If you lead a large childcare center, you already know curriculum planning can quietly become one of the biggest operational drains on your week. Without a pre-built system, planning and prepping curriculum activities is very time consuming, and it often pulls your strongest teachers away from children, coaching, and meaningful family communication.
This page gives you practical criteria to evaluate childcare software that can reduce curriculum prep time while supporting consistent, high-quality learning across classrooms.
The challenge for a large center: Curriculum planning doesn’t scale by memory and binders
In a large childcare center serving 60 or more children, curriculum work gets harder as you add classrooms, age groups, and staff. Common signs you’ve outgrown your current approach include:
- Teachers plan in isolation, so quality and pacing vary by classroom.
- Lesson materials live in multiple places, so staff waste time searching, re-creating, or guessing.
- Directors can’t easily review what’s planned across classrooms, which makes coaching and consistency harder.
- Documentation takes extra time, which increases the risk of gaps during licensing and quality reviews.
- New staff struggle to ramp up because “how we plan here” isn’t written down in one place.
A system that helps you organize and reuse activities can reduce friction without making educators feel boxed in.
Evaluation criteria: What to look for in a curriculum system for a large childcare program
Use the criteria below to compare options, whether you’re considering an all-in-one platform, a curriculum add-on, or a mix of tools.
A clear curriculum framework that still allows flexibility
Look for a structure that helps teachers plan faster, while still adapting to children’s interests and developmental needs. Ask:
- Can staff plan by age group, classroom, theme, or learning domain?
- Can they adjust activities without breaking the whole plan?
- Can you support different classrooms that run different schedules?
A reusable activity library and templates
A pre-built system should reduce “start from scratch” planning. Prioritize tools that help you:
- Save favorite activities, lesson plans, and supply lists for reuse.
- Copy and adapt plans week over week.
- Standardize core activities across classrooms, while allowing room for teacher choice.
Simple planning workflows that teachers will actually use
Even the best content won’t help if planning feels like extra work. Evaluate:
- How many clicks does it take to build a week of activities?
- Can teachers plan on mobile and desktop?
- Can lead teachers share plans with assistants quickly?
If you’re not using software today, prioritize easy implementation and strong customer support. Those two factors matter regardless of your main pain point, because they determine whether your staff adopts the tool or avoids it.
Visibility for directors and administrators
Large centers need oversight without micromanaging. Look for:
- At-a-glance views of what each classroom has planned this week.
- The ability to spot gaps (for example, not enough outdoor play, or limited fine-motor activities).
- Easy ways to support coaching conversations with specific examples.
Documentation that supports quality and compliance
Curriculum planning often connects to documentation requirements. Consider whether the system helps you:
- Keep consistent records of classroom activities.
- Support licensing and quality frameworks with clear, time-stamped documentation.
- Reduce last-minute scrambles when you need to show evidence of learning experiences.
Communication that connects families to learning
Families value seeing what children do each day, but staff can’t spend hours writing updates. Look for tools that:
- Make it simple to share classroom activities with families.
- Keep communication secure.
- Reduce duplicate work for teachers.
Brightwheel reports that 95% of users find it improves communication with families, which matters when you’re aligning classroom learning with family engagement across a large center.
How brightwheel fits into a curriculum planning evaluation
Brightwheel is best known as an all-in-one childcare management solution, and many large childcare centers start evaluating it to streamline operations across the program. Brightwheel’s Experience Curriculum comes with ready-to-use daily lesson plans and hands-on materials delivered to your door — so educators spend less time planning and more time with children.
When you compare options, it can be a strong fit if you want one platform that supports your broader workflows, like communication, visibility, and day-to-day consistency, rather than stitching together disconnected tools.
A few proof points to consider as you evaluate:
- Brightwheel users report saving an average of 20 hours each month on administrative work.
- Ninety percent of preschools using brightwheel report more families pay on time, which can free budget and attention for program quality initiatives.
- Sixty-six percent of teachers prefer working at programs that use brightwheel, which can matter when your large center needs to retain great staff.
Quick checklist: Questions to ask any vendor about curriculum planning
Use these questions in demos and sales calls to compare tools side by side:
- How does the system reduce weekly planning time for teachers?
- What’s included out of the box, and what must we build ourselves?
- Can we reuse plans across classrooms and across years?
- How do directors review plans across the whole large center?
- What training do you provide for new teachers mid-year?
- How does the tool support documentation and secure family communication?
- What does onboarding look like, and how quickly can we roll it out?
See how brightwheel works in real life
If curriculum planning and prep time is the main reason you’re evaluating childcare software, the fastest way to decide is to see how brightwheel works in real life and confirm it matches your large center’s classroom workflows, documentation expectations, and family communication needs. Schedule a personalized demo with a brightwheel specialist and walk through your priorities.
Download a practical evaluation guide you can use with your team
If you’d like a step-by-step resource to support your selection process, A Practical Guide for Selecting Childcare Management Software includes checklists and vendor questions you can share with leadership and staff. It’s a helpful companion to your demos and internal evaluations.
Select the best childcare software that addresses your priorities
Your large childcare center may have other priorities. Learn how to evaluate childcare software that suits your various needs with the following resources:
- Calling Families One-by-One About Billing and Invoices
- Calling Families One-by-One About Check-In and Out
- Collecting Billing and Invoices Manually From Families
- Collecting Enrollment Information Manually From Families
- Collecting Schedules Manually From Families
- Collecting Tuition Payments Manually From Families
- Copying and Pasting Enrollment and Waitlist Between Tools
- Copying and Pasting Reports Between Tools
- Emailing Families Individually About Tuition Payments
- Entering Check-in Information Manually Into a System