Goddard Family Hub Reviews

GoddardFamilyHub leaves a lot be desired compared to GoddardFamilyHub our last daycare used (Brightwheel).
It’d be helpful to see a few changes:
- most importantly, real time updates or at least when the teachers post pictures and meals would be ideal
-time stamps on the photos, meals, etc….
- Notifications when your child is checked in and checked out
- it’d be nice to have a way to contact the teachers
- I’d like a way to better engage with the photos, maybe a ‘like’ button or similar
- not a big deal but, it’s weird the daily sheets turn into a weekly digest - if you post something, it should stay that way
- QR code check in would be a great value add, but less essential than items listed above

Needs live updates like every other modern daycare app

You won’t hear any news about your kid during the entire day!
It feels horrible if you are used to apps like Procare, where you get live updates about diapers, meals, community time, etc.
It can be a safety issue if you and your spouse take turns on drop off and pick up because you don’t even get a message for those.
We just started at Goddards this week, and it’s supposed to be a great school, but I’m already hugely disappointed. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay in a school that won’t send news about my kid the entire day.
I would give zero stars if possible.

So far this is much worse. Super buggy and lacks almost all basic function. Get it together devs, do better.

GoddardFamilyHub doesn’t give live updates throughout the day, even though my settings are set to do that. It also doesn’t give clear details about the day, etc. It does not appear to be user friendly for the parents or teachers. Goddard should have stuck with the previous app.

GoddardFamilyHub doesn’t work I can’t log in or haven’t been able to login. They say their going to call IT but never get back to me. It’s frustrating and something needs to be done about this.

GoddardFamilyHub is garbage. No real time in day log available to parents. Image upload delays or duplicates all the time. Hard to send messages to center or teacher. Why don’t you guys look around and see what your competitors are doing? We’ve been in KinderCare and Bright Horizons, both of their apps are 1000 times better than yours. GoddardFamilyHub is so out dated it’s ridiculous

What a step down!!! The only improvement is that I like seeing my sons picture of the day highlighted when I open GoddardFamilyHub . But SERIOUSLY how did this make it through any stage of acceptance when there is clearly decreased features and functionality for both parent and teacher. I cannot accept that someone at Goddard did not think that the daily updates and notifications was a feature that needed dropping. Why why why. And if it’s supposed to be coming later you needed to wait to go live until that feature is ready. I can’t be sure if anything in my report is accurate because there are always mistakes and things are mysteriously not in my report but you can see in the teachers app.
And this is all besides the fact that my app has so many bugs the screen goes black when I try to type his food in! I brought that to the developer and they can’t figure it out.
Fix GoddardFamilyHub Goddard or let us go back to the old one!!!!

Without being able to message teachers and get updates during the day, it is a super useless app!

Tadpoles was a much more user friendly app and I am sorely disappointed that Goddard has chosen to go in this direction. For the disaster that GoddardFamilyHub is on the parent side I can only imagine the headache it’s causing teachers and administrators. Seems like there are a lot of functionality issues that should have been worked out prior to being pushed into schools and onto families.

GoddardFamilyHub is the worst. I am always missing things if I don’t actively sign in at night once the daily sheet is pushed out. I never know when new supplies are needed or see instructions from teachers without making extra special effort (time I don’t have as a fish parent!!)

I wanted to wait at least a week of using GoddardFamilyHub before writing a review. We already had negative feelings transitioning from a platform we were happy with. There are a few positive things we have learned about this new app, however, the negatives outweigh the positives.

Overall, it’s not teacher/director friendly. There are way to many steps involved for a simple task. Items need to be in the main menu for quick references rather than going through hurdles for something we need to see often.

There are other platforms that offer better features and are easier to use. From a parent’s perspective it might seem like a good app, but from a users position it is way too difficult to use while managing a school/classroom.

It’s sad that Goddard has required us all to use an app that makes our job harder than it should be. GoddardFamilyHub was supposed to get information from our school’s database, however, many items have to be manually entered, again, adding more work than needed.

