Read this first — five minutes now saves confusion later.
HOMEROOM is built around one core idea: everything connects to your kids. Instead of separate trackers for attendance, subjects, goals, and chores, every piece of information links back to each child's own profile in the Students database. That's why, when you open a student's page, you'll see their attendance count, active goals, and subjects tracked — all filled in automatically, without you doing any extra math.
Go to the Students database and delete the two sample profiles (Maya and Ethan) — or just edit them with your own kids' names, ages, and grade levels. Add one row per child. This is the only "setup" step that matters before you start using the system day to day.
Each day (or each week, whatever fits your rhythm), add a new entry to Attendance, choose which student it's for, mark Present/Absent/Half-Day/Excused, and log hours if your state or co-op requires it. Because this links to the Students database, your "Days Present" count per kid updates automatically — you never have to add it up by hand.
In Subjects & Curriculum, add a row for each subject each child is working through, note the curriculum you're using, and update the Progress field as the term goes on. This is what lets you glance at one page and see exactly where every kid stands across every subject.
In Goals, add goals per child — academic, personal, behavioral, or life skills. You don't need many at once; 2-3 active goals per kid is plenty. Update the status as they progress.
Daily Routines is meant to be set up once and reused, not rebuilt every day. Add your morning, midday, afternoon, and evening steps, tag which days each one applies to, and just check "Done Today" as your family moves through the day. If you want a running history instead of resetting checkboxes, duplicate this page weekly.