Goddard Family Hub

I just completed a Goddard survey about the app that directed me to the app reviews and while I agree the app could be improved, I was surprised to see an overall rating of 2 stars so read the comments. My child entered Goddard at 5 months using the tadpole app and is now 3 in the preschool program. Goddard transitioned from Tadpole right around the time we stopped doing daily bottle feeding, food notes, diaper change notes so I can see how reviewers with infants would not be as happy with this new app. Tadpole did have a much easier and intuitive way to input all the info you need to share back and forth with caregivers of babies. Goddard hopefully will work on that as they seem to be open to feedback. As a parent using the new app of a toddler, I am pretty satisfied. It does include more focus on curriculum which matches up with a focus on development and learning. Neither app was capable of push alerts so I find myself having to check proactively for updates or messages from teachers.

With multiple kids, we’ve used different daycare apps before and this is by far the worst. I have an infant in care and I really want to see how she does taking her bottles, naps and diapers etc, but I can’t see these updates live. I can only see them by the end of the day when my child is checked out. A daily sheet then shows up in feed where I can see the activities, which could already be late. E.g. my baby didn’t want to take her bottle one day, if I had see that live, I’d go and pick her up instead of having her gone without a feeding for more than 5 hours. This may not be as important for older kids but it is essential for parents of small babies who can’t talk yet. The only thing I can see in my feed are the photos which is nice but doesn’t tell me how she does through out the day. I asked the teachers and they are putting in the activities live, the activities just don’t show up live in the app. The manager also doesn’t know why this is the way. If I had known this is the communication tool that the school is using, I’d really consider enroll her somewhere else (yes it’s that bad!). Please make significant changes to the app or just use something else like brightwheel or procare!!

Our facility started using the app this week and there is already one missing feature that I feel is crucial for safety reasons. The previous app we used (Tadpoles) sent push notifications whenever my child was dropped off or picked up from daycare. As a working mom, it is important for me to know when my son has been safely dropped off at daycare and checked in as well as when he has been picked up by my husband. Honestly missing this single feature is why I was only able to give the app 3 stars. I would imagine this feature would be even more important to families where custody is shared between two parties and I am disappointed that it is lacking in the app.