Great parent portal!

It’s a great app for parents to keep abreast of their kids daily happenings. It’s easy to use, easy to follow and makes saving the cute pictures from their day a breeze.

Pros

As a parent, this app is very user friendly. I have multiple children and the organization of each of their updates and pictures makes it so easy to check in on their day.

Cons

Every once in a while the app won’t update for me right away when opening; occasionally getting stuck on a different day. Typically if I close it and open it up a little while later the issue resolves itself.

We LOVE Tadpoles

We have been overall very pleased with Tadpoles as it is easy to use, efficient, and was a nice addition to our unique communication features

Pros

Tadpoles is easy to use, helps to get important information out to families, connect with staff and send photos and progress notes to families so they can see their children's activities, especially during the pandemic when parents are not permitted in the building.

Cons

There are no features that I can think of that leave me unsatisfied. Tadpoles was well developed and really is useful to busy teachers and administrators

Steering Clear of Tadpoles - Do yourself the favor and use another option.

At this point, I rate tadpoles at the bottom of the tier for childcare operational systems. This should be easier to navigate, your staff should be knowledgable and be able to help with deleting duplicate accounts, updating access for the room devices, quickly change functionality when emergencies arise. This system boasts these functions, but they are unable to execute.

Pros

At this point nothing, the lack of support is mind boggling. The sales team was great and I felt very comfortable at first. Once I started having technical issues, the lack of support has made using this system virtually impossible. I have on numerous occasions reached out to be sent to voice mail and not receive a return phone call. From the onset, I was informed that I would be able to make changes and update passwords. This I can't do, I can't even check the user name and password for the devices I need to use the system.

Cons

The user ability of the center admin or overall center Director. I should be able to view the devices and staff, check or update passwords, delete duplicate child accounts, update staffing , none of this have I been able to do without having to contact customer support. When I do call for support, the support staff has numerously been unable to help. I am very unhappy with tadpoles and its support staff.

Room for improvement

Pros

I liked that we would get a report each day showing what our child ate, how long he napped, and when he had his diaper changed. I also liked that the teachers could share a photo and other notes.

Cons

I didn't like that I couldn't see his report in real-time. I would have to wait until after my child was logged out by his teacher in order to see his report - and sometimes I wouldn't get his report until many hours after picking him up so I'd have to guess when he had his last bottle or diaper change or nap.

Childcare Software

Tadpoles was a great software for small childcare centers. The customer service was very hard to reach.

Pros

This software had an easy interface to use and very easy to navigate.

Cons

It was missing features that we needed after the pandemic and that is what lead us to the switch.

Every daycare should use an app

We used this when apps in daycares were very new to the market and I'm so glad it was available to us. We've really become used to the convenience and I can't imagine using a daycare without an app.

Pros

When friends are looking for new daycare centers I always encourage them to use a center that has an app and camera system. Tadpoles was great when my kids were babies because I knew exactly what went on throughout the day. As they got older I would read the entries and see the photos and it would give me prompts to encourage them to talk about their day.

Cons

I wish there was a way to easily export all of the photos and memories all at once.

Good beginner Childcare software

Tadpole is great to start usibg if you have never used a software in your classroom before. Definitely helps you stay more organized.

Pros

Tadpole allows you to digitally input everything from your students day in the comfort of your own classroom. With something as small as a phone, you can download the app and input their whole day. Everything from diaper changes to feedings and parents absolutely love it. It completely changed how I organized my classroom. We never had any problems uploading anything, which was amazing.

Cons

There are better softwares out on the market right now that allow you to do more with their app. More features so we stopped using Tadpole for this reason. Its a great beginner software, but we out grew it. You can't do as many admin features as other software inn the market.

Tadpoles For Kids

Pros

Tadpoles is really great. It gives parents and caregivers a means of communication without being directly face to face. There are instant updates with pictures, schedules, etc.

Cons

I like all of the functionality of the program, but I think it needs to be upgraded in its appearance more modern.

Pretty darn good.

smoother daily operations

Pros

Amount of content that can be stored for each student. I like the daily count and the historical info too.

Cons

Slow communication between tablets and server. Wish that new students populated faster than they do. We add new students, then there is a dupe once system catches up.

Tadpoles Daycare

Pros

Easy to use mobile app and access my children’s daily activities. Easy to send messages to teachers.

Cons

No complaints. Easy to use but would be nice to be able to share photos with family who doesn’t have access to the app.

Good to feel closer to my son

Thanks to this we can talk with our son about what he did and learned during the day, this gives us common topics to stimulate his development

Pros

I like that we feel closer to the teachers, we see the work and the activities they do each day, we see the photos and we have topics to ask and talk with our son

Cons

Navigability is difficult, going from one day to another or from one month to another is complicated, downloading photos or videos is not always possible, having some kind of feedback to the teachers is not easy.

Tadpoles Review

Tadpoles is a good idea and helpful for parents and caregivers. However, the app is unorganized and could be remodeled.

Pros

I liked the opportunities to track throughout the day and keep parents involved while their child is being cared for.

Cons

It’s unorganized and difficult to maneuver at first, one definitely has to be taught how the software works.

Is what they use in my son's daycare

When I receive direct notifications to the mail, I find out quickly what is going on with my kid

Pros

I like that it has several interesting features such as sharing photos, videos, and comments with the teachers

Cons

I find it confusing to navigate between the different dates, to read the reports or see the old photos

As a professional child care provider, I found this software extremely convenient and time-saving.

