For Owners & Directors

Run your preschool like a professional — in about an hour a day.

An intelligent operations system that carries the daily grind for you — attendance, the food program, compliance, payroll, parent updates, staff culture, safety routines — so one owner can run multiple schools with a fraction of the hands-on work. Less busywork. Less stress.

Created by a working preschool owner running two schools with it every day — and author of The Preschool Professional.

Attendance · Food Program · ELC & VPK · Payroll · Newsletters · Social Media · Staffing & Ratios · Compliance · Reminders · Cleaning Charts · Emergency Plans · Tours · Staff Culture · Birthdays · Attendance · Food Program · ELC & VPK · Payroll · Newsletters · Social Media · Staffing & Ratios · Compliance · Reminders · Cleaning Charts · Emergency Plans · Tours · Staff Culture · Birthdays ·
100+
tasks working behind the scenes
~1 hr
of hands-on work a day
2 schools
run by a single owner
real-time
ratios, records & alerts
Sound Familiar

You didn't open a school to do paperwork.

Yet the admin never ends — and all of it lands on you.

Attendance & the food program — every afternoon, without fail.
ELC, VPK & licensing deadlines you can't afford to miss.
Payroll, ordering & staffing ratios — all in your head at once.
Parent newsletters & social media that never quite happen.
Cleaning charts, drills & safety routines that slip when weeks get busy.
Reminding everyone of everything — because if you don't, who will?
The System

One system. Your entire operation.

Set it up once; it works in the background — across every school you own. And every piece is modular: add what serves your school, turn off what doesn't, and shape the system around the way you run things.

01

Attendance & Food Program

Daily check-ins pulled and meals recorded to the food program automatically. The afternoon scramble disappears.

02

ELC, VPK & Compliance

Deadlines tracked, monthly attendance prepared, certifications watched, and you stay ahead of every licensing and audit requirement.

03

Finance & Payroll

A live financial picture, payroll hours gathered for you, and a daily read on exactly where your business stands.

04

Parent Communication

Newsletters, reminders, and weekly recaps written and sent in your voice — in each family's language.

05

Social Media

Classroom photos become polished, captioned posts that keep your pages active without you lifting a finger.

06

Staffing & Ratios

Live ratio checks against state rules — know the moment you can trim hours or need coverage.

07

Staff Culture, Daily

A morning quote translated into each teacher's language, bilingual weekly briefings, birthday celebrations, and warm nudges — team-building on autopilot, every single day.

08

Safety & Facility Routines

Daily cleaning charts, sanitizer spray-down reminders, emergency plans, drill schedules, and health posters — the safety rhythm that inspectors love to see.

09

Reminders That Never Sleep

Mail checks, food carts, report deadlines, payroll signatures, supply orders — every recurring to-do reminded automatically, to the right person, in the right channel.

How It Works

Running in three steps.

1

Connect

Link the tools you already use — childcare software, email, calendar, team chat. Missing one? We'll help you add a free option right inside Cowork.

2

Install

Upload one plugin file. Every automation shows up ready to set up — it asks the right questions and tells you exactly what to connect. No technical skill required.

3

Lead

The system runs the daily work and checks in only when it needs you. You stay fully in control.

A Day Inside

While you sleep, it's already working.

This is a real day at a school running the system — every item below happens automatically.

Bear Mission Control — the live dashboard
Mission Control
Thursday · 7:42 AM · both schools
34done today
3waiting on you
12up next
0missed

Today at a Glance

4:30 AMLogin & connection readiness checkDONE
5:45 AMDaily financial briefingDONE
6:00 AMDirector briefings + weatherDONE
7:00 AMParent messages — both schoolsDONE
9:00 AMStaffing ratio checkDONE
10:00 AMPhoto approvals — 6 waitingYOU
3:00 PMAttendance & meal recordingNEXT
6:00 PMPhotos → social postsNEXT

The Week at a Glance

28
31
30
34
26
MonTueWedThuFri
This week: payroll signatures Tue · grocery cart loads Wed · directors review & order Thu · delivery + sanitizer spray-down Fri

A screen from Bear Mission Control — every task, its live status, and the whole week on one organized board. Green ran, orange is waiting on you, blue is up next. This dashboard is included with The Full System.