Our daycare recently switched to GoddardFamilyHub and now I get no info about my kid’s day. We will occasionally get drop off/pickup/nap information but that’s only once a week at most. Usually it’s just the generic information about her classroom that is the same for every kid in her age group. I suppose that could be helpful but not really what I need to know when I’m trying to figure out if I have a rested and fed toddler. We also don’t usually get pictures which is really disappointing. Big step down from GoddardFamilyHub our school used to have.

No updates from the school at all. The school has to contact “the company” to troubleshoot issue.

Why does GoddardFamilyHub now need to access your entire photo album to save photos?

It used to be that you could give limited access and GoddardFamilyHub would save to your photo library but now GoddardFamilyHub is asking to see all your photos and videos to save to your phone. Seems like an overreach especially with children’s photos being open for anyone to view…

The last app tadpoles, sent an email to parents with teachers notes when they were added in real time. Example— mid day email would say needs diapers. GoddardFamilyHub doesn’t have that and parents are missing the teachers notes because they’re in small font on the daily page. Tadpoles also had a nice page with all the photos GoddardFamilyHub does not have that.

Not useful. The previous platform that they were using is better than GoddardFamilyHub. I agree with other reviews. The updates are not dynamic in this platform. We only get them at the end of the day.

Please enable “Add photos only” access option. Currently photos can only be save down when permitting “Full access” to photos. There is NO need for GoddardFamilyHub to always have full access. Please update ASAP!

Why does my daily update only include weekly activities? Very disappointed in Goddard not staying with tadpole… This WILL eat up more of the teacher’s valuable time at the end of the day to get a verbal daily report.

GoddardFamilyHub is excruciating and practically unusable for the teachers. They never missed a beat with GoddardFamilyHub of another brand but when switched to this we never get the right input or even photos. The user interface on their end must be even worse than the rest of GoddardFamilyHub .
No live updates at check in and check out so you have no idea if your spouse picked them up yet or if or when they got there.
You receive the daily sheet 15 min or so after checkout so you have no idea how their day is until you’re home and cannot ask the teacher about it.
A high schooler would code something significantly better in a weekend. We should be getting a discount by being forced to use GoddardFamilyHub.

Our school just recently switched to GoddardFamilyHub this week and I’m so disappointed in the change. On Tadpoles we would get photos and videos throughout the day and be able to see our kids right away. This new app is not user friendly and we were told we wouldn’t get photos throughout the day, or even by end of day and it’d come out once a week. It honestly has made me reconsider the school because it’s very important to me to get photos/videos of my child’s day, especially as they don’t have cameras for parents. Do not recommend and wish they would go back to Tadpoles/class dojo.

I wish instead of a daily sheet GoddardFamilyHub gave live updates, like other daycare apps do. Other than that. It’s ok, little glitchy.

The daily summary & uploaded pictures are nice, but otherwise it is very cumbersome & downright difficult to enter drop-off notes as a parent with multiple kids. Tadpoles was far more user friendly as a parent.

Now that the new app is live, it’s clear that user research for experience design and need states is required (not just usability testing). Here is how I will use GoddardFamilyHub …

First time use
- currently no intro screens that give way finding, or help acclimatize to how to use. User is left guess where to input info and what the features / functionality are
- this is a problem of every new parent and teacher

Drop off
- I need to be able to quickly find drop off form, and input repeat info, as well as occasionally longer form notes
- there is no way finding from opening app to where drop off form is, lots of guessing

Updates throughout day / snapshot of day
- as a busy working parent, I rely on notifications to tell me what my son is up to at school
- I appreciate all the info of his day being clearly updated as it happens in order (rather than bundled by section like diapers, food, etc) currently his attendance shows his check in then check out, then meal, then bottles, then diapers. I would prefer this organized by time they happen so I can easily track along his day
- lessons should be interested in based on when they happen / not separate. It’s hard to figure out when and how things happen. Lessons should integrate w photos. Lessons are overly detailed. Need higher level info

