Use Your HomeTrail Home Screen

Follow these steps on the HomeTrail website, including in a phone browser. The parent app may have different screens and controls depending on your installed version.

Home brings your family’s recurring learning, useful next actions, setup, and product help together. It is designed to help you decide what to do next and manage the details that shape the rest of HomeTrail.

Add a student or update their details

1. Open Home and find the students in Your family rhythm.
2. Select Add student. On a phone browser, use the dashed Add circle in the student row.
3. Enter their First name or nickname, choose their Grade, and review Attendance criteria.
4. Select Add student.

To update an existing student, select them in the same list, change their details, then select Save student. A grade change has its own Update grade button and confirmation. Adding and updating students is included with HomeTrail Free.

See Add or Update a Student in HomeTrail for the full steps.

Add, rename, or remove subjects

1. In Your family rhythm, select Subjects. On a smaller screen, open a recurring activity or Add to your rhythm, then select Edit subjects or Add subjects.
2. Select New subject, enter its Name, and select Save subject.
3. To rename a subject, select Edit beside it, change its name, and select Save subject.
4. To remove a subject, select Edit, review where it is used, then select Delete and confirm.

Renaming updates the label wherever it is used. Deleting removes the subject label while keeping the activities themselves. Managing subjects is included with HomeTrail Free.

Set up a new school year

1. In Your family rhythm, find This year and select School year.
2. Choose Currently homeschooling, Planning to start, or Between school years. Add an expected start date when useful.
3. Choose Set start and end dates and enter First day and Last day, or choose We learn year-round.
4. Select Save school year.

School-year dates do not change student grades or erase earlier records. When a student is ready for a new grade, open their details on Home, choose the Grade, then select Update grade and confirm. Review their Attendance criteria and select Save student if you change it.

Your recurring activities stay saved. Review their weekdays and any start or end dates so they fit the new year. Use Breaks for holidays or time off.

See Set School-Year Dates and Attendance Goals and Start a New School Year or Change a Student's Grade.

Review your family rhythm

Your family rhythm shows the activities your family expects to return to during a typical week.

1. Open Home.
2. Use Everyone to see activities grouped by name, or choose a student to see only their rhythm.
3. Select an activity to adjust its students, days, description, or date range.
4. Select Add to your rhythm. This editor is for curriculum, classes, routines, and other activities that repeat.
5. Choose a subject when it helps organize the activity. Broad labels such as Math and Science belong here. Select Edit subjects or Add subjects, then New subject, when you need a new one; you can also rename or delete subjects from the same panel.
6. Search for the specific curriculum or activity that repeats, such as Math-U-See, multiplication practice, or morning read-aloud.
7. Choose one of Your activities or a source under Curriculum & resources. Public catalog matches appear once per source, even when several activities matched your search.
8. Select Add “…” as a new activity when it is not listed. HomeTrail hides this option when your text already matches a result, even if capitalization is different.
9. Add an optional description, then choose its days and students. New activities start with Monday through Friday selected.
10. Leave the activity Ongoing, or choose Set start & end dates when it only applies during part of the year.
11. Select Save to my rhythm. Nothing is added until you save.

For a one-time lesson, field trip, or event, select Add it in Planner at the bottom of the Rhythm editor.

The check on each day and student shows what is selected. All seven selected days mean the activity appears every day. Turn off any days when you want to limit when it appears.

Catalog matches show their public source when one is available. An activity you add as your own stays associated with your family without displaying your family name as a source.

Rhythm items appear on the applicable days in Today and Planner without creating completed learning records ahead of time. HomeTrail saves the dated record when you mark the activity complete.

Material creation stays in Create instead of the Rhythm editor. With Plus, choose a format and make one shared draft, then use Review & finish to choose the children and day and Prepare their copies. Open each child's copy on the web, add it to their plan, or send it to Nest. Preparing copies does not add them to the plan or Nest; sending to Nest also adds them to the plan. Worksheets and other printable materials need no child selection; audio and video QR cards need prepared child copies first. For the full flow, see Add Materials to a Planned Session.

The family panel also lets you update students, grown-ups, school-year dates, breaks, location, teaching style, projects, portfolios, subjects, grading, and your HomeTrail Page. Use Your why for the reason your family returns to on hard days, and What we are focused on right now for the shorter-term goal that matters this season. Some options are included with HomeTrail Plus; you can still open them to see what the feature does before deciding whether to upgrade.

Select a student to edit their first name or nickname, attendance criteria, interests, current challenges, and notes. Grade changes use a separate Update grade action because the current-grade attendance and report views change; earlier records remain with the grade where they were recorded.

Review check-ins and weekly reports

Use Review & reminders below your Rhythm when you want to manage text check-ins or the weekly progress report. Select Manage here, turn each message or report on or off, choose its timing when available, then save that setting without leaving Home.

Open records and progress

Use Records & progress for a stable path to three ways of seeing what your completed learning has built:

• Reports summarize recorded learning details.
• Portfolios collect work that is worth keeping or sharing.
• Journey shows learning and progress over time.

In Reports, select Generate report to make a progress report, a grade report when grading is enabled, or a year-end report without leaving Home. Follow its status in the list, then select Open or Download CSV when ready. See Generate and use reports for report choices and date settings.

When your family has records, Home also charts days logged this grade, hours outdoors by month, and completed learning by subject. Until then, this section explains what to record first.

Find something in Discover

Select Discover beside Page in Your family rhythm to search curriculum, classes, outings, and other resources without leaving Home. Browse a category or search for something specific, open More filters when you need them, and select Add to rhythm when a source fits your family.

Choose a useful next step

Under Useful next steps, browse the cards and select one to review what it will do before continuing.

Many actions can be completed in the Home modal. When another HomeTrail area is better suited to the task, the modal explains the next step before taking you there. The cards change order from day to day so useful tools do not stay buried in the same place.

Learn from the Toolkit

Use Your HomeTrail Toolkit when you want a walkthrough instead of taking an immediate action. Select How it works on a feature card to read the overview and, when available, watch its web or app tutorial before opening the feature.

The Quick setup row shows which parts of HomeTrail are ready and which still need attention.

See what HomeTrail is working on

The Updates bell in the header keeps one running list of what HomeTrail is doing for your family, such as a material that is being made, ready to review, or needs another try. Select an entry to open it. A number on the bell shows how many entries you have not looked at yet, and Mark all read clears it.

Ask HomeTrail a question

Use Ask in the HomeTrail header when you have one specific question about using HomeTrail. It streams one independent answer grounded in the Help Center and your family’s setup; it is not an ongoing conversation.

1. Select Ask.
2. Enter a specific product question, such as “How do I add a school break?”
3. Select Ask HomeTrail.
4. Review the answer and any linked Help Center sources.
5. Choose Yes or Not quite so future answers can improve, or select Ask another question to clear that answer and start fresh.

Ask HomeTrail uses the published Help Center and relevant details from your current family setup to make the answer more useful. It is for HomeTrail product guidance, not emergency, legal, medical, or personal counseling. If the answer cannot help—or you choose Not quite—you can send the question to the HomeTrail team for follow-up.