4:30 AM

Readiness check

Every login and connection the day depends on is verified — if anything needs you, it's the first thing you see, before problems can happen.

5:00 AM

Phone dashboards refresh

Today-at-a-glance, mission control, finance, and social dashboards regenerate — so you can check on everything from your phone, anywhere.

5:45 AM

Financial briefing

Yesterday's transactions pulled and categorized, cash position and payroll ratio posted — you know exactly where both schools stand before sunrise.

6:00 AM

Director briefings, weather & email triage #1

Each director gets a school-specific action board — deadlines, follow-ups, today's forecast, and a GO / WATCH call on field-trip days. Your inbox gets its first of three daily sweeps: summarized, replies drafted, school items flagged.

6:10 AM

Office inboxes triaged — both schools

Each school's office email is read for you — licensing notices, food program letters, subsidy emails — actionable items flagged, obvious replies drafted, briefing items queued.

6:45 AM

ProCare morning sync

Check-in data syncs to the desktop system before doors open — so the day starts with clean records at both schools.

7:00 AM

Your action board + families hear from you

Your personal morning board lands — approvals first, then the day in priority order. Parent messages go out in your voice: the mid-week "Teddy Bear Talk" tip, the Friday recap, tuition reminders on the right days.

8:05 AM

Staff culture moment

The morning teacher quote posts to each school — translated into Spanish and Hindi so every teacher starts the day included and inspired. Fridays add the bilingual teacher heads-up for next week.

9:00 AM

Parent message check #1 + ratio check

Every ProCare parent message at both schools is read — absences routed straight to each school's to-do list, questions surfaced for a quick reply. First live staffing-ratio check against state rules.

9:30 AM

Staff punches cleaned up

Yesterday's time clocks finalized — overnight stuck punches, missing sign-ins, and no-shows flagged while directors can still fix them.

10 – 11 AM

Hourly ratio checks + approvals digest

Staffing re-checked as children arrive, and the first "waiting on you" digest lists everything that needs your yes — nothing sits forgotten.

12:00 PM

Teachers get answers + payroll pull

The lesson-plan assistant answers teachers' questions with the right plan and activity ideas. Every other Wednesday, payroll hours are gathered and checked against revenue for entry.

1:00 PM

Email triage #2 — round two

Your inbox and both office inboxes swept again — anything that landed since morning is summarized, drafted, or flagged before it can pile up.

2:30 PM

After-nap ratio check

The tricky after-nap window — children signed in vs staff on the floor vs state ratios, with combine / float / cut-hours advice if anything is off.

3:00 PM

ProCare → KidKare attendance & meals

The daily attendance chain begins: check-ins pulled from ProCare, meals matched to serving windows and recorded in KidKare for the food program claim, running records updated for month-end. Afternoon punch check fixes time clocks before close.

4:00 PM

School two + email triage #3 + ELC records

The second school's attendance and meals are recorded, your inboxes get their third sweep, directors are reminded to check the mail, and SR attendance is kept ready for the ELC portal — subsidy records always audit-ready.

6:00 PM

Photos become posts + hours pace

Today's classroom photos are gathered and captioned for social media. Every staff member's hours are finalized and projected against schedules — overtime spotted days before it happens. Thursdays also capture the weekly billing reports.

7:00 PM

Parent message check #2

The evening sweep of ProCare messages — anything parents sent after pickup is routed and waiting for the right person by morning.

8:00 PM — MIDNIGHT

Tomorrow gets prepped, today gets logged

Tomorrow's director briefings are researched and staged, and the entire day — every task, every result — is written to a log so nothing is ever lost. Then it starts again.

WEEKENDS

It covers you when you're closed

Every inbox gets a warm "we're closed, back Monday" reply with your registration link, and the weekend family guide of free local events goes out — enrollment never sleeps, even when you do.

