iPhone and iPad
App Store
Scan the code with your camera, or tap the badge.
Built in Halifax for licensed childcare centres
The daycare app that shows every classroom while the day is in full swing.
Daycare management software for licensed childcare centres in Canada.
Directors get the whole centre on one screen. Teachers log attendance, naps, meals and infant milk from the room. Parents see check-ins, outings and today's menu right away, then the full daily care log the moment you publish it.
Teachers and families scan a code
director.acornsnest.app
4
Roles reading one day
Director, teacher, parent, kitchen
3
Ways to slice attendance
Centre, classroom, and child
3
Meal slots, one tidy plan
Breakfast, lunch, evening snack
1
Record everyone trusts
Staff write it once. Everyone else just reads.
Now on the App Store and Google Play
Get Acorns Nest on the phone already in the room.
Scan a code with your camera, or tap the store that matches your phone. Your centre creates the account. Accept the invite with the code in your email, install the app, then sign in.
Android phones and tablets
Google Play
Scan the code with your camera, or tap the badge.
Attendance & check-inNap timersMeal & milk logsOuting ModeParent announcementsWeekly menusStaff timesheetsClassroom rostersAttendance reportsAllergy-aware profilesAI InsightsAttendance & check-inNap timersMeal & milk logsOuting ModeParent announcementsWeekly menusStaff timesheetsClassroom rostersAttendance reportsAllergy-aware profilesAI Insights
Life on the floor
Classroom home
Who's here, who's out, and who's off to the park.
Open your room and the present count is already there, matched against the roster. Heading out? Outing Mode takes the destination and a return time, then tells parents so pickup meets you where you actually are. Tap any child for allergies, emergency contacts, and how their day is going.
- A present count you can trust at a glance
- Outing Mode: destination, return time, parents in the loop
- Allergies and emergency contacts one tap from your thumb
One save, whole room
Bulk Log
Check the room in before the last coat is hung.
Bulk Log covers Check In, Meals, and Naps. Hit Select All when everyone floods in, then save on the current time or pick your own. Appointments and early pickups get Mid-day Exit and Return. Nap timers run for one sleeper or the whole room, and yes, more than one nap a day.
- Check In, Check Out, Mid-day Exit, and Return, notes included
- Meal intake in 25% steps, infant milk in ounces
- Nap timers for one child or every mat in the room
What families actually read
Communicate
Notes that land where parents are already looking.
Communicate is a clean card feed: room and centre notes out in the open, a quiet word about one child kept private. Teachers and directors write the cards, so there's no newsletter to rebuild every Friday afternoon.
- Public and private tabs, per classroom or centre-wide
- A date filter for the parent asking about last Tuesday
- Notes from the director desk land in the same feed
The week on a grid
Menu Planner
Plan Monday's lunch once. Monday takes care of itself.
Fill Breakfast, Lunch, and Evening Snack from Monday to Friday. Save up to four reusable weeks from the PDF you already make, then put Week 1 on this week in one click. Typed changes stay on that week and do not rewrite the saved menus. Parents see today's meals on home.
- Week strip for this week and the next three
- Saved menus: upload a PDF per week, or one PDF for every week
- Today's menu on parent home. Nothing taped to the door.
director.acornsnest.app
How directors already think
Attendance reports
Centre, classroom, or child. Pick a lens and export.
Attendance groups the way you already talk about it in a staff meeting: the whole centre, room by room, or one child. Filter the dates, spot the late arrivals and early pickups, then download the CSV for whoever's asking. Same check-ins your teachers saved in Bulk Log.
- Centre-wide, classroom, and child views
- Any date range up to a year, filtered by room
- CSV download for the view you're looking at
director.acornsnest.app
The people in the rooms
Staff & timesheets
Invite the team. Approve the hours. Get back to the floor.
Your roster in one place: teachers, substitutes, and kitchen staff, assigned to rooms, with On duty right on the card. Pending timesheets wait for your approve or reject, and the history stays put for payroll week.
- Invite by role: lead, assistant, cook, or substitute
- Room assignments with On duty on the card
- Timesheet approval before payroll, not after
director.acornsnest.app
From the logs the rooms already keep
AI Insights
Your Monday recap, already written.
AI Insights reads the records your team already saves and hands back a short briefing for the window you choose, plus the follow-ups actually worth your morning. No new forms, no week-in-review spreadsheet.
- A briefing built from the day your rooms already logged
- Follow-ups you can act on from the desk
- Nothing extra to enter to make it worth opening
director.acornsnest.app
From the director desk
Messages
The whole centre, one room, or one family.
Send and Inbox, that's the whole idea. Write to every parent, a single classroom, or one child's family. Tag it so families know at a glance whether it's picture day or a nudge about spare clothes. Inbox keeps everything the centre has sent, teacher notes included.
