# Childcare by Tadpoles — user reviews > 66 indexed App Store user reviews of Childcare by Tadpoles by Teaching Strategies, LLC, rated 3.20/5 from 68 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/childcare-by-tadpoles/id434333524/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/childcare-by-tadpoles/id434333524.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 20 · 4★ 15 · 3★ 7 · 2★ 8 · 1★ 18 ## Newest reviews (16 of 66) ### 4/5 — Gets the job done *2024-10-12* Only issue I’ve heard from parents is that they wish they could put in notes after drop off, they say the app locks them out from inputting notes right as the child gets checked in by the school **Developer response:** We appreciate your feedback. We'd like to gather more details so that we can identify and troubleshoot the issues. Please contact us at support@teachingstrategies.com. ### 2/5 — Needs work *2022-10-13, version 12.9.16* I hate that music stops playing whenever I open the app. Also with the newest update everything is spaced out more making it harder to read the individual profiles, and now it’s glitching and overlapping text when I switch between kids profiles **Developer response:** We appreciate your feedback. We'd like to gather more details so that we can identify and troubleshoot the issues. Please contact us at support@teachingstrategies.com. ### 3/5 — Great idea, poor app design *2022-03-10* I love the idea, but the app design is horrible. I have to refresh a thousand times to see if anything is put in by another teacher. It looks like this app came out when the iPhone first came out. If I take a photo on tadpoles, it comes out blurry so I have to take it on my phone then upload later, I can’t upload multiple photos for one child at once so that’s more time wasted. Messaging is never refreshed so i have to close the app multiple times to see a parents message. It’s very laggy and should automatically publish daily sheets to parents when it’s put in. The tadpoles parent app is miles better than this one. ### 4/5 — It’s alright. *2021-03-27, version 11.2.16* I’d give it 3.5 stars if that was an option. It’s a great way to keep all childcare info in one place and share with parents with ease. I however have 1 major issue and a few minor ones. One of the problems is that the camera quality for the app is pretty bad, so you have to take a pic with your typical camera app and upload it instead of just doing it all within the app. There’s also issues regarding synching between multiple devices. I’ve reached out to tech support multiple times to try and solve this and, though I received responses, no one was able to come up with a solution. I also really wish that the app had even close to the same amount of lesson plan editing tools. You’re only able to access a lot of Tadpoles on the website. My major dilemma is the issue with sound. If this app is open (not even utilizing sound), it will cut off any other sound that any other app is producing. So, you can't have music playing for the kids when you need to check someone in or while creating lesson plans. It’s been a massive pain in the butt and a huge inconvenience on several occasions. Other than that, it’s a good app. It’s reasonably priced, the parents really like it, and it’s (for the most part) easy to use. ### 4/5 — No Music for my preschoolers *2020-09-29* I use to play music on my iPad, while the app was open. Now for some reason It won’t allow me to do both. Plz fix this or tell me how too. ### 4/5 — Just ok *2020-06-26* I love this app but it crashes at least once a day and you can’t enter meals more than one month out on the app. ### 3/5 — Helpful....but *2019-10-30, version 9.10.24* As an educator I enjoy using the app. It’s convenient for me to implement my lessons. However, mynschool has to frequently update the app, it’s constantly crashing, and it’s not compatible on android for educators. Please fix!!! ### 4/5 — Love app but could do more *2019-08-02* I absolutely love this app. I have used it at the last 2 daycares I worked at. There are a few things that could use to be added. As a director it would be amazing to be able to do billing and as a teacher in the classroom it would be extremely helpful to see if each child has a picture from the classroom (not on the dashboard) over s this app is wonderful and the parents love it too. ### 3/5 — Working with tadpoles *2019-05-30* Tadpoles is an amazing idea. But for how much the app crashes and freezes it gets very frustrating. ### 4/5 — Parents love it *2019-05-16* I love the idea behind this app and all the families I work with really like it too. I would have given a 5 star rating but there are a couple of issues I'd like to see improved upon first. When children age out of a classroom, no matter how many times I change their homeroom in the child profile area, they revert back to their old homeroom the next day. I've tried doing it on the website as well as the app. I also have a child whose birthday is incorrect and I change that information daily. I have one other suggestion. If like to see an improvement in the "add photos from album" area. Please introduce a way to select multiple photos to upload for one selected child at once. It would cut my time adding photos to daily sheets in half, at least. Lastly, the area for observing and evaluations could be better, but I have no specific suggestions on how to do that. Otherwise, everything about this app is wonderful. It's nice to be able to add photos and videos as observations right away. Parents love the communication and ability to keep them updated during the day. Attendance and name