Tell your childminder how your child's morning has gone — tired, teething, no breakfast, or a short note — in a few taps before drop-off.
Parents dropping off a child whose morning is worth a heads-up. You'll need the parent app (see
Getting started as a parent). It takes under a minute.
Drop-off is rushed, and it's easy to forget to mention a bad night, teething, a skipped breakfast, or something at home — or to not want to say it out loud in front of your child. A morning update tells your childminder in a few taps, before you've even left the house.
Tap the + button on your dashboard, then choose Morning update.
If you have more than one child linked, tap Which child? and pick the one this is about. There's one shared update per child per day — if your partner already sent one, you'll see it here and can add to it.
Tap any of the tiles that fit: Sleep, Not quite themselves, Teething, No breakfast, Sore bottom, Running late, or Something at home. Tick as many as apply.
Ticking Sleep shows three optional extras — Up early, Late night and Bad night — so your childminder can plan naps around it. Sleep on its own just means they're tired.
Under Message (optional), write anything a tick can't cover — when they last napped, a comforter in their bag. You've got 500 characters. Lasting changes to eating, naps or toileting belong on their care plan, so talk to your childminder about those.
Tap Send. You'll see "Sent to your childminder", and your childminder gets a notification straight away between 7am and 6pm. Send one earlier and it's in their app as soon as you send it, but it won't wake them with a notification.
Changed your mind about the child? Tap Change next to the "For:" chip to switch, or come back later — either linked parent can open the form again and update it. There's no need to say anything twice at the door.
A tick takes less time than explaining it, and some mornings are easier to type than to say out loud in front of your child. Sending it before drop-off means your childminder already knows, however busy the handover is.
Next guide
Viewing your child's daily diary
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KinderStart strives for accuracy. Competitor features and pricing comparisons are based on publicly available information as of May 2026. Details are subject to change by respective providers.