That's 30–40 automated runs every weekday — before counting the weekly, monthly, and seasonal work stacked on top.

The Full Picture

Everything it carries — in every area.

Not one corner of the operation is left out. Here's the honest inventory of what runs at a school on this system.

Reminders That Never Sleep

  • Daily mail check for directors
  • Thursday food-cart review before delivery day
  • Monthly reports due — reminded on the 1st
  • Payroll signatures every other Tuesday
  • Weekly billing reports with the form link
  • Scholarship payments every Friday
  • Supply-order inventory on the 25th
  • Newsletter reminder on the 24th

Cleaning, Safety & Facility

  • Daily classroom cleaning charts
  • Bathroom cleaning logs
  • Friday sanitizer spray-down reminder to all staff
  • Fire drill & emergency procedure plans
  • Emergency codes posted & ready
  • Handwashing, diapering & illness posters
  • Allergy action plans & cover sheets

Compliance & Licensing

  • License & inspection watch — 60-day warnings
  • Staff certification tracker, checked weekly
  • Child & staff file audits — missing docs flagged
  • E-signed enrollment packets auto-filed
  • Monthly Food Program / SR / VPK walkthroughs
  • Attendance records that build up for audits

Finance & Payroll

  • Daily financial briefing — both schools
  • Payroll % of revenue watched against target
  • Hours gathered every other week for payroll entry
  • Weekly billing verified before the weekend
  • Who's-behind-on-tuition owner summary
  • Monthly subsidy deposit reconciliation

Family Connection

  • Mid-week "Teddy Bear Talk" parenting tips
  • Friday recap — theme, schedule, field trips
  • Monthly newsletter, written & sent
  • Weekend guide of free local family events
  • Birthday celebrations posted every month
  • Tour package for prospective families
  • Weekend auto-reply with your registration link

Staff Building, Every Day

  • Daily inspirational quote — in each teacher's language
  • Bilingual weekly heads-up (theme, trips, schedule)
  • Clock-in celebrations & warm reminders
  • Lesson-plan help on demand, any teacher
  • Staff birthdays & milestones celebrated
  • Directors briefed daily — never guessing

Food & Supplies

  • Menus turned into age-band-sized shopping lists
  • Grocery carts auto-loaded weekly, per school
  • Directors review & place — you stay in control
  • Monthly bulk supply order with inventory check
  • Delivery rhythm that never misses a week

Social Media & Marketing

  • Classroom photos → captioned, branded posts
  • Three content streams, always 2 weeks ahead
  • Branded event & closure flyers
  • Instant posting for in-the-moment magic
  • Queue health monitored — refills itself

Your Command Center

  • Morning action board — approvals first, then the day
  • Twice-daily "waiting on you" digest
  • Mission-control dashboard of every task
  • Phone dashboards — run it from anywhere
  • Nightly log — the whole day, captured
  • Idea parking lot, resurfaced so nothing is lost

Every item above runs today at two real schools — this is an inventory, not a wish list.

The Real Difference

Not magic — just less on your plate.

Be honest: running a school will always take a human. What this does is carry the repetitive weight, work in real time, and make the rest simple enough to hand off. Here's what that actually looks like.

About an hour a day

Most of the daily grind runs on its own. What's left — the quick logins and approvals — takes roughly an hour, and it's the same short routine every day.

Anyone can run it

It's a simple, repeatable routine, not a skill. You can train any team member to run the daily steps in an afternoon — so it's never all on you.

Real-time ratios

See your staff-to-child ratios against state rules as the day changes — know instantly when you can cut hours or need coverage.

Staff sign-in / sign-out

Clock-ins and clock-outs are tracked and cleaned up daily, feeding straight into payroll and coverage — no more chasing the paper book.

It fixes itself

When something looks off — a stuck punch, a missing day, a wrong number — the system catches it, corrects what it can, and flags the rest instead of failing silently.

Records that build up

Daily attendance and meals are logged automatically, then roll up so month-end work like ELC is a quick review — not a from-scratch scramble.

