Packs are student-facing learning cards that HomeTrail creates for Nest. They can be one-time cards or recurring cards connected to a student's schedule.
To attach a worksheet or reading to a planned Planner or Day Session instead, see Add Materials to a Planned Session.
Depending on the pack type, a card may include:
- Math worksheets, handwriting worksheets, and coloring pages
- Word searches or crosswords
- Quizzes
- Educational videos or articles
- Fun facts, sports recaps, and other learning prompts
- Explainers that teach one idea in plain language, with or without a source
Ask TrailGuide for a pack
Text TrailGuide to ask for a Word of the Day, Activities & Projects, or Subject Worksheets. These options are separate from Create Materials. Name your child and what you would like, such as “Make a Word of the Day for Avery.” On the website, Plus Hub → Nest shows TrailGuide settings beside these options if you need to connect your phone.
Name the student, topic, and timing:
- “Make Avery a fractions worksheet for today.”
- “Make Avery a print handwriting sheet where she copies one sentence and draws a picture.”
- “Create Jordan a word search about rainforest animals.”
- “Make Jordan sight word flashcards with said, where, because, and could.”
- “Make Avery a simple coloring page of friendly dinosaurs exploring space.”
- “Find an educational video about the water cycle for Avery.”
For a math worksheet, name one specific skill, such as subtraction facts, two-digit addition, multiplication facts, telling time, or fractions. TrailGuide translates the request into a supported worksheet type and settings. Some worksheet types offer extra controls, such as required regrouping for two-digit addition or a minimum and maximum count for counting worksheets. You can also choose factors for multiplication practice or ask for analog clocks, a specific time interval, and multiple-choice answers on telling-time worksheets. If part of the request is unsupported, TrailGuide asks you to choose from the available options instead of silently changing the worksheet.
The worksheet type is authoritative. Free-form prompts and custom instructions cannot replace it or change the math content, and visual themes affect presentation only. To change the math, ask TrailGuide for a different supported type or setting.
When you ask TrailGuide for a math worksheet without naming a skill, it checks your student's last math worksheet. If it was in the last two weeks, TrailGuide asks how it went. Still tricky keeps the same skill and adds a worked example, About right keeps the same skill, and Easy moves to the next skill in Compass. The question names that next skill. When Compass has no next skill with a worksheet, Easy keeps the skill and leaves out the worked example. If the last worksheet is older, your student may have moved on, so TrailGuide asks what this one should practice instead: the same skill again, the next skill, or You pick. Either way, you can reply with what your student is working on now, such as "we're doing subtraction now", and TrailGuide makes that worksheet. When you name a skill this way, Compass keeps it as where your student is now, so later suggestions start there. If you already said "harder", "easier", or "same skill", or answered within the last three days, TrailGuide skips the question. With no recent worksheet, Compass picks a starting point without asking.
Ask for a Handwriting Worksheet for the full handwriting progression. Worksheet Type options include Pre-Writing Strokes, Pre-Writing Shapes, lowercase or uppercase letter formation, letter families, numbers, name writing, print words and sentences, and cursive warmups, letters, joins, words, or Cursive Sentences. Each type shows only the settings it supports. Print worksheets can include tracing, copying, independent lines, and an optional drawing box. Cursive worksheet types use Compass Handwriting to select and generate joined letterforms.
For Sight Words, list the words you want on the cards, or name a Dolch list: Pre-Primer, Primer, First Grade, Second Grade, or Third Grade. You can choose 5, 10, 15, or 20 cards. Your student sees one card at a time, reads the word, flips the card to spell it and hear it, then taps I read it or Practice again. Words they miss come back at the end of the stack for another try, and printed cards come out large enough to cut apart.
Each new stack builds on the last one. Words your student missed come first, then words they haven't seen yet. A word they read on the first try in two stacks in a row rests until the rest of the list has had a turn.
When you ask TrailGuide for sight words without naming words or a list, it asks one question first. If your student used Sight Words in the last two weeks, it asks how the last stack went: Still tricky repeats the same words, Mostly got them keeps reviewing the same list, and Easy moves to the next list. If the last stack is older, your student may have moved on, so TrailGuide asks where this stack should start instead: the same list again, the next list, or Just starting. Either way, you can reply with what your student is working on now. The first time, it asks where your student is with sight words instead. Answers about where your student is now are kept in Compass, so later suggestions start there. Reply with the number or a word such as "easy". If you already said "harder", "review the misses", or "same words", TrailGuide skips the question. If you answered within the last three days, TrailGuide reuses that answer and says so.
For letters, ask for letter cards, such as “Make Avery lowercase letter cards for b, d, p, and q.” Your child says the letter's name, flips the card to see its sound and a picture word, then taps I knew it or Practice again. Naming letters gives you those exact letters. Leave the letters out for a stack of 10 drawn from the alphabet, or ask for 26 cards to practice the whole alphabet. Cards show uppercase letters unless you ask for lowercase, or for both together, like Bb.
