Daily Reports?

[AmandasFCC]

Just wondering if any of you who are home daycare providers provide daily reports to the parents about their children? I have a father who is suggesting I do something like this because his son always claims to have forgotten what he's done that day. He understands that being that I'm by myself it would be difficult, but the suggestion still stands... Just curious how many others do this? What kind of information do you include on it? How do you have it set up? Thanks!

[seashell]

Each monday I send home a printed card outlining our week. Each day I send home a daily care report. I also send home quarterly newsletters with a "report card" of sorts. The parents love them and other daycare providers have asked me to make them for their families as well. I was actually thinking about starting to sell curriculum for home daycare online. If you send me your e-mail address, I will send you pdf copies of what I send home to give you some ideas of what you can design yourself to send home. It makes my life so much easier and the parents feel totally in touch with their chld's day.

[momofsix]

I send home daily reports for my infants. They say what and when the child ate, diapers, naps and any other notes for the day Some of the parents really love them, some never even bother to read them. I give a curriculum overview every three months or so, and a very detailed curriculum hangs up by the front door, and by my day care room. again, some parents really love this, others don't take the time to even look.

[melissa ann]

I used too, but the family that Ihave doesn't read them. The daily reports that I did for the infant would be in the diaper bag, at the bottm, folded, torn whatever. Forever. Some days there were more daily reports then things for the baby. I do monthly newletters, however.

[tinytotzdaycare]

notes

I send home the smile report daily

I also send home a monthly newsletter with all of our events, reminder, calendar, and upcoming community info.

Parents love the newsletter, some dont care about the daily report but others do. I do them during naptime on my computer print them out and they are done.

[tymaboy]

I dont. I take pictures & post them on the website or sometimes send the parents an email with pictures. At pickup time I will also tell them a little about their day.

[mac60]

I used to, but as others said, would find them in the bottom of the bag never being read. I quit. For infants I give a little overview of the day and am done.

[tinytotzdaycare]

newsletter

I also have a website with log-in info

[sarahtheresa02]

I have a daily report but its pretty basic. It just shows diaper changes, meals & naps. Some parents love them and like everyone else said. Some parents just never bother to read them. If there is a specific concern I address it when the parents come to pick up their children.

I am working on a newsletter format right now. Curriculum is a little difficult for me since all my kids are under 2 1/2 but we are starting to work on the basic ABC, 123 things.

[Former Teacher]

In TX, it is required for children under 18 months to have a daily report. However, like many other providers, we too, would find them in the bottom of bags, in the trash etc. It got to a point to where I told the infant caregiver to just ask the parents whether or not they wanted one. One actually told us, "why waste the paper, you wind up telling me everything anyway."

I was the assistant director at my former center. However I was also the preschool teacher. I would send home a weekly newsletter highlighting the week that passed and talk about upcoming events. As these newsletters started to stay in various cubbies, I switched it to monthly newsletters. Still since I was receiving NO feedback, I changed it to only when we had something special coming up, like an individual note home. I decided not to waste the time, the effort, the money (making 20 odd copies etc, costs adds up) etc..I stopped altogether.

Which reminds me of a mother (yes I know, me and my stories! haah). Years ago, outside the toddler room there were huge pocket like folders hung up on the wall. Each had the child's name and was decorated neat. This would be where the take home sheet would go, and other important papers.

Well this boy Jake had SO many take home sheets and papers, this folder was bulging. I finally took all the papers out and threw them away. I told the caregiver not to give Jake one but to still keep his folder up.

About a month later, mom was wondering how come Jake never had any papers in his folder. DUH! We told her since she never bothered to take them before we didnt think she wanted one. Oh yes she did! Fine. we did it for another MONTH and they were still in her folder.

I told the caregiver to take down all the folders and just put the take home sheets in the bags. We had since used that wall for decorations etc.. Of course mom never asked again for a sheet.

[AmandasFCC]

Great feedback everyone. Thanks! I think I'll just do the one for the dad that wants it and continue my verbal updates to the parents at pick ups.

[Unregistered]

Daily reports

This is what I do in my daycare- when they are an infant and figuring out a routine, I write down the routine once, and tell the parents if it is any different, anything abnomal, I will tell them daily. Another thing I tell them, if they had poopy diapers that day. It works out well, and you do not have to try and figure out, ok, when did this one eat, nap, how long, urinate, change diapers, etc. that gets a little ridiculous day after day, when it's pretty much the same thing, day after day.

[MARSTELAC]

So I do the daily sheets for infants, toddlers, potty training kids, preschoolers....One family is divorcing and one of the parents wants a copy of all of his kids' daily sheets on the days he does not pick up. First of all, most days I don't know who is picking up, secondly, I have a printer that can do copies (when I have ink and when it is working) but it is not in a room used for daycare and I really would need the other parent to stand here and wait for me to copy at the end of the day which would require me being out of site of kids and there is a chance it might not even work or might take some time to photocopy. The other alternative is to just write double notes but I have 6-8 notes per day and truly don't want to have to write 2 more....does anyone else do double notes? The dad says he saves them. I seriously don't believe it because I've seen the crumpled notes on their car floor, cubbie, or bag many times over. Should I go ahead and tell the parents that I'll hand write another copy but it will cost extra charge per day? Advice anyone?

[E Daycare]

I used too, but the family that Ihave doesn't read them. The daily reports that I did for the infant would be in the diaper bag, at the bottm, folded, torn whatever. Forever. Some days there were more daily reports then things for the baby.

One of my dck parents dont check either and Ive actually taped the thing to the car seat, or the milk/lunch container where I knew someone would eventually see it. Ive had to do this because if the father picks her up then I know anything I say falls on deaf ears so I use packing tape to stick the daily report to the belongings the mother would see.

If I said all daily reports would include a dollar THEN Im sure the parent would check, but tape is cheaper. hahaha

[E Daycare]

And as a parent that had my son in home care for the first 8 months I thrived on knowing what he did during the day without me. Some parents however just dont care.