It all connects

Attendance feeds the food program, staffing feeds payroll, payments feed your finances — one system, everything talking to everything.

Run it from your phone

Away from the school? Send a request from your phone and it happens in real time — post to parents, check a number, kick off a task — even when you're nowhere near a computer.

Honest & in your control

Some steps use secure sites that need a real login — so you (or your director) sign in, and the system does the rest. You always hold the keys.

Never a black box.

This is not a blind operation. Any time a task is running, you can open it and watch it work — live. Every step is narrated in real time: what it's reading, what it's recording, what it decided and why. Most days you won't need to look — that's the beauty of it. But the window is always open, and the full step-by-step record of every single run is saved, so you can review anything, any time.

Security & Privacy

Your families' trust is the whole business.

This was built by an owner who answers to licensing, subsidy programs, and — most importantly — parents. Security isn't a feature bolted on at the end; it's how the system is designed.

You hold every key

Your passwords are never stored, shared, or handed to the system. Secure portals — banking, subsidy, licensing — always get a real human sign-in from you or your director.

Children's data stays put

Child records are never copied into outside services. The system works inside the platforms you already use and trust — your childcare software, food program, and subsidy portals.

Approval gates on everything public

Nothing reaches parents, social media, or the public without your explicit yes — every photo, every post, every message is approved by a human first.

Official filings stay human

Government claims and subsidy submissions are prepared and organized for you — but a person always reviews and presses submit. The system records; you certify.

It never moves money

The system watches your finances and preps payroll — but it never places orders on its own, never transfers funds, never touches your books. Your accountant's lane stays your accountant's lane.

A full audit trail

Every action is logged nightly — what ran, when, and what it touched. Privacy-first publishing too: first names only, photo-by-photo approval, and no-photo lists honored.

The Free Resource Library

Free for every teacher and owner.

Mrs. Bear's books, the Bear Phonics program, the Milestone Wizard, and the ECE Den hub — free to explore, no purchase needed. Ever.

The Preschool Professional

The Book

The foundational guide to running an excellent school.

View on Amazon →
Bear Phonics Program

Reading Curriculum

A complete decodable reading system with character development.

Watch on YouTube →
Feelings Matter

Social-Emotional

Helping little ones name and navigate big emotions.

View on Amazon →
The Milestone Wizard

Milestone Tool

Milestones, activities & materials by age and state — for any teacher, any classroom.

Open the Wizard →
Mrs. Bear's ECE Den

The ECE Den Hub

Books, music, events & more — everything Mrs. Bear, all in one place.

Visit the Den →
Center Bundles

Shop by Center

Setting up a classroom? Every learning center — dramatic play, blocks, sensory, art, library, math, science, music — as a one-click shopping list with Mrs. Bear’s setup tips. Pair with the Wizard and your room builds itself.

Browse the Bundles →

Books live on Amazon · programs live on YouTube — real resources, in classrooms today.

The Command Center

Your automations do the work. These let you see it.

The Command Center is a set of live, pinnable visual dashboards — your school's vital signs, always one glance away, on any device. No scrolling through chat history, no wondering "did it run?" You open a board, and in five seconds you know. It's the difference between owning automations and truly commanding them.

THE HEARTBEAT

Mission Control

Every automation, its live status, and your whole week on one organized board — green ran, orange is waiting on you, blue is up next, red never slips by unseen. You saw it earlier on this page; it's the screen owners check with their morning coffee.

THE MEMORY

Skills Reference

Every automation you own in a searchable card grid, each with the exact phrase that triggers it — click to copy, paste, done. Built for owners who are new or juggling too much to memorize commands (so, all of us).

THE MONEY-SAVER

Staffing & Ratios

Who's signed in vs. who's on the floor vs. your state's ratios — live, as the day changes. Spot the moment you can trim hours or combine rooms, and see gaps before they become violations. This board alone can pay for your whole system.

THE PULSE

Finance Snapshot

Cash position, revenue picture, and payroll pace at a glance — the numbers that actually drive decisions, without opening the books or waiting on your accountant.

