Hello,
Do you providers take pictures of the kids during the day and text them to their parents? Do your parents expect it? How often do you send pictures? I try to do it on a daily basis but is getting to be time consuming. I have 2 kids in particular who always look sad in pictures and I would hate for their parents to think they are unhappy all day, lol. With everything else we have to do its hard to have to worry about sending pictures to the parents all the time. Just curious as to what everyone is doing Thank you!!!

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I have a photo permission form from all the parents.

I will occasionally text a photo to a parent - happens once/twice per month.

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I text pictures often. If I can't get a good one, I take it from behind them so you can see what they are playing or I might text "Sally is having so much fun with the blocks today!" Some kids don't smile or look happy when they are super into a toy, so I just tell a parent about it.

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I have a private Facebook page for my daycare. It's so much easier to upload pictures to my site instead of texting a bunch of parents. The parents save the pictures off my site, too. I used to make photo CDs every month for them - I don't anymore. My parents love it.

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I have a closed Instagram account. I post at least a group shot each day and if it doesn't get too hectic, I'll post an individual shot of a few of the kids. Most of the parents follow me and seem to like it. Texting pics would be too much.

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Only on occasion, about once a month, I will text a picture to the parents. Usually its when they are doing something super cute that has to be seen, not just described verbally, kwim?

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I take many pictures--30 to 50 a day, on average. But I don't send them individually to parents; that's not why I take them. I use them for documentation of their learning, for reflection with the children, and for advertising my program. Some go into individual children's portfolios (either printed on my printer, or made into actual photos). Many are used for the private blog I do for families--most days, I write about one particular thing we are doing, and illustrate with photos. I do not try to make sure everyone is represented; the documentation is to show what the group is doing, or one example of what a particular child or small group of children is doing, and over time, it gives a full picture of what we do as a program. Some photos (not showing children's faces) go onto my facebook page, which I try to add to once per business day, and use as advertisement for my program. Some photos get printed and made into books for use with the kids, or we look at a photo for reference as we draw, or we look at several photos of an ongoing project for reflection and discussion...

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I take pictures almost every day, but I send them to parents only occasionally, that way they don't expect it and they appreciate the surprise too.

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I used to text pics to my parents, back when I only had 7 kids. Now with 12, I started a private FB page and put 20 to 30 pics a day on there. So easy with a smart phone! The parents are THRILLED with it, because they've always wondered exactly what we do all day. Now they know, and they're jealous because they're stuck in an office.

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[quote=Dsquared;532804]Hello,
Do you providers take pictures of the kids during the day and text them to their parents? Do your parents expect it? How often do you send pictures? I try to do it on a daily basis but is getting to be time consuming. I have 2 kids in particular who always look sad in pictures and I would hate for their parents to think they are unhappy all day, lol. With everything else we have to do its hard to have to worry about sending pictures to the parents all the time. Just curious as to what everyone is doing Thank you!!![/QUOTE

I periodically text pics to parents. I also take lots of pics to hang on boards in the daycare room. I am not a facebook fan, though....just my preference not to post on there. I find out things I don't won't to know on there so I stay away!

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I take pictures weekly of the kids, but only give (print or email) them to the parents around holidays and special events like Christmas, Valentines, etc. with a note explaining what a joy their kid is and explaining a few of the photos. It's seems to much work to post something daily. I am not that type of person I guess. This way they can still see what the kids generally do during the day and I find this a simple way to let the parents now their kids are loved and cared for turning times of gift giving.

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I text cute pics once in a while, but not often enough for them to expect it, LOL! I usually just wait till I have a handful and put them up on my parents only fb page. I like to take pics of them doing random things to help answer the "what do they do all day?" questions.

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My weekly reports contain a lot of pictures. Yes, it takes time, but it is only a way how parents can be involved into their kids daycare life.

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