280: The Best Software Solution for Child Care Centers: A Family Story with Tamar Andrews

In this episode of "Child Care Conversations," you’ll hear Tamar Andrews share how her real-life struggles as a childcare director inspired her sons to create Playground, a user-friendly app that actually solves the headaches directors face every day. 

Kate, Carrie, and Tamar chat like old friends about the wild multitasking directors do, the lack of training, and why better tools (and maybe even running for office!) can make a huge difference. It’s a warm, insightful listen full of practical tips and a dash of family ingenuity. You’ll walk away feeling both understood and empowered! 

Check out this quarter's sponsor: tryplayground.com

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Transcript

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Marie 00:00:03  Welcome to Child Care Conversations, the podcast where early childhood leaders like you get real world strategies, honest talk and a whole lot of support. Whether you're running one center or many. We're here to help you lead with confidence and clarity. This episode is brought to you by this quarter's sponsor, playground. The all in one child care management software. We're all about managing monkeys and saving you time at your center. With this platform, you can. We're proud to partner with a team that's as committed to your success as we are. Learn more at Tri Playground Comm. Now let's get into today's conversation. One we think you're really going to love.

Kate 00:00:49  Welcome back. So this week or this episode, I keep saying weeks. Y'all just need to bear with me. If I say week, it's really an episode. So welcome to this episode, and we are so excited because this quarter we are going to be partnering with Playground Software, and we are starting the quarter with mom. I don't know how else.

Kate 00:01:12  I mean, there's lots of things we can say about Andrews.

Carrie 00:01:16  Can you can you give her, like, her whole title?

Kate 00:01:19  What? Mom of Daniel. Like mom.

Tamara Andrews 00:01:23  Of playground. Daniel. Josh.

Carrie 00:01:26  Yeah. I was going to say Professor Tamara Andrews.

Kate 00:01:32  I'm sure there's probably even a lot of letters at the end of her name. but we are so excited because Tamar Andrews is joining us. And if you didn't figure it out by my little attempt at being funny, she is Daniel and Josh Andrews, part of the co-founders of playground. She is their mom, and if you've ever had a chance to hear them tell their story. She is one of many family members that worked in early child care, which is part of the inspiration and the actual need for the software. So, Tamar, I know you say you've got some founder stories and some other, attempts at really good stories about the boys. I'm sorry I did it anyway about Sasha, Daniel, and Joshua. So, with that, why don't you introduce yourself, share a little bit about your background, and then maybe, when you feel like we know enough about you, kind of.

Kate 00:02:31  What prompted the the the the software discussion, even the very first cup of coffee or. I don't know what it was. because I think that would be just a great piece that maybe none of us know yet.

Tamara Andrews 00:02:43  So I want you to picture this. I go from being a director of a child care center with about 25 kids. My very first job, it increased to about 75 kids, and I went from being the director who was always in the classroom, helping teachers to being stuck in an office. And fast forward about a year later. I'm now nine months pregnant with Josh Andrews and I'm like, I have three other kids. There's no way I'm driving 45 minutes each way to work every morning. I gotta get a job closer to home, and at the same time, I'm now offered a job walking distance to home. And this childcare center has 85 kids, but it's got a potential for 300. Whew.

Carrie 00:03:28  That's a jump from that. From the the less than 52.

Tamara Andrews 00:03:33  Okay, I was on a trajectory to become the world's greatest preschool director, but I wasn't because I was stuck in an office at the same time.

Tamara Andrews 00:03:43  At night I was teaching college, and one of the classes I was teaching was administration. And I thought, oh, I'm going to let my students do some work for me, because I had just come off the Nike conference when the first time that you had apps? Not even apps, but software. To help run a preschool, you would buy this little disk, you would plug the disk into the computer. And so I went up to my office manager. Her name Peggy. Peggy worked with me at several preschools simultaneously. Consequent to that one, I said, Peggy, we're going to get some software. And she goes, well, how do we know which one to get? I said, I'm going to assign my students. So I tell my students in my administration class, I go, you're going to have to send out and request a demo disk from at least two companies. I don't care which. Here's the list of all the ones that provide them, and make a little 2 or 3 page report about which one you would use.