THE LOOKOUT

Social Queue Health

All your content streams on one board — what's queued, what posts next, and an early warning before any stream runs dry. Your pages stay alive without you thinking about them.

THE SHIELD

Onboarding & Compliance

Every child file, staff file, certification, and expiration date on one board — see exactly what's missing before licensing walks in, not after. Sleep-at-night visibility.

Three ways to get the Command Center

With The Playbook
+ $20

Mission Control + Skills Reference — the heartbeat and the memory. Your 5 automations, visible.

With The Full System
+ $50

All 6 dashboards — finance, staffing, social, and compliance boards join the set. Your whole operation, visible.

With The Professional Bundle
FREE

All 6 dashboards included — no add-on needed. The full cockpit comes standard.

Add it at checkout below, or anytime after — it plugs into what you already own.

The Story Behind It

I built this because I needed it.

I own and run two preschools, and I wrote The Preschool Professional because I believe this work deserves excellence. But for years, the admin ran me — attendance, the food program, ELC, payroll, parent updates — all before I could focus on the children.

So I built a system that carries it for me. Today both schools run with excellence, largely on their own, and I get to lead. This is that system, paired with the resources I've created along the way — packaged so any owner can have what I have.

— Mrs. Bear, Owner, Director & Author

Get Started

Five ways to start.

From free resources to a fully guided setup with Mrs. Bear herself. Every paid tier is a single installable plugin — no videos to watch, no manual to memorize — and a one-time purchase, no subscription for the system itself.

Free Resource Library

"Browse the Hive"
Free
  • The Preschool Professional — the book
  • Bear Phonics reading program
  • Feelings Matter — social-emotional book
  • The Milestone Wizard — milestones, activities & materials by age and state
  • Mrs. Bear's ECE Den hub
  • Classroom Center Bundles — every learning center as a ready-made shopping list
  • No purchase or install needed
  • Open to everyone, always
Browse the Free Library

The Playbook

"Welcome to the Hive!"
$100 one-time
~3 hrs/day back · ~$7,500+/yr saved.* Pays for itself in under a week.
  • Step-by-step setup guide
  • 5 automations — attendance & food program, director briefing, staffing ratio check, good-morning briefing, end-of-day log
  • Runs on Claude Pro ($20/mo)
  • Best for one school, self-starters
+ Command Center — $20
Mission Control + Skills Reference dashboards
Buy Now — $100
Most Popular

The Full System

"Sweet as Honey"
$250 one-time
~5 hrs/day back (avg) · ~$12,500+/yr saved.* Pays back within the first week.
  • Everything in The Playbook
  • 40 automations total — finance, social media, parent comms & compliance added
  • Runs on Claude Max 5x ($100/mo)
+ Command Center — $50
All 6 dashboards, incl. Finance & Staffing
Buy Now — $250

Professional Bundle

"Mrs. Bear's Den"
$500 one-time
~8 hrs/day back · ~$20,000+/yr saved.* Like reliable part-time office help — without the hire.
  • Everything in The Full System
  • 60 automations + 8 templates, all releases as they ship
  • All 6 Command Center dashboards free
  • Runs on Claude Max 20x ($200/mo)
Buy Now — $500

One-on-One

"Straight From the Hive"
Custom
  • Mrs. Bear personally trains your team
  • Installed alongside you, live
  • Tailored to your schools & tools
  • Tell her about your school first
Inquire

*Estimated value based on typical time spent on these tasks, benchmarked at $20/hr (2026 U.S. administrative-assistant wage average, PayScale) — shown at half the raw hours-saved calculation to reflect the equivalent of reliable part-time help, not an assumed full-time hire. A conservative, transparent estimate, not a guarantee. Even after the Claude subscription each tier runs on, the time and money saved comfortably outweighs the cost for most owners.

Stay in the hive, all year

The Buzz — an optional membership, not one of the five tiers above

A standalone monthly membership, open to anyone — whichever tier you own, or none yet. Keeps your system growing instead of going stale.

