My daycare uses Tadpoles. How do I keep up with the emails and updates?
Tadpoles says email is its primary way to reach you, and you can switch it off in the app's Settings.
Tadpoles says it uses email as the primary means of communication, and that it connects a program with families via email, text, or the Tadpoles Family app. In the Tadpoles Parent app, you can opt out of email: select Settings, then disable the "Receive email communications" setting. Tadpoles says opting out of email disables email sharing and means you sign in through the app or website to see the photos. What your center sends is the center's choice, so ask it.
For a Tadpoles email, connect Gmail or forward it to your Daywell address. For anything else, take a screenshot and share it to Daywell from your phone, or add it in Daywell on the web.
What to do
- Know how Tadpoles can reach you. Tadpoles says it uses email as the primary means of communication, and that it connects a program with families via email, text, or the Tadpoles Family app. Whether your center uses all three is its choice.
- Decide on email. In the Tadpoles Parent app, you can opt out of email: select Settings, then disable the "Receive email communications" setting. Tadpoles says opting out of email disables email sharing and means you sign in through the app or website to see the photos. Tadpoles' help article is from 2019, so your screen may look different.
- Ask the center what it sends. Write: "Which things do you send by email or text, and which only show in the app?"
- If you keep email on, label it. In Gmail, make a filter for your school, daycare and activity senders and have it label them "School". Add the sender of your first Tadpoles email to it. Choose Skip the Inbox (Archive it) only if you'll open that label every day.
- Write down the ask. Pull the date, the ask and which child out of each update. "Pajama day, Friday, Ellie" is easier to act on than a feed.
How Daywell helps
Daywell (getdaywell.com) is the family prep assistant. Connect Gmail once, read-only. Daywell looks at email and picks out the messages from school, daycare and activities. Take a screenshot of the message, then share it to Daywell from your phone, or add it in Daywell on the web. One list of what's coming up, which child it's for, and what to bring, sign or pay. Invite a partner and you both see the same list. On the iPhone and Android apps, one quiet reminder comes each morning, at a time you pick.
Questions parents ask
I turned off Tadpoles emails. How do I see the photos?
Sign in through the app or website.
Tadpoles says opting out of email disables email sharing and means you sign in through the app or website to see the photos.
Is it the Tadpoles Parent app or the Tadpoles Family app?
Its pages use both names. Ask your center.
Tadpoles' main help page says the Tadpoles Family app, and its article on opting out of email says the Tadpoles Parent app. Ask your center which one to use.
How do I get Tadpoles updates into Daywell?
Connect Gmail, or forward the email.
For a Tadpoles email, connect Gmail or forward it to your Daywell address. For anything else, take a screenshot and share it to Daywell from your phone, or add it in Daywell on the web.
I use Outlook or another email, not Gmail. Can I still use Daywell?
Yes, just forward them.
Yes. From any inbox, forward school emails to your own Daywell address, one at a time or automatically. The first time you forward from a new address, Daywell asks you to confirm it's yours; after that, forward again and Daywell reads it.
A form or flyer came home. What do I do?
Share it as a PDF or a picture.
Share a PDF or a picture to Daywell and it reads it, on every device.
Does Daywell read all of my email?
No. It starts with who it's from and the subject.
No. It looks only at who each email is from and its subject, and skips what Gmail files under Promotions, Social and Forums. It opens the ones it judges to be from school, daycare or activities. If it can't tell from the sender and subject, it opens that one too rather than risk missing it. The privacy policy explains what is kept and for how long.
How do I get Daywell?
Start on the web.
Daywell is on the web. Start at getdaywell.com. It reads your school and activity email and tells you what your kids need ready.
Sources
- Tadpoles: help.tadpoles.com
- Tadpoles: Privacy notice
- Teaching Strategies: How do families opt out of receiving email notifications on Tadpoles Parent?
- Gmail Help: Create rules to filter your emails
- Daywell privacy policy
Checked by James Boone, Daywell, 5 Nov 2026