Tamara Andrews 00:04:35  So they come up with the name. It's almost unanimous which one they all chose. And I said, Peggy, we've bought a software package. We plug it in, Peggy puts it in, and within about a month we grow from about 80 something kids, up to 200. And I come into the office one day and Peggy's crying. I go, Peggy, what's the matter? She goes, I have a problem with the software. And they said they'll get back to me within the week. I'm in the queue and at the time there's really nothing you can do about it. There's really no, you know, the internet's not what it was 25 years ago. It's you got to wait in the queue. So we're doing it, and then I end up leaving that childcare centre. I go to another one, and eventually I get to the one that I've been at. I just retired from after 20 years. And Peggy follows with me and I said, okay, we're going to use software.

Tamara Andrews 00:05:26  Which one are we using? We brought the one that we know. It's kind of like the bank. You don't want to change your bank because it's just got all of your direct deposits and everything in it. So we use that one and Peggy's crying again. I go, I can't handle this anymore. Peggy's crying. So the executive director of the institution, it was a larger non-profit institution goes, let's just try another one. So we bought another app, we plugged it in, and now we get to the point where you're at an app and parents are crying. Why are the parents crying? Because the apps are not working.

Kate 00:05:58  I don't know, but I noticed I noticed the the the the logo on your phone.

Tamara Andrews 00:06:01  Oh yeah, I.

Kate 00:06:02  Got the little fix.

Tamara Andrews 00:06:05  I got another app and that one's not working. So finally I was like, you know what? I don't even know what to do. And I go up to my boys one day, they're both home from school. And there's a funny story.

Tamara Andrews 00:06:14  I'll give you a story.

Kate 00:06:15  Okay, so by this point in time, they're college age.

Tamara Andrews 00:06:18  yes. I think Josh had just gotten into college. He had just finished high school, and Daniel was like, in the middle of college or something. and I go, my app's not working. Oh, my God, parents are yelling at me, my apps not working, can you guys fix it? And they look at my app and mind you, the especially Josh was one of those kids that if you allowed him, he would play for eight hours at a time on that League of Legends or whatever those gaming things are. and they both look at it and they go, oh my God, mom, your app is really not good. We'll just make you one. So they make me an app. They call it car line. It's just for car Caroline, just because at this point, I now have 385 kids in childcare. I've got two car lines going. One in the alley, went in the front of the building, and parents have other kids in their car and Covid hits.

Tamara Andrews 00:07:07  Oh my God, you got to make it touchless. Make my app touchless. I got to open the school back up and sure enough, they make it touchless. And not only that, but I was paying for all these other apps. They combine all these apps and all my friends go tomorrow you're open. How are you open? I go, oh, my kids made me an app. It's touchless. Really? Can we have it? Hey, Daniel. Hey, Josh. My friends want to use their app. Can they use it? Yeah. Tell them it's like $25, I don't know. Well, within about a month, you now have 20 or 30 schools in the greater Los Angeles area all using, you know, this app, which is actually an unbelievable and kind of crazy. And not only that, but parents are actually happy. Like parents are happy. Oh my God, parents are happy. This is a great app, boys. Well, Sasha, Daniel and Josh, now we turn our our our dining room.

Tamara Andrews 00:08:06  My husband had built this huge table and they turned the dining room into. We called it us works, right? US works. And they had friends come over and we had signs on the wall and everybody. I was like, the mommy of the den. You had to post your daily, you know, whatever you did that day up on the wall because nobody's going out. It's Covid and there's nothing else really to do. And so the boys are just they're coding and they're making this app and schools are calling going, hey boys, we need this to have we need this to have. And so we had a conversation and by the way, so I'm going to stop back for a minute. My sister owns two very large preschools. My mom has been in preschool since I was little. I used to sub for her when she would take my sisters to the doctor. my daughter is a pediatric OT. I mean all my friends. As a matter of fact, my husband had a rule at the dinner table that you weren't allowed to talk preschool.

