpoles Pro, free software for daycare, was recently featured in Parent Express magazine!

Parent Express, a monthly magazine for parents in the Philadelphia area, recently featured Frogsquared’s app for childcare providers, Tadpoles Pro, which allows parents to stay connected to their children during the work day.

Cofounders of the app, Andrew Monroe and Bill McHugh, both have young children, so they realized the difficulties of being away for long periods of time and created a way for parents such as themselves to be more connected with their children’s everyday lives. Since both Monroe and McHugh were avid in mobile software development, they joined forces to create free daycare software, providing real-time visibility to parents such as themselves and an organizational tool for daycare providers. The greatest part of Frogsquared, said McHugh, is “...the awareness that our Tadpoles app delights parents everyday by providing them with visibility of their children’s activities. Every day we smile from the parent comments we receive. It's extremely rewarding.”

The Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Education Center (BTC) in Schwenksville, PA was an early adopter of Tadpoles Pro, realizing that the app not only helps put parents’ minds at ease, but also reduces the amount of paperwork for teachers. BTC’s Childcare Director, Kelly Bouthillette, stated, “It has been a very helpful tool to send reminders as well, and the teachers love that they can share all of the fun moments with the parents.” In fact, over 75 percent of BTC’s parents are using the Tadpoles app for parents.

One of the best features, according to parents such as Tammy Fisher, are the pictures. “We receive numerous pictures throughout the day, which allows us to get an even better idea of who our son plays with, what activities he likes, what toys he likes, as well as being able to capture adorable photos! We show the pictures to our son and it prompts him to share more details about his day than he would without them. Writing on a daily report to parents, ‘Your son dressed up as a dinosaur today,’ is nothing compared to the actual photo,” said Fisher.

Frogsquared’s mobile apps, Tadpoles and Tadpoles Pro are currently available for the Apple iPhone and iPad, but versions for Android phones and tablets will be available by the end of the summer.

Read the full article in Parent Express, and discover the meaning behind “Frogsquared.” Have a question? Feel free to contact us, or connect with us on Facebook or twitter.

The Frogsquared Blog - About the Tadpoles & Tadpoles Pro App

Frogsquared, the creator of the free daycare management apps Tadpoles and Tadpoles Pro, has a blog!

"I need to tell you how much my husband and I appreciate receiving the Tadpoles Updates. It really means the world to us to be able to see the kids throughout the day and to see what a great time they are having at camp. To see them interacting and having fun with the bean bag toss and enjoying the scooter races has calmed my nerves more than you will ever know."
- Maggie

Frogsquared offers iPhone and iPad apps for parents (Tadpoles) and childcare providers (Tadpoles Pro) that provide real-time visibility into the everyday details of early childhood education. Parents have a lot of choices when it comes to daycare and are constantly looking for more ways to connect with their children throughout the day.

By using the Tadpoles Pro app, daycare and other childcare providers are able to securely share photos and videos of children with parents and even send personalized messages and alerts, giving parents the peace of mind they need. Parents simply need to download the Tadpoles app for instant communication with their daycare provider.

Since Tadpoles Pro is free software for daycare, it allows for quick attendance taking, instant access to contact and medical information, streamlined class schedules, payment history and pickup validation authorization, keeping the daycare organized and parents happy.

The Frogsquared blog will not only keep you up-to-date on the latest Tadpole daycare software breakthroughs, but will serve as a resource on daycare/parent relationships, creating the ultimate forum in which parents and daycare providers can discuss the topics that matter most.

Stay tuned for updates by subscribing to the Frogsquared blog.