Letters appear in mixed order. When your child finishes a stack, later stacks drawn from the alphabet bring back letters that needed practice first.
Choose letter cards on the website
- Open Create Materials and choose Sight word & letter flashcards.
- Choose Letters in the first Cards menu.
- Enter the letters you want in Which words or letters? (optional), or leave it blank to draw from the alphabet.
- Choose Letter Case and the number of cards. Choose 26 cards for the whole alphabet when you have left the letters blank.
- Select Create now, then review the cards before sharing them with your child.
For Multiplication Tables, name a family such as "the 7s", or let TrailGuide choose. Your student flips each fact card and taps I knew it or Missed it. When you ask without naming a family and your student practiced one in the last two weeks, TrailGuide asks how it went: Still tricky and Mostly got them keep the same family, and Easy moves to the next family, which the question names. If the last practice is older, TrailGuide asks which family to do now instead. You can always reply with the family your student is working on now, and Compass keeps it as where your student is now. If you said "next family" or "same family", or answered within the last three days, TrailGuide skips the question. The first time, it picks a family without asking.
For a Newsworthy pack, HomeTrail checks that Reader can open every article before the card is marked ready. TrailGuide first confirms that generation was queued, then sends either the finished preview or a message explaining that the article could not be opened. Send a different article link or try again later when that happens.
For a coloring page, describe an original scene or theme and optionally choose a simple, balanced, or detailed layout. HomeTrail generates one portrait page. Students can color it in Nest with the palette, brush, eraser, undo, and clear tools, or use the page as a printable activity. Avoid including private personal details in the theme sent for image generation.
For the complete coloring and full-page printing workflow, see Creating and Printing Coloring Pages.
Make a pack in HomeTrail
- On the website, choose Create Materials in the HomeTrail header, or open Plus Hub → Nest and choose Create beside a format that offers it.
- Pick the material format and enter the topic or details. For a math worksheet, select Check this worksheet idea, then review the supported skill and settings. For a handwriting worksheet, choose the developmental worksheet type and its strokes, letters, words, or sentences.
- Select Create now to make one shared draft. You can close Create and follow its progress from the Updates bell.
- When it is ready, Review & finish opens. Preview it and use Tailor it if that format supports changes.
- Choose the children and day, then select Prepare their copies. This prepares a copy for each child without adding it to the plan or Nest.
- Select Send to Nest on each child's card. This adds the copy to both the Nest Student App and that child's HomeTrail plan.
Everyone selected receives the same material, with answers, completion, and feedback tracked separately. Each child's card also offers Open on the web, Copy link, and Add to plan. Reopening the material restores the prepared child copies. Worksheets and other printable materials can be printed without choosing a child; web use and printed audio or video QR cards require a prepared child copy. For the full review, delivery, and private-link instructions, see Add Materials to a Planned Session.
Your family can make up to 20 on-demand materials a day with paid Plus, or 5 during a trial. Create, TrailGuide, mobile requests, and Tailor it revisions share this limit. Sending copies to more students does not use additional generations, and recurring scheduled packs do not count. The limit resets at midnight in your family's time zone.
In the HomeTrail app, tap the ... button, then Create materials, and follow the same steps. To make a Nest pack for one child, open Plus Hub → Nest, tap a pack, tap Generate beside the child, then tap Generate Pack.
Recurring pack types such as Weather, Patrol, and Sports Recap run on a schedule instead. Set those up under Plus Hub → Nest.
Compass uses the selected worksheet type and validated settings as the generation contract. For Recommended, it chooses a grade- and curriculum-appropriate starting point. The finished worksheet determines the saved title and skill, so those labels describe what was actually generated. Review AI-generated work and answer guides before relying on them.
For multiple-choice quizzes, HomeTrail independently mixes the four choices for every question so the correct answers do not follow a generated letter sequence. Once a quiz is saved, its choice order stays fixed so student answers and the Grown-up Guide remain aligned. True/false choices remain unchanged.
The same worksheet controls appear when you add or edit a recurring math or handwriting worksheet pack. Changing Worksheet Type clears settings that do not apply to the newly selected type. If an older schedule uses a legacy worksheet type that is no longer offered for new schedules, HomeTrail keeps that existing type unless you choose a current one and save.
Grown-up Guides
HomeTrail creates a parent-only Grown-up Guide when a quiz or math worksheet has reliable structured answers. In the HomeTrail app, tap Answer key on the material or on the pack in Plus Hub → Nest. In Nest, choose Grown-up Guide and enter the parental PIN.
The guide is excluded from normal student pack data and public previews. Packs without reliable structured answers do not show this option.