Tamara Andrews 00:09:02  That's all we did was talk preschool at the table. Like that's all we wanted to do. Because, you know, there's so much to talk about. Parent stories, kid stories, teacher stories. I mean, it's wild. And so, they're building this up, and it's growing like wildfire. I mean, when there's something really good out there, it's literally wildfire. And at the beginning, you know, again, schools are afraid to change apps. They don't know how parents will receive it, etc., but they just did a great job. I'm going to stop for a second. I'm going to tell you a funny story that happened simultaneous to this. The boys know how to make apps. So at the point, at this point, Josh is still in college. And what do all college boys want when they're coding and studying and everything else? They want chicken tenders.

Carrie 00:09:50  I was going to say Red bull, but go.

Tamara Andrews 00:09:52  The contenders, so they decide to make an app called Tender.

Kate 00:09:57  Like Tender.

Tamara Andrews 00:10:00  Write tender, just deliver chicken tenders to people in college campuses, at your dorm or wherever you're living on a college campus. So they're home. I think it's like Thanksgiving or something. They're home and they went up to sleep, and I'm sitting there doing the dishes and kind of lolling about, and I look at my phone and I go, oh, chicken tenders. Oh, because they had put the beta on my phone and I go, let me order some. Now, mind you, it's like 1245 in the morning. So I'm ordering chicken tenders. The boys are upstairs, probably asleep, and I hear this.

Carrie 00:10:35  Oh my God, oh my God.

Tamara Andrews 00:10:37  Running down the stairs. Running down the stairs. Do you have any chicken tenders in the freezer? We got an order. You hear Daniel yelling where is it? Where is it? Where do we have to? Mom, can we use your phone? And all of a sudden they look at the address and they go, Ma.

Carrie 00:10:56  I love it, I love it.

Tamara Andrews 00:10:57  It was. I don't think they let me beta anything anymore.

Kate 00:11:01  I don't know, but from now on, I'm just going to start showing up to events where they are with chicken tenders. I don't care what brand, I might even bring five brands because I just now have this whole I see where we're going with this. Oh my God.

Carrie 00:11:16  anyway.

Tamara Andrews 00:11:17  So my mom works in preschool. My mom still, I mean, she's a great I have three grandkids. My mom is a great grandmother already.

Kate 00:11:24  So how old is your mom?

Tamara Andrews 00:11:25  My mom is almost 80.

Kate 00:11:27  Okay.

Tamara Andrews 00:11:28  Yep. And she still works in preschools. And my boys decided that if they were really going to make an app, there were a few rules that they they had actually come up with on their own about the childcare app. That number one, most importantly, it had to be my mom proof or great grandma. Grandma proof, because we all have. I mean, I have employees at my childcare center.

Tamara Andrews 00:11:50  We all do. We have grandmas who pick up kids. It's got to be an app that is so intuitive that even grandma can use it. the other really cool thing that they did, and I got to give them credit because I think growing up at that dinner table where we talked preschool, they really saw from an insider's view how important early childhood was. Not only that, but they would hear stories about, you know, how early childhood, early childhood education helped save a family, or keep a family or help a child with special needs. So they knew the importance of the field, and I love that about them, because they could have been like, oh, early childhood, we're not going to do that. But instead they really embraced it. And so they actually sat in my office for six months. I still remember Sasha, Josh, Daniel filing in and out, watching me, watching the teachers, talking to the teachers, talking to the parents. Like, what do you like? What do you not like, literally standing out in car line, in the rain, in the sun, whatever the weather was.

Tamara Andrews 00:12:53  Standing out in car line asking people how's it going? Watching the movement and the flow and tailoring the program just directly to the needs of the people that were going to be using the app. And, I think they just won something like number one in customer satisfaction or something recently. And I was like, I raise them right. Because that's really that's really what it's all about.