This software provides me the greatest benefits in time-saving and general efficiency. Everything I need -- reports, student info, parent info, etc. -- is literally all in one place. I feel that because of this software and the efficiency boost it provides, not only is more time and energy focused on the students themselves, but that they're safer as a result. Constantly trying to shuffle around paperwork while teaching is no longer an issue! Plus, I didn't have to carry around a heavy binder anymore. Whew!

Pros

What I like most about this software is the convenience of having all of my student information in one place, readily available at the literal touch of a fingertip. As a professional child care provider for over five years, I can't begin to tell you how much time, paper, and grief this software has saved. I love that each staff member and student's name has a photo listed right there with their name -- makes it so much easier on subs. And thing is, the whole program is so easy to navigate, most people would be able to learn the ins and outs within a few days use. One of my favorite features is the ability to share a photo or update with a parent in real time, and the fact that doing so only requires a few taps of the screen. While no product is ever going to be perfect, compared to similar software I've encountered, I'd go with Childcare by Tadpoles every time.

Cons

While overall, my experience has been generally positive with this software, like anything else there have been some hiccups. My biggest complaint is that occasionally the software freezes when you're in the middle of updating a report or trying to perform some other (what should be a) relatively quick task. For some reason I run into this most frequently while using the in-app camera, though this problem has improved with each update. Another more rare issue occurred when, maybe once a month, a report would not get through to a parent or parents. I will say that for the most part during those issues, customer service was pretty much on top of it and able to help resolve the problem nearly immediately.

Nice-looking application for childcare but there are some issues with functionality

Still my overall experience with Tadpoles is good. I hope that they will work on the bugs I mentioned before soon. The feature of paying tuition is not so critical to me.

Pros

I have been using a few other similar applications and I like Tadpoles design much more than other's. It is simple to use and have everything you need as a parent to look at pictures of your kids or read notes from your kids' teacher. I have two children and can easily switch between them.

Cons

There are some issues with Tadpoles, that do not allow me to give it 5 stars. At first, it looks like there is no option to pay tuition, so we have to use another application to pay checks. For comparison, you can pay tuition directly from Brightwheel. The second, having two kids in Tadpoles creates some bugs in visualization of photos. Literally, I very often see pictures of one kid in account of my second kid. Moreover, I see them but I cannot open them, and I have to restart application every time. So, it is a bug and very annoying one. The third, the download link for videos is really hard to catch. It shows up and disappear very quickly.

Good app for teachers

Less chat with parent/teacher about potty/meal/nap report, I can find all off it in daily report. Paperlees reports- saving environment

Pros

I used Tadpoles as a teacher and as a parent. From parents perspective it was easy to use and understand. I like to go back and see old pictures. From teachers perspective I really liked kids portfolios and grading and then pulling reports. Lesson plan section was great as well. I also liked how easy it was to send a picture to a parent. Time wise we would benefit from face recognition feature instead of having to scroll through 24 kids to select the child and send a picture to a parent

Cons

I wish it had feature(when I used it 2 years ago) to leave note for teacher, except note that you can enter before you dropp of your child on the morning. I wish the app is in the realtime and as soon as teacher post something, parent can see

Communication is Key!

Overall, I really enjoyed using Tadpoles and was very impressed. I think communication is KEY and a software program like this allows you to do that in the highest way. Your families will love you for it!

Pros

I used this software as a teacher in a classroom and it was by far the best thing in my classroom. Going from writing everything down on a clipboard, to being able to input things quickly and store them, was a dream. I was also with infants, so my parents that were using Tadpoles were mostly first time parents, and the ease and availability of communicating with them allowed me to do a better job and they fell in love with me/Tadpoles.

Cons

We would have issues with Tadpoles being "unavailable" and I'm not entirely sure if it was a connection issue, or a Tadpoles issue, but it would cause frustration with parents and colleagues.

Tadpoles for communication

Tadpoles is a great way to build a relationship with families by making them a part of their child's daily events. No parent wants to miss an important event during their child's day, and Tadpoles allows them to be part of it all.

Pros

Tadpoles is a great way to build relationships with families. It is an easy way to share pictures and events with family members throughout the day.

Cons

The price is a little bit much for a Public School to maintain our subscription. If the funds were available, this would be amazing to keep using with my Kindergarten families. There is also no way for families to share pictures and videos with the teacher.

Parent User Approved

I love the updates and ability to have everything for both kids in one spot. It eases my mind to know my children are doing well.

Pros

Its great to have updates within my hands at any moment without feeling like i need to call or inconvenience a teacher. Also we have so much data so many places via log ins and emails and voicemails and portals. It's nice to have one place as it realates to my child and their education and care.

Cons

i didnt feel like all of the features were being used to the best of their ability. Some quick self help videos may have been helpful at the time for users.

I'm loving the new changes

Pros

With the new update it is so much easier to use and looks much better. I love that there is an E book for my kiddo to enjoy

Cons

It can be slow trying to retrieve new photos

Tadpoles App

Pros

I really liked the capability for parents to be able to see daily updated activities and lessons being done in the classroom. It was helpful to be able to plug in all the weekly lessons and have them ready to go, in case of a substitute teacher or just so parents know they upcoming themes and lessons.

Cons

It took me much longer to understand this App over a couple others I have used as a teacher. I had to write in everything manually when this App was used at my former school which took a lot of time. To have lesson options, as in core standards and basic theme titles, would have made lesson planning much easier.