Families 2 gives you one clear place to follow your child’s learning, understand their goals and stay connected with their educators.
💡 This article describes Families 2, the updated family experience. If the app on your phone doesn't match what you see here, your centre is still on Families 1 — that's set by your service, not something you can change yourself. Every service moves to Families 2 on 24 August 2026, so you'll see this experience by then whatever your centre does in the meantime.
Mana makes it easy to:
See learning in action – receive documents, photos and updates from your child’s service.
Stay connected – discuss shared documents and keep in touch with your child’s educators.
Continue learning at home – explore practical ideas linked to your child’s goals and share special moments from home.
You will need an invitation from your child’s service, access to the email address that was invited, an internet connection, and the Mana app on your phone or tablet if you are using Mana on mobile.
Before you get started
Create or sign in to Mana using the same email address that received the invitation.
⚠️ Using a different email address will prevent you from seeing your child. If the wrong address was invited, ask your child’s service to send a new invitation to your preferred email address.
During onboarding, you can choose your document language and notifications. Sue can also guide you through All About Me, where you can share your child’s interests, routines, culture and goals with their educators.
How to get started with Families 2
1. Explore your new “Home”
Home shows documents and photos shared by your service in date order, so it is easy to see the latest moments from your child’s day.
Use the filters at the top of Home to focus on one child or to view updates created by your service or your family.
2. Follow your child’s “Goals”
Goals show the learning priorities your child’s educators are currently working on. They help you understand what your child is learning and how their experiences at the service connect to their development.
3. Explore “Try at Home” ideas
Try at Home ideas are linked to your child’s goals and designed to be practical for your family. Each one is generated by Mana and shows the date it was created. If a goal has no ideas yet, you can select Ask Sue for ideas.
Select Save idea on any idea to keep it. Saved ideas live behind the bookmark icon at the top of Goals, under Saved Try at Home. Open one to see why it helps, and try it whenever it suits your family.
4. Share a special moment with “Add a memory”
After trying an activity, select Add a memory to share a photo and a short note about what you noticed.
Your contribution appears in the Family Input stage of your child’s Journey, helping educators include family knowledge in future planning.
5. Stay connected through “Chat”
Each child has one dedicated chat shared by their associated family members and educators. Alongside it you may see channels for your child’s room and for the whole centre — those are for reading updates rather than replying.
When you select Discuss on a document from Home, Mana adds that document to the same chat so everyone has the right context.
💡 Families 2 does not use likes or public comments on documents. Conversations about a document happen in your child’s Chat.
6. Choose your language and notifications
Choose the document language you prefer and which push and email notifications you receive during onboarding, or later in Account.
Your chosen language applies to future documents and Catch ups by default.
💡 Older documents are not changed automatically, but you can open one and translate it whenever you need to. The original document will remain available.
Need more help?
Contact your child’s service first. They can check your invitation, invited email address and account access.
Look for the question mark icon in Mana to chat with the Mana team.
Email us at [email protected].