Carrie 00:13:20  Yeah. You're not it's not a software that's developed by people who went a $19 billion industry. I want a piece of that. No, it was software designed because they knew the need, because they went in and they walked in your shoes. Like it wasn't just a made up thing. They actually walked through the program and they were like, if my mom can do it, if my grandmother can do it, if my sister in law can do it, we can all do it. So I'd be dead simple and actually meet the needs of the industry today, not the needs of the industry in the early 2000.

Tamara Andrews 00:13:59  Yeah, and they still call me to this day going, mom, what do you see are some of the biggest needs in early childhood? How can we support the work? That's really what they ask.

Tamara Andrews 00:14:07  How can we support the work that you do? Not what's going to make us the most money? How can we support you and the people that work like you?

Kate 00:14:15  I love that I wish every company I mean, we were talking about banks earlier. If only a bank would do that.

Tamara Andrews 00:14:22  Oh, God.

Kate 00:14:23  Yeah. I mean, banking apps are even worse than, you know, the 1980s early child care apps. so, you know, banking apps and anything that looks like a county, can be, a little bit more than what most people want to do. But so over the course of the evolution of the software, which, again, is less than five years. Yeah. What are some of the things that you are. So I'm going to go with either excited, tickled with that. They've figured out a solution that you've seen childcare centres struggle with and that you think this is a good solution because you've tried the others. It's not like you're coming into this with no experience with other software.

Tamara Andrews 00:15:06  Oh no, not at all. I will tell you. The best part about it is that I left the work of being a preschool director on a high, because even with 385 kids, I was able to get out of my office all the time. even while I had I, I went through some pretty heavy medical treatment for a couple of years. I was able to sit in an office, you know, with like, tubes going up my arms with my my app right there in my hand, parents commenting, texting me, watching what's happening, knowing what's going on in the child care center. I was able to help support teachers. I was able to help support other directors I was able to talk to parents, enjoy life. there's an expression that's been circulating. You know, run your preschool, don't let it run you. And with this app, especially with the way that they've been able to either pivot or grow or add to it for whatever our needs are. there's a lecture that I give all the time called The Five Things I Loved.

Tamara Andrews 00:16:12  I Learned to love about being a director again. And, one of them was Spotify.

Kate 00:16:18  I have to say, I love that last phrase because I think that almost got lost, which is the again, again.

Tamara Andrews 00:16:25  Yes, it's the again. So one of them is Spotify. I have a playlist for everything in a child care center, and it's not like the you know, I'll give you an example. No child really wants to clean up, to clean up, clean up everybody everywhere. I mean, it's just so pediatric. So instead, my playlist for cleanup is Sandstorm by Dawoud. I don't know if you know EDM music, but it's like, got this beat that, you know, in physics, we learned that an object at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by a force of equal or greater value. That song's got to get you off your your butt and and into the world, right? So if you want the kids to get up and clean, you got to get them up.

Tamara Andrews 00:17:11  The music has to get them up. so Spotify is is one app that I can't live without. The other one is any of the stores or apps that will bring the food to me and the supplies need, instead of me wasting my time to go out there and using my car and my miles and my gas and everything else. the next one was, having a really good wing person, so it looks like you guys do, but having that wing person next to you who can actually stand up to you and say, no, I don't think so.

Carrie 00:17:43  And that person, we had that conversation earlier today. Oh my God.

Tamara Andrews 00:17:48  There you go. So that person now runs the preschool that I just retired from. And she's the best. Her name is Avital. using parents and then using a really good app. Because if your app is only mediocre, your school is only going to be mediocre. Your school is only going to be as great as the great stuff you use.

Kate 00:18:05  Well, not only that, think about how much less stress having a good piece of software is, because if you've got to have Peggy crying in the corner, I don't care how good of a director you are, if your admin staff are unhappy, your parents are unhappy.

Kate 00:18:21  You can be an awesome director, but you're never going to have that. That mental freedom of getting to grow. I love that. Well, I love the story and I. I'm serious. I think that I might even just have some chicken tenders sent to the office this week. I don't know why I sent you.

