Planning your weekly menu

Plan the week’s meals, publish the menu to parents, and have meals filled in when you log them.

Written byDaniel Broadhurst (Founder)|Published: 18 June 2026|
Ofsted Aligned

ℹ️Who this is for

Childminders who plan meals for the week and log them in children's diaries. Needs the Standard plan or a free trial. It takes about ten minutes to plan a week.

Video Walkthrough

Plan your meals once on the weekly menu. When you log a meal in a child's diary, it's filled in for you.

1. Plan a meal

Open the Tools tab and choose Menu Planner. Tap a meal slot, like today's lunch. Choose a meal from your Meal Library, or create your own: enter the Meal Name, its ingredients and steps. Tap Add to Menu.

If a meal's ingredients match a child's recorded allergy, KinderStart warns you.

2. Publish the menu to parents

Tap Publish to Parents. Parents can see the week's menu in their app. If you change a meal, the menu they see updates.

3. Log the meal in the diary

At mealtime, open the Daily Diary, tap the child, and log a meal. Choose the meal, like Lunch. The menu is filled in from today's plan, with a Pre-filled from menu badge. If a dessert is planned with lunch or tea, it's filled in too, and you can record how much of it the child ate.

4. Save

Choose how much the child ate and save. If they had something different, change the text first.

⚠️Allergy warnings don't stop you

If a pre-filled meal matches a child's allergy, you'll see a warning, but you can still save, for example after swapping in a safe alternative. Always check what each child actually ate.

Why KinderStart does it this way

Planning once saves typing the same meal for every child, and parents can see what's on the menu before the week starts.

What to do next

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Track Your Progress
Don't get lost in the paperwork. Use our free interactive checklist to tick off each step as you complete it.

Next guide

Building your recipe library

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KinderStart strives for accuracy. Competitor features and pricing comparisons are based on publicly available information as of May 2026. Details are subject to change by respective providers.

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