Creating an environment that fosters childhood development and prioritizes safety is critical for a child care center. So, you might be wondering, how can you make that easier?
Being a child care provider is a distinct role because of how many hats you wear. Children look to you as teachers, caregivers, and role models. Parents tend to view child care providers as necessary support, trusted helpers, and a resource that can help with their child’s development and provide them with the attention that they need.
Before even taking the business side of operating a daycare into consideration, which includes day-to-day administrative tasks that are crucial for running a successful business, it’s clear that providers have their plates full.
Keeping up with the laundry list of responsibilities can be a challenge, but a bit of technological assistance can go a long way. Daycare solutions that can lessen the load by automating the administrative tasks that take time away from interacting with students and parents.
While the benefits of daycare solutions may be plain to see, the underlying benefit is how they can improve the experiences of children and parents who are a part of your daycare.
5 Best Solutions to Improve Daycare Experiences
The advantages of leveraging software for your daycare extend to everybody involved – parents, children and providers.
Providers and parents know what they are looking for, and will have an appreciation for the convenience that these solutions bring to the table. Not to mention that improving your organization with these solutions will result in positive development for the kids.
Let’s explore five solutions that can do just that.
1. Child activity scheduling
Keeping children active at your daycare is a challenge, especially when planning and organizing activities is often a very manual task. Being able to manage your staff, collect ideas, and create a series of activities is important for your programs to be efficient and successful.
That’s where activity management software will show its value. This type of solution lets you print activity schedules, sign-up sheets and more without fumbling through stacks of paper. That level of organization will help you focus on the kids, and they will never have a dull moment while in your care.
2. Mobile apps
One factor that we believe is so important to consider about the child care industry is the relevance of the millennial parent.
Millennial parents have been defined by their use of technology. Daycare’s that take their desire for convenience into consideration and apply it to their practices will immediately improve the experience for parents. Considering that 50 percent of millennials are mothers and 71 percent of them work outside the home, using a daycare mobile app can significantly improve the experience not just for parents, but also for you as the provider.
Mobile apps allow parents to be more engaged and active in their child’s daycare plan, while providers can view reports, account balances, and see who has checked-in.
3. Attendance tracking and check-in solutions
Attendance tracking and adequate process for check-ins are completely necessary for the security of your daycare. Another factor to consider is that attendance tracking requirements at are common. Making this process simpler and more efficient will help guarantee that only authorized pickup people check each child out at the end of the day and that every child is accounted for when they go outside or change locations.
Having an attendance tracking system in place ensures no student is overlooked. They are simple, efficient, accurate, and makes it easy for you to collect and review attendance records. Parents will be pleased by the ease of use of the check-in system and they will be more inclined to trust your ability to keep their child safe.
4. Automated digital payment processing
Digital payment processing is a solution that, a lot like the emergence of mobile apps, is geared towards consolidating the demands of managing your daycare. It’s also a solution that millennial parents would value when considering their daycare options.
Parents are busy people and simplifying any aspect of their life is invaluable. With digital payment processing, they can make payments at any time on any device. From an organizational perspective, you will save hours by automating your billing and improve your cash flow. From the perspective of the parent-provider relationship, they will have the flexibility to make payments with a variety of options through a mobile portal. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
5. Meal tracking
Tracking meals creates unavoidable paperwork that can become a burden on the operational side of your daycare. By leveraging a solution for meal tracking and automating the process your daycare will save hours on keeping track of meal counts.
By locking this process down, you will be able to differentiate yourself from competing daycares. You can even start printing menus, posting them on your site and social media accounts, and emailing them to parents. The transparency and communication with parents are a benefit. However, you will also be improving how you track and schedule meals for the kids in your daycare. It’s a crucial part of the day for kids.
Final Thoughts
Implementing daycare solutions can offer distinct advantages in terms of maximizing your staff’s efficiency and engaging with parents. Identifying the needs of your daycare will help you understand which solutions present the most value. These examples are meant to show how much there is to gain from simplifying your processes and using technology to make your daycare a more cohesive operation.
Learn more about Procare’s daycare solutions, and how they can improve your child care center.