Carrie 00:18:38  No no no, no. We'll just do it completely anonymously. Just shipping chicken tenders, like, on a regular basis. And just go for the boys.

Tamara Andrews 00:18:46  And there you go. the other thing that's really exciting. Josh just got engaged.

Kate 00:18:53  How exciting, how exciting.

Tamara Andrews 00:18:55  Good. Yep. And, Yeah. Really lovely, lovely girl. And this funny story is they met working in my preschool as CITs one summer.

Kate 00:19:04  Oh, that's even a better story. Yeah.

Tamara Andrews 00:19:07  Seven, eight. They were just young teenagers, and I'm sure, I'm sure he was probably annoying. And I'm sure she probably thought he was eccentric and loved that about him.

Kate 00:19:17  And they are.

Tamara Andrews 00:19:18  They are the cutest.

Tamara Andrews 00:19:19  Absolutely the cutest.

Kate 00:19:21  Well, so. So when when are you going to check out your digs in New York?

Tamara Andrews 00:19:25  What do you mean by check them out?

Kate 00:19:26  Don't you? Don't you now have an office or they've made you. Oh.

Tamara Andrews 00:19:30  Yes. My boys want to ground me. Yes, they want to ground me. They want to put me in the office. I think they they can't really say that they miss me. So they're coming up with excuses to put me in the office so that they get to see me more. I also cook all the time for them, so I think they might miss that a little bit.

Kate 00:19:47  You can just order chicken tenders.

Tamara Andrews 00:19:49  I could, but then they're gonna.

Kate 00:19:52  Okay, so whatever happened with that app? Did that app just never get off the ground?

Tamara Andrews 00:19:56  I think it I think it's still I still have the app on my phone, but I think it's in the ether right now. They let it expire. Something with Apple, I don't know. I think it was a cute idea.

Tamara Andrews 00:20:07  But you know what playground is? Especially when you do an app like playground the way they do. they live, eat, breathe and sleep. Playground. one of the things that we talked about was Peggy crying and having to wait in the queue for a week. You don't wait with playground. There is somebody there all the time answering a phone, which is, really incredible nowadays because I hate getting the AI or the press. Option one for this press option two. You are number three on the wait list. Your waiting time is approximately 37 minutes. No director has that kind of time or patience because she's probably got it. Or he's got a sick kid in the office. Somebody's crying with a boo boo. You need it instantaneously.

Carrie 00:20:56  Well, and that whole. We are a caring industry. We need when we need help, we need help now. We don't ask for help. The first time it goes down, we figure it out and jury rig around it for a while. By the time we get around to asking for help, it is kind of a crisis.

Carrie 00:21:16  Like because we don't have time.

Tamara Andrews 00:21:18  Has anybody made a list of everything we do like psychologist, plumber, electrician? Like where's the list?

Carrie 00:21:25  yes. Can't read it a couple of times. and it's one of the things that we ask people to do at the beginning of the director credentialing class that we teach is, I want you to spend some time and write down every single thing you think that you're going to be doing as a director or that you have seen your director do want you to write everything down? Oh, I love that.

Tamara Andrews 00:21:48  I love that because it's probably longer than anybody's curriculum vitae.

Kate 00:21:53  Well, and it's probably not something most of them were trained to do. Like we were talking before we were on screen, we were talking a little bit about, you know, director. Well, first of all, teachers get all kinds of support in training, right? Like we we want teachers to have their, their CVA or insert whatever credential or training we, we, we encourage them to get.

Kate 00:22:15  But yet with directors, so many states, so many directors, so many organizations just go, oh, you meet the minimum requirements. And so we want you to be a director.

Carrie 00:22:30  Yeah. Run this program that affects, at minimum, you know, a thousand people. You don't need any specialized training, because if you've got 300 kids, then each of those kids It's probably came like when they were delivered into the universe. They came with two adults that were related to them. Right. So, you know, at minimum, you're talking about 900 people who are affected by that childcare program.

Kate 00:22:54  Plus the staff.

