Homeschool Hub Weekly

02 — Packet architecture

Student packet

Order matters: the student works straight down it.

  1. Recitation drill, read aloud three times, with tick boxes
  2. A one-line banner naming what is graded today and what is unusual about the day
  3. Books and materials needed
  4. The shape of the day — every block with its time, and every break in position
  5. Subject blocks in running order
  6. Estimated total: working time and start-to-finish time
  7. Pacing log — start, key milestones, finish
  8. “Before you say you are finished” checklist
  9. Study pages at the back, removable

Breaks are printed, not improvised

Breaks appear as numbered items in the running order, not as a footnote:

A child who cannot see a break coming experiences the day as unbroken work. This was added because the student asked, more than once, where her breaks were on the paper.

Quote the day honestly

The packet states working time and start-to-finish time. A day described as “about six hours” that actually runs six hours fifty start to finish is an understated day, and the person it misleads is the one being asked to sit through it.

Study pages are physically separate

When a word list is live, the packet ends with study pages that are removable, tagged REMOVE BEFORE ANY TEST on test days.

This is not tidiness. The home teacher signs a statement each grading period that graded work was completed “without any assistance or study materials.” A word list stapled into the same packet as the test puts the answers on the desk and makes that signature false.

Answer keys never appear in the student packet. They are generated as separate files.

Supervisor sheet

Bilingual throughout — every line, note and warning in both languages. Ordered by when the work happens, not by subject:

Block Contents
Time log Estimate, then blanks for start, finish, total breaks
Before she starts Materials, pull the study pages, tear out the test, lock the rest away
Graded today Only items producing a recorded grade, each with a score box
Check, do not grade Everything marked but not recorded
Be in the room Tests, timed work, recitations
Record and file Where the number goes, what ships, what stays
End of day Initial boxes tied to the verification statement

The Graded today / Check, do not grade split is load-bearing. A supervisor who cannot tell them apart will either record something that should not be recorded, or fail to record something that should.

Sizing to the human

Writing space is specified against observed handwriting, not against what fits.

For a ten-year-old with large handwriting:

Element Size
Single-word answer line 10 mm
Definition line, full width 10.5 mm, three per definition
Words per block on a definition page one

A build that succeeds can still produce an unusable sheet. Rasterize and look at it.