Open Plus Hub → Compass to work out a useful next step with TrailGuide. Compass is available with HomeTrail Plus.
Choose a starting point together
- Choose your child under Who are we thinking about?
- Choose Choose a starting point, or describe what you would like help with in Ask TrailGuide.
- Talk through a concrete example with TrailGuide. You do not need to know stage names, and the starting point does not have to match a grade.
- Review the child, learning focus, and amount of support in the proposed choice. Choose Save this choice to confirm it, or Cancel to leave it unsaved.
You can ask questions while reviewing a choice; the same choice stays available to save. To choose something different, select Cancel first. Saving keeps the conversation going. If an unsaved choice expires or changes in another tab, TrailGuide asks you to review it again before saving.
The saved focus appears beside the conversation. Selected, awaiting your confirmation means a starting point has been selected but its setup is unfinished. Confirmed starting point means it is active and available for future Compass-guided work. A starting point is a focus for practice, not a grade, assessment, or claim of mastery.
Choose What should we try? for an activity suggestion, or Adjust the focus when your child needs more support or more challenge. For math, TrailGuide can also offer an optional printable worksheet. Reply yes please to a worksheet offer to see its preview, then choose Create worksheet to request a review draft, or Cancel. Open Updates to follow its progress and return to Review & finish when it is ready. This is where you choose children and delivery; nothing is sent automatically. Suggestions alone do not create materials. Changes to a focus apply to future work; they do not rewrite existing work or erase other learning paths.
Each child has a separate conversation. Switch children with the selector, or choose Start a new conversation to clear that child's conversation and any pending choice. This does not remove the saved learning focus.
See the learning map and imports
Open See learning details and imports below the assistant to see the parent-facing map Compass is building for each student and the existing import controls.
The map may include:
- Active learning path and Domains and progressions
- A current math stage when one is active
- Recent strengths and mastery
- Recent struggles
- Interests
- Preferences
- Student setup signals such as teaching approach and preferred formats
Generated work influence explains how those signals affect new worksheets, packs, and recommendations. A signal can help Compass choose a starting stage, reuse a motivating interest, avoid a format, or add support.
Privacy and control
The map does not display internal IDs, raw confidence scores, answer keys, or private placement notes. Compass insights are not official grades, scores, diagnoses, or assessments.
You remain in control. Review the displayed signals, correct family context through TrailGuide when supported, update student setup, disable Nest access, or delete student information from HomeTrail.
When Compass has not received enough relevant information, the student card says Compass is learning instead of inventing a placement.
Explore what to work on next
Choose Explore what to work on on a child's Compass card. Select a learning area and an idea to see what it involves, connected ideas that may help, and possibilities to explore afterward. You can browse across elementary learning areas without placing your child in a grade or completing a checklist.
Use What did you notice? to record a brief observation. Compass can suggest continuing, adding support, changing the approach, or exploring a connected idea. These suggestions are tentative; one successful attempt does not establish lasting understanding. Different recent results may lead Compass to suggest trying an example together first. Ideas still being researched and purposes excluded from recommendations do not drive automatic suggestions. The map does not set a fixed timeline or require children to follow one sequence.
See recent observations shows your reports. Use Correct to update a report or Remove to stop using it for future suggestions. Older observations remain visible but stop driving current suggestions. Creating or finishing a material does not automatically mark an idea as understood.
TrailGuide can use a limited Compass learning-direction summary identified by the child's AI alias. That summary includes the suggested idea and a brief reason; it excludes raw observation notes and observation identifiers. It remains learning information even though the child's name is omitted.
