I do a daily report for each child.
If I see parents aren't reading it or a pile starts to accumulate in a backpack then I stop for that particular child and see if the parent mentions anything.
Last week I was second guessing whether I should just keep it simple and save myself the time each nap but then a parent arrived and said how much they look forward to reading the reports every day so I took that as an answer to my unspoken question. The reports are staying.
I remember in our daycare training course that I took - the teacher said to keep a spiral notebook. She said to write a date for each day...write who attended and anything that happened that day that may be noteworthy. She said that some day someone might sue you or accuse you of something 5 years later for molestation or something else. Then you can go back to the book and see what happened that day i.e Today I had a water heater maintenance man here etc. You would not remember that off the top of your head. Or "today Stephanie took a fall off the slide". etc It would also help you see if the child was even in daycare that day etc.
See that's what i think i am going to do. Just a note book with anything pertinent, instead of the paragraph i would write for each child.