Daily Reports?

[Lucy]

Used to send home for infants so the mom knew when/how much they ate/drank, and when/what/how much was in their diaper, whether they were cranky, how much they napped, etc. After awhile, I noticed it wasn't being read -- I dog-eared one of the corners and layed it in a particular direction in the diaper bag pocket. For a week it stayed in the exact position, folded exactly the same way. I stopped filling it out and she never said a word. It stayed in the bag for months before I finally threw it out, and she never mentioned it. That's the last time I'll do that. It's a pain. I do verbally tell the moms of infants a summary of their baby's vitals.

For bigger kids, I will verbally mention important things like if they were really tired or cranky or fell asleep watching cartoons, etc. or if I think they might be catching a cold. I also mention any funny things they said or did, or if they went out of their way to help someone or do something nice.... stuff like that. I don't report mundane things.

[Unregistered]

I know when I had both my kiddos in daycare (starting a home daycare myself now) I really enjoyed it. I ended up switching providers (my wonderful one quit) and my new one doesn't provide them.

I miss them! I liked knowing what my son had to eat for lunch and if my 6 month daughter poooped. I think that offering them to parents is a bonus.

I know that I will be offering them when I do my daycare...

[laundrymom]

I text. Alot. I text pics thru the day. I text at each feeding. The rest is relayed thru daily talking. If mom doesn't pick up I text to her the basic day. All parents are informed of this at signup.

[Jewels]

I send something home everyday(almost) there are days they dont get done, but what I do is for everyone over 1, I have a sheet in Word, and it has spots, for bkfst, lunch and snack, and a diaper time sheet, and then I type up a paragraph of what we did that day usually along these lines
"Free play/TV, breakfast, brushed teeth, dance time, circle time, Subject today "birds and eggs" talked about birds and how they lay eggs, and what they use for nests" blah blah, played bird matching game, Oval shape today, project time-made bird and egg, free play, lunch, story time, TV from 2:30-3pm, snack, clean up, outside play, played candyland until pickup.........I then print 5 of these sheets, write down anything else for the individual child, like their nap, and then give them, I really don't care if they read them or not, its just there, and if the child gets sick or a rash or something, then they might pull it out, needing to know what they ate, all of my parents love these, I do have one mom who told me a month ago I could stop sending them home for them, so I don't give them to them anymore, unless theres info I need them to have. I always wanted a sheet when I had my son in care, and never got one. But I like just typing up one sheet, and printing it, saves me writing 5 different ones everyday.

[Lilbutterflie]

I don't think this has been mentioned yet... for those who use Minute Menu Kids, the Daily Reports are super easy to create, save and email (to save paper). When you use the menu planner (and I think the lesson planner, too); it will automatically fill in what the meals were on that day. I just started doing this for my daycare family, I email it to DCM before she leaves for work. She loooves them! I can tell she reads it everyday, b/c when she picks up the kids and they give her their version of their day she says excitedly "I know! I read your report!" And b/c I save each copy to my computer, I have a log for each child of discipline and other issues that come up.