Carrie 00:22:56  Plus the staff.

Kate 00:22:57  And the staff stuff any of the significant others of those staff.

Carrie 00:23:01  Right. But you don't need any specialized training for that. And so by having them do that, when the.

Tamara Andrews 00:23:06  Kids turn five and you go to kindergarten, because all of a sudden there's a magic thing that happens, and now you need a BA and a teaching credential and training and a certain number of hours a year, because all of a sudden at five, the child is different.

Carrie 00:23:19  Well, and you need three vice principals and a principal and support staff in the Office of Curriculum.

Tamara Andrews 00:23:26  Specialist learning a push and pull out all. Yes.

Carrie 00:23:30  Right. And five years and however many months that it is on September 1st of that year, I am ready. That kid needs that much support.

Tamara Andrews 00:23:41  I am waiting for a child care expert to be governor of a state, or head of a department of education, and then we will finally see things turn around.

Carrie 00:23:51  Yep. We have one state senator, a state representative in Texas who was a former child care owner. And then there's one in the federal house. And that's what we've got. That's it. Yeah.

Tamara Andrews 00:24:07  Yeah.

Carrie 00:24:08  At least that I know of. There might be another that I don't know about.

Kate 00:24:11  Okay. So, so in other words what I'm getting at for everybody who's listening is we need some more of you to go into politics. And we're not talking about just advocacy. We're talking about go in and we can probably help find you some support.

Kate 00:24:27  I'm I'm kind of thinking we could do that.

Tamara Andrews 00:24:29  Oh, heck.

Kate 00:24:30  Yeah. Absolutely.

Tamara Andrews 00:24:31  So help your campaign. I'll wear a big button that says vote for.

Kate 00:24:36  I love that. So before we wrap up today's episode tomorrow. Carrie. Do you guys have anything else you want to add to today's episode?

Tamara Andrews 00:24:44  No, I'm. I'm just excited. First of all, I want to just say thank you because we need many more voices out there in the field to let people know what is actually happening and what's needed to help educate people and raise the quality of early childhood. Apps like playground are great, but that's one piece of the puzzle. We also need the educators like yourselves to go out there and train directors, who then in turn will train teachers, who then in turn will train parents, and the lives of children will be that much better?

Kate 00:25:16  Absolutely.

Carrie 00:25:17  Carrie, I don't think there's a better thing to say than what Amato said. You, as the leaders at your school, empower and affect hundreds, if not thousands of people.

Carrie 00:25:30  Please take these kudos we're giving you, and we would suggest you get yourself an easier app. But even if you don't get yourself an easier app, please recognise your role and hold your local licensing up to account and make sure that they're asking for good training for your staff and go out and get good training for yourself and for your staff.

Tamara Andrews 00:25:57  Amen.

Tamara Andrews 00:25:58  And by the way, if you're saying.

Tamara Andrews 00:26:01  I'm going to just add one more thing. If you're spending more time in your office as an administrator, then out of your office doing the more important work, you have to take some kind of class to learn or get an app that's better to learn how to run your job to where you're not stuck in your office all day, because that's not where your parents and teachers need you.

Kate 00:26:21  Absolutely. That that should be a bumper sticker. I've I've decided I don't know what I'm going to do with that bumper sticker, but maybe it's a coffee mug, I don't know. But with that, hopefully you guys, I'm sure learned something new.

Kate 00:26:35  So share the show and share it with somebody who needs to know and subscribe. Listen. And we are so excited about October, November and December. We've got some great guest lined up, and we look forward to you tuning into the next episode. And with that, have a wonderful day.

Marie 00:26:57  Thanks for tuning in. We love bringing you real talk and fresh insight from the world of early childhood education. Be sure to follow us on social media to stay connected and catch all of the latest episodes. And if you're planning a conference, training, or special event. Kate and Kerry would love to speak to your audience. You can learn more about their keynote sessions and workshops at Kate and Kerry. If you learned something today. Share the show and leave us a review below. We'll see you next time on Child Care Conversations.