to face have never been easier. Thanks to the creators. ### 2/5 — Needs fixed *2019-04-30* The app is great and has so much potential and it used to work so much better about a year ago, but not it always gets hung up on syncing or crashes. The bugs need to be fixed. Many parents are getting daily sheets and time/attendance are a problem when things constantly get stuck. Right now the app isn’t reliable and we are looking at other app options. I was very much team tadpoles until all the recent problems. Also technical support doesn’t help, they put in tickets that never get the root cause actually fixed. ### 4/5 — So much potential! Great App! *2018-09-30* This app has everything I need for my daily routine in my pre-k class. It is a little glitchy but I love what it includes. It’s impossible to find everything all in one app and trust me I’ve looked at several. I was desperate to find something that was created by someone who understood what a teacher actually needed and I feel I got that with this app. Thank you developer and please keep improvements coming. This app is by far the best Ive found as far as what it includes and is capable of doing. Great job!! ### 1/5 — Please fix bug *2016-11-06, version 6.10.28* Under the asses option to write about how the child is doing in a specific curricular area, myself and my colleagues are unable to write after a certain amount of words because there isnt a scroll button. The keypad is blocking me from typing. If that is fixed i will rate this app 5 stars. ### 3/5 — Disappointing *2015-08-18, version 4.0.7* Tadpoles was great, such a nice tool for keeping track of...EVERYTHING. However, as of late - their new "facial recognition" situation has been tagging the wrong children, creating confusion & uneasiness in parents. I wish this could be fixed, but even an attempt to reach out - was met with a matter of fact answer. :/ ### 4/5 — Director *2014-10-29, version 3.9.3* I really love this product! This app has made our days easier and even more pleasurable. The parents love the daily reports and we never miss a day (unlike before when we would hand write them out). I never hear "what did they do today?" Its always right there for them to read and see. I use it for so many other things too; separate notes and reminders to the parents, daily staff notes, issuing newsletters, etc. I think one of the most efficient things about using the tadpoles program and app is I can easily track my messages. The customer service is really great too! Whenever I do have an issue, they get back to me quick! Honestly, I don't have anything bad to say. I have told some of my colleagues about the program, but I secretly think using this app gives me a very big edge when it comes to recruiting new clients. ### 3/5 — New daily report layout *2014-07-01, version 3.8.7* I as a provider, prefer the old daily report lay out. It's easier to track the kids day as a whole. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Can’t sign-in *2025-09-25* Just because I use Gmail doesn’t mean that I want Gmail to be linked to this app. The browser website understands this and lets me set whatever password, but the app insist that link my Gmail. No. ### 1/5 — Great idea, but needs work *2023-06-16* I like the general concept of this app, but it needs a lot of work. The message system glitches every time I try to send a message to a parent. It doesn’t let me see what I’m typing. Also, when trying to tag children in a photo with a certain activity, half the time the activity isn’t there to tag. On children’s daily reports, the font overlaps and you can’t read it sometimes. Lastly, the app should be designed so that every center that uses it has to have real time updates for parents. Otherwise, parents can’t see any info about their child’s activities, meals, diaper changes, etc until the end of the day. This app needs a major update. When will it receive one?? **Developer response:** We appreciate your feedback. Real-time updates is a configuration option that we'd be happy to help you turn on. We'd like to gather more details so that we can identify and troubleshoot the issues. Please contact us at support@teachingstrategies.com. ### 1/5 — - *2023-06-07* This app is annoying It always freezes on me or logs me out **Developer response:** We appreciate your feedback. We'd like to gather more details so that we can identify and troubleshoot the issues. Please contact us at support@teachingstrategies.com. ### 1/5 — Won’t register *2021-04-09* I would like to try this app however it has been saying “registering”for the last 30min! ### 1/5 — Early Educator *2020-01-03* Tadpoles has been a great way to streamline our program over the past two years, but there are some major concerns. 1) Crashes continuously throughout the day. 2) Students will update into incorrect classrooms (infants in Pre-k and not in their actual assigned classroom) or duplicate same student account 3) Great for Teacher to Parent communication but not vise versa. 