- Audience: whole daycare, one classroom, or one family
- A category on every card, so nobody has to guess
- Inbox filters by date, scope, classroom, and child
director.acornsnest.app
After pickup
History
“How did she nap?” Answered before anyone asks.
When you publish the day, families can look back at the same naps, meals, and attendance your teachers logged. One day, seven days, or thirty. It's the room's record, released on your schedule.
- 1 Day, 7 Days, or 30 Days on the same child
- Meal intake straight from the staff log
- Nap totals and the attendance trend
On file, on the floor
Child profile
Allergies, pickups, and the day so far. One card.
Open a child from your room list and it's all there: attendance, naps, meals, allergies, dietary notes, emergency contacts, authorized pickups, and any special instructions. Parents see the same profile, so the details on file are the details everyone's working from.
- Allergies and dietary needs right at the top
- Emergency contacts and authorized pickups, no filing cabinet
- Today's activity, built from the logs your team saved
Try a classroom
Go ahead, tap the room.
A working mock of the staff log, no account needed. Check someone in, start a nap, nudge lunch along, send the class to the park. Families see check-in and outings right away. Naps and meals go out when you publish the day.
Little Sprouts
3 / 4 present
MCMaya Chen
LGLeo Garcia
APAva Patel
NKNoah Kim
Parent feed
What families see right now
Check-in and outings land right away. Naps and meals wait for you to publish the day.
Maya
Checked in
lunch 75% · publishes with today's log
Leo
Checked in
nap, lunch 50% · publishes with today's log
Noah
Checked in
lunch 100% · publishes with today's log
Who it's for
Four jobs. One day, told once.
Directors, teachers, kitchen, and families each get the view that fits their hands. Underneath, it's the same attendance, the same meals, the same notes.
How a day runs
Write it once. Share it when you're ready.
- 1
Coats off, room in
Select All and check the room in, start nap timers when the mats come out, and keep allergy notes a tap from your thumb.
- 2
Publish on your clock
Naps, meals, and the day's care log stay in the room until you release them, at the end of the day or a time you set. Outings and announcements can go out the moment staff hit send. Directors see the live rooms all along.
- 3
Doors closed, day recorded
Attendance, substitute hours, and AI Insights turn tonight's logs into tomorrow's follow-up.
Powered by AI
The week, already read for you
Directors open AI Insights and get a plain-English briefing from the logs the rooms already keep: where the centre is steady, and where a quick conversation would help. Every call is still yours.
The centre at a glance
A read on whatever window you choose, without pacing three hallways or exporting two reports to find it.
The next conversation, surfaced
When a room or a family could use a follow-up, it's on a short list instead of buried in last month's numbers.
No homework
It runs on the logs your team already saves, and opens the same classrooms, messages, and reports you use every day.
Frequently asked
Questions directors ask us first.
Short, direct answers about what Acorns Nest is, who it is for, and how children’s information is handled.
What is Acorns Nest?
Acorns Nest is daycare management software for licensed childcare centres in Canada, built by Acorns Nest Inc. in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Directors run the centre from a web dashboard; teachers, kitchen staff and parents use the iOS and Android app.
What does Acorns Nest do?
Teachers log check-in and check-out, naps, meals and infant milk from the classroom. Directors manage classrooms, staff timesheets, weekly menus, messages and attendance reports by centre, classroom or child. Parents see check-ins, outings, menus and announcements as they happen, then the full daily care log when the centre publishes the day.
Who is Acorns Nest for?
Licensed childcare centres in Canada: directors, lead and assistant educators, substitutes, kitchen staff, and the parents and guardians of enrolled children.
How do parents and staff get access?
There is no public sign-up. The centre invites each parent or staff member by email with a code. They accept the invite at acornsnest.com/accept-invite, install the app, and sign in.
Does Acorns Nest send updates to parents in real time?
Check-ins, outings and announcements go out immediately. Naps, meals and the full daily care log stay with staff until the centre publishes the day, so families read a finished record.
How does Acorns Nest handle children's privacy?
Children do not have accounts. Acorns Nest does not sell personal information and does not use it for advertising. Data is processed on the centre's instructions. Our Privacy Policy sets out the detail.
Where is Acorns Nest built?
Acorns Nest is built in Halifax, Nova Scotia by Acorns Nest Inc. The product is designed for licensed daycare centres across Canada.
See it with your kind of day
Bring us a Tuesday. We'll walk it with you.
We'll go through the director dashboard, Bulk Log, and the parent home using rooms, menus, and messages that look like yours.
- Director tour: classrooms, reports, Menu Planner, Messages, AI Insights
- Staff and parent mobile: home, Bulk Log, Communicate, History
- Bring a typical day. We'll map the product onto it.