Photos and videos
- my sons school is yet to upload photos and videos, assuming because this is confusing and hard to use
- this is very important to me as it helps me feel connected to my son throughout his day
- would like to be able to easily share with family and friends, and easily add image to a text
- would like to easily be able to save to my phone
- would like to favorite photos
- would like peace of mind that GoddardFamilyHub is secure and these photos are private

Illness
- need a clear space for updating health info including giving instructions when out, hearing about general health of class, marking absence and updating on health when returning from absence
- currently little wayfinding or info on how my child’s health is being considered in the class

Check in / out
- we check in on an iPad, but now it seems the teachers check him in. Clarity on check in process

Other
- I would like to be able to show gratitude to my sons teachers regularly
- I would like to be able to make suggestions for improvement to the school
- I would like a place to see the policy, handbook, and any reference materials if needed
- would love a high level calendar of monthly themes for the class across the year. Also would love easy reference to changes as he graduates from one year to the next
- would like to connect with other parents

Like most parents, I am busy. Pls make it easy. Lots of wayfinding. Real time organized by moment as they happen throughout the day.

I really miss the old app that organized the pictures next to the activities and consolidated all photos in the daily report even the ones sent during the day. There is no information on meals anymore and only partial information on activities. Many headings are left blanks or just repeat from day to day. GoddardFamilyHub needs major improvements.

I’m suddenly receiving nondescript errors when trying to download photos. Tried restarting phone, reinstalling GoddardFamilyHub , and changing photo access settings to no avail.

Other than a couple of pictures, I have no way to see how & what my child is doing, eating, learning, sleeping throughout the day which leaves me feeling very disconnected from her. I am considering switching daycares to a facility that provides real-time updates of these activities.

Do you plan your pickup times, evening outings, dinners, etc., around your infant/toddler nap times? Not with Goddard Family Hub app, you don’t!

This is a design choice of someone who’s never met a parent of a child under 3 or used a daycare app before. How did this primary function get left out? The other parents I spoke with today (day one of rollout) were equally baffled. Now, at pick up, we’re all going to bother the teachers with benign questions the old app would have told us hours prior. How novel.

The best thing I can say about GoddardFamilyHub is that it works. GoddardFamilyHub has no way to communicate with teachers, only the front office, which is annoying if you want to discuss your child’s day or have a question. Also there is no way to get live updates- you only know what’s going on when they push a daily sheet to you.

There is no way to download pictures from daily report. We are told to wait till Friday for those. Also no sound for videos that are shared by teachers. No notifications as well. App needs lots of improvements.

Prior to switching to GoddardFamilyHub, I would get live updates from my child's school including pictures and videos. While it is still nice to see what my child did each day, the live updates are the main thing I want to see in an app like this. Please fix GoddardFamilyHub to include updates throughout the day!!

Please add a way for the daily sheet to be visible to parents live throughout the day. Seeing bottles and naps come through live is so helpful for planning pick up time!

Be nice to see status near realtime.

Our facility started using GoddardFamilyHub 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 GoddardFamilyHub 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 GoddardFamilyHub .

It would be nice if you could download pictures in bulk.

Please Please include all pictures in the check out email as so many of us send these to other family members like grandparents. now we have to forward 26252 email as they come in throughout the day instead of 1 at the end (like previous app) WE ARE BEGGING!

also would be great if all pics were in daily report instead of randomly in GoddardFamilyHub through your the day, maybe adding a spot for additional photos that aren’t part of the curriculum?

Rather than Freeform fields for meals and contacts, predefined drop-down options would speed up daily entries and improve usability for parents.

Joining the chorus of other reviewers who are disappointed in the lack of real-time updates. I also really wish we could add other family members/caregivers besides the parents to GoddardFamilyHub so they could get pictures and updates, or contact the school if they are doing pick up/drop off. Right now I have to send every Goddard email to our child’s grandparents if they want to see updates and keep up with what he’s doing at school; it’s become a chore.

Everything is working well for me with my 4 year old. However, there is no sound to the videos that his teacher is sharing to GoddardFamilyHub . Can this be fixed?

I could not be happier. I get updates on my son, see photos, get to read notes on his day, and the portfolio feature is amazing! Thank you for keeping us connected in such a powerful way.