4) If running 2 tablets on one classroom, roster will not update properly with the online administration account - showing incorrect ratios and attendance 5) 👎👎👎👎👎 After building a curriculum for Two Years, it magically disappeared and is unrecoverable. I am having to input countless hours of work back into recreating a full classroom curricula. ❌ There is no way to back up your curricula to prevent this from happening. ### 1/5 — Forced Google login *2019-09-19* Please don’t force a user to log-in with their Google Account just bc they have a Gmail account. This is a definite privacy concern. ### 1/5 — It keeps crashing!!! *2019-05-14* I love the app and i need to use it for work but its impossible to do anything when it crashes 10 times a day. I have to log out and log back in multiple times to accomplish anything! Please fix this! ### 1/5 — Be careful *2018-10-04* It wants to force us to login with google account. Asking for my google password. I did login through the computer browser, but the apps are asking for my google account. I just want to check on my daughter why do they want my google account? Go to your computer and login. Be careful people. ### 1/5 — Needs a lot of fixing *2018-09-10* Unable to use it on my phone while on the go. Very disappointed. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work *2018-03-31* On my phone it doesn’t load. I am able to log in but then it is just a blank white screen. Can not do anything . Really want to use this so I can lesson plan on the go but it’s completely useless . ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Best App in the Universe! *2019-03-12* Best App in the Universe! Better than himama by far!! ### 5/5 — TeamTadpoles *2017-03-02, version 7.2.1* I have used this program since Fall of 2014! I am a pre-kindergarten teacher and Tadpoles has 100% made it so much easier to create a fun, educational day for my kids & I receive nothing but positive feedback EVERYDAY from the parents. If you are looking for a program to better your school Tadpoles is exactly the program you need. ### 5/5 — Great app *2014-08-06, version 3.8.7* I am a provider and tadpoles couldn't be anymore useful. I actually enjoy the daily report layout. Tadpoles has been a great tool and I'm so glad are center switched over from paper to tadpoles. Lesson plans and daily reports have never been so easy. ### 5/5 — Director *2014-04-04, version 3.7.9* I have been using Tadpoles for years. I am so impressed with how quickly they bring out new features. Love the lesson planning feature, just when I think they can't make it better... They do! Can't wait to see what comes out next! ### 5/5 — Time Saver *2014-03-29, version 3.7.8* I have been playing with this program for a week now, and I LOVE it! I work as a Young Toddler teacher in a preschool, and I spend a lot of time filling out paperwork on each child each day. Most of the time it seems the parents don't even read the notes (they stay in the backpacks). This program replaces the notes--it has easy to fill in choices for snacks, meals, potty/toilet, notes, etc. The parents are sent an easy to read summary of their child's day. I especially like how I can write one detailed note and it gets entered on every child in my class (encourages me to write more detail--no more sore hand!). The initial set up was easy--I entered all my kids, their parents' info, the days the kids come, allergies, etc. When I start class in the morning, attendence is a breeze! Only the kids who come that day are shown. I can even enter a known vacation schedule and it will be shown over that child's picture. The customer support for this app is terrific. I somehow locked myself out of the program (password mix up), so I emailed the contact person. I got an email back within the hour and then a phone call to help me fix my problem. I think this program is perfect for our school and we plan to use it in all of our classroom next school year. ### 5/5 — Tadpoles *2013-09-05, version 3.5.1* I absolutely love this app as do my clients. I run an in home daycare and always sent a daily report home with the parents. Now I can just fill everything out all on my phone and email it to my clients. It saves copies for me if I need to go back to something to check and my clients can out them all in an email file. The only drawback I've found is that it doesn't keep a good memory of meals and snack foods I enter so I end up having to type the same thing multiple times. I'd love to see that fixed since its as annoying as writing it on paper a dozen different times. It should save all menu items! Other than that, it's a great app!!! ### 5/5 — Director *2013-08-06, version 3.4.4* Love love love this app! It has really made my life easier and makes check in and out of student and providing feedback so simple and quick. When working with kids it take some time to write everything down for parents but with this app we are able to just click and go providing more details in less time. They also are fast in responding and helping with any problems. ### 5/5 — Kindergarten Tadpoles *2013-04-16, version 3.2.3* This app has made a huge difference in the way I communicate with my parents and how thorough my portfolios have become. It is so easy to document and share on the spot which saves me tons of time and keeps me incredibly organized with the automatic filing by tags. Love the expedient support, frequent updates and Tadpoles in general. Has been such a blessing in my kindergarten classroom. Even my students' parents are raving about it! ### 5/5 — Perfect for Family Day Care!! *2013-03-05, version 3.2.2* I run my own Family Day Care from home and have previously struggled to keep up with day books, programming and portfolios. This app has been my life saver! I do all reporting throughout the day when children are sleeping and parents have their daily report by hometime. Love love love it!!! ### 5/5 — Owner *2013-02-21, version 3.2.1* I was very pleased with this apps ease of use and features! As a home care provider it is so much easier to enter things into the app as they happen rather than waiting until I get a second and trying to remember everything to write it down. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-07.*