First-time parents make up a huge portion of your nursery customers. They often use several apps to track their baby’s sleep, feeding and nappy changes to help them find the routine that affords them the smoothest ride. That means there can be a fear that when their child joins a nursery, the tracking and routine will go down the pan.
When you market your nursery spaces to parents, you’re missing a valuable marketing opportunity if you aren’t shouting about your Child Diary feature.
We all know the carnage a missed or late nap can cause. Nurseries offering live updates on sleep, meals, nappies and bottles taken reassure parents and help keep children to their hard-fought routine, even away from home.
Your role as a childcare provider is to ensure children thrive in your setting (including helping to make the transition from home to nursery as smooth as possible). Our role is to make running a nursery look simple. We help you with every task needed to help children thrive in your setting. Child Diaries is one string to our bow.
Why Child Diaries are an essential feature for parents
Every EYFS setting will have a version of Child Diaries. A place to note down all the important parts of the child’s day to give feedback to parents at pick-up time. Some settings may use paper-based systems, while others have progressed to online software.
Child diaries are important in staying connected with families, helping with staff handovers, and saving nursery practitioners valuable time inputting information so they can get back to interacting with the children quicker!
- Parents are reassured and informed of their child’s day in nursery
- Practitioners can easily share individual or bulk information within seconds
- Managers and owners know their parent communication efforts are impactful
- The nursery receives positive word-of-mouth feedback from happy parents (cue a flood of enquiries!)
What can you record and share with Blossom’s Child Diary?
We’re glad you asked, all of the big hitters we spoke about earlier can be added to Children’s Diaries easily. Parents are informed about all important information and events during nursery day.
- Sleep information
- Bottles drank
- Meals eaten
- Nappy change details
- Activities enjoyed
Let’s look into these a little further.
Record baby’s sleep
Parents track their children’s sleep, as it can help them settle into a routine more easily. The essential information parents want to know about sleep centres around when their child has napped and for how long. Practitioners can even add comments to each inputted sleep to share extra details with parents.
Tracking babies’ sleep can help identify when they are going through a growth spurt, might feel under the weather or are ready to drop their afternoon nap.
All information about sleep can be shared via the Blossom Parent App or an email, keeping everyone in the loop. The best part? Practitioners can add sleep details individually or in bulk to save even more time.
Track babies’ bottle and food intake
We all know you’re not yourself when you’re hungry. Parents like to know how much their child has eaten or drank during nursery so they can be armed with necessary snacks at pick-up time if needed. Recording and sharing meal and snack time information helps parents to stay informed.
As with sleep, tracking babies’ and toddlers’ eating and feeding patterns helps parents understand their eating preferences and the amount of food they need during growth spurts. It can also highlight when teething occurs due to changes in hunger levels.
Blossom’s Child Diaries allow practitioners to create menus and add these to the child’s profile. These nursery menus are tailored to any dietary requirements, helping staff to always be aware of food allergies.
As with all of the areas recorded and shared via the Child Diary, participants can add personalised comments to the input food amount, share vital details with parents, and assist with a smooth handover between nursery staff.
The digital nappy change chart
Parents understandably worry about their child’s happiness and welfare when they send them to nursery for the first time. Especially ensuring they are comfortable when they need a nappy change. Share nappy changes via Blossom’s Parent App or email to ensure parents are reassured their child is well-cared for throughout the day (and to help with pick-up preparation).
We are always thinking of ways to make practitioner administrative tasks easier so you can get back to doing what you love quicker: interacting with the children. That’s why Blossom’s Child Diaries have a bulk input option for nappy changes, to keep the parents informed in the most effective way.
You can also access all the nappy-changing information you may need via the digital nappy chart, with easy-to-use filters to find the nursery room and child you are looking for.
Give parents a window to the nursery day
An effective nursery-parent relationship is a partnership. There is a feeling of total trust that a child’s key worker will love and care for them, and the nursery is a home from home. The ping of a notification from the nursery via the Blossom Parent App can put a smile on every parent’s face. We can never underestimate the power of a picture.
Nurseries are trusted with the child’s safety and development, and parents appreciate feeling included and involved in every achievement and activity their child enjoys in your setting.
A Child’s Diary gives parents and families a window into their day. Not only do the parents feel informed and reassured that their child is having the best time at nursery, they can also gather tips and ideas of EYFS activities to try at home. Sharing their own experiences through home observations.
Paper-based communication is a thing of the past. Parents now expect digital software to be used to communicate, pay their nursery bill, and receive daily updates – all without adding to practitioners’ already busy workloads.
With Blossom, practitioners can easily:
- Add multiple images or videos of individual or group activities
- Share activities and welfare updates with multiple family members
- Ensure GDPR and data protection with photo permission reminders
- Add all important event details in bulk or with personalised comments
- Help parents to feel included and involved
Want to access a quick demo showcasing all of Blossom’s nursery management features to save practitioner time and impress your nursery parents? Book your free demo slot today.
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