  • Teacher Bundles — monthly classroom printables: lesson plans, wall alphabet & number cards, worksheets & setup materials (Drop #1 is live inside)
  • — New automation drops added to your library over time
  • — Ongoing additions to the resource & template library
  • — A short tips newsletter — ECE & ops ideas worth knowing
  • — Priority access whenever something new ships
  • — A monthly live Q&A — bring your questions, hear what's new
$19/mo
or $190/yr
Join The Buzz
What Owners Say

"I got my afternoons back. Attendance and the food program simply happen now — and I finally have the time to actually lead my school." — A future Preschool Professional

Placeholder — real testimonials from your pilot schools will live here.

Questions

The details.

Do I need to be technical?

Not at all. It's built for preschool owners, not programmers. The setup walks you through every step.

Will it work with the software I already use?

It's designed around the tools preschools rely on for childcare management, the food program, email, and calendars. You connect what you have.

Does it work across multiple schools?

Yes — it was built to run more than one school at once, and each new location plugs right in.

Do I stay in control?

Always. It handles the routine work and brings anything that needs a decision or approval straight to you.

Is my families' information safe?

Yes — by design. Children's records never leave the platforms you already use, passwords stay with you, anything public requires your approval, official submissions are always finished by a person, and every action is logged. See the Security & Privacy section above for the full picture.

Can I add or remove pieces of the system?

Absolutely — that's the design. Every automation is its own building block. Don't do social media? Turn it off. Want the food program chain but not the finance briefings? Keep just what serves your school. You can add, remove, or adjust any piece at any time — the system bends to your program, not the other way around.

How do I get access to all the automations, tasks & skills?

Each tier ships as a single installable Cowork plugin — no separate files to juggle. The Playbook installs 5 automations, The Full System installs 40, and The Professional Bundle installs the complete library — 60 automations plus 8 ready-to-use templates, and all 6 Command Center dashboards included — plus new releases as they ship. You upload one file, and every automation in it shows up ready to set up, with plain-English instructions.

What is The Command Center?

A set of live, pinnable visual dashboards — Mission Control (what ran, what's waiting on you, what's next), Staffing & Ratios, Finance Snapshot, Social Queue Health, an Onboarding/Compliance board, and a searchable Skills Reference (every automation you own, with the exact phrase to trigger it — click to copy). They turn the automations you've already installed into an at-a-glance board instead of something you have to scroll chat history to check. Included free with The Professional Bundle; available as an add-on for The Playbook (+$20, Mission Control + Skills Reference) and The Full System (+$50, all 6 dashboards).

What's The Buzz?

A separate monthly membership ($19/mo or $190/yr) open to anyone, on any tier. It's how the system keeps growing after you buy it — monthly Teacher Bundles (classroom-ready printables: lesson plans, wall alphabet & number cards, worksheets, setup materials), new automation drops, ongoing additions to the template library, a short tips newsletter, priority access to whatever ships next, and a monthly live Q&A. Not required to use what you already bought — your tier works standalone, forever. This is for owners who want to keep building.

Do I need anything else to run this?

Yes — an active Claude account, since this runs as a Cowork plugin. The Playbook is built to run comfortably on Claude Pro ($20/mo), The Full System on Claude Max 5x ($100/mo), and The Professional Bundle on Claude Max 20x ($200/mo). Even with that subscription added in, the time and money these automations save comfortably outweighs the cost for most owners — often within the first couple of weeks.

What if I don't already use some of the connected tools, like Slack?

No problem. If an automation needs something you don't have yet — team chat is the most common example — you can add a free option (like a free Slack workspace) right inside Cowork in a couple of minutes. The setup guide tells you exactly which connections each automation needs and walks you through adding them, step by step.

Become the Preschool Professional.

Join the mailing list and be first to hear about every new drop, tool, and update — new center bundles, wizard upgrades, and fresh automations. It’s free, and the form takes 30 seconds.

Join the Mailing List

Or visit Mrs. Bear's ECE Den for books, music & more →