LearnDesk Help

Install on iPhone or iPad

Install LearnDesk before you set up your homeschool. On iPhone and iPad the Home Screen app keeps its own storage, separate from Safari, and Safari can clear data for websites you haven't used for 7 days.

1. Open your private link from START HERE in Safari (not a private tab).
2. Tap Share. If it isn't in the toolbar, tap ⋯ first.
3. Choose Add to Home Screen (under View More if you don't see it), then Add.
4. Open LearnDesk from your Home Screen and set up your homeschool there.

Chrome on iPhone works the same way: tap Share in the address bar, then Add to Home Screen.

If the Home Screen app shows the LearnDesk product page, paste your private link into the box at the bottom of that page and tap Open LearnDesk.

Install on Android

1. Open your private link from START HERE in Chrome.
2. Tap Chrome's menu ⋮, then Install (it may say Add to Home screen or Install app), then Install again.
3. Open LearnDesk from its icon on your Home screen.

Install on a Windows, Mac or ChromeOS computer

• Chrome or Edge: open your private link, then choose Install in the address bar. LearnDesk opens in its own window and can be pinned to the taskbar or Dock.
• Safari on a Mac: open your private link, then choose File › Add to Dock.
• Firefox: can't install apps. LearnDesk works fully in a normal tab; bookmark it.

Open LearnDesk with your private link

1. Open START HERE.pdf from your Etsy download and tap Open LearnDesk.
2. Use your normal browser, not a private or incognito window: LearnDesk keeps your homeschool in ordinary browser storage.
3. Afterwards LearnDesk opens at learndesk.jykdigital.com without the link. Keep the PDF in case you ever need the link again.

Your link is just for you: please don't share it or post it online.

Set up your homeschool

1. Choose Set up my homeschool.
2. Your school year: give your homeschool a name, then the school year's name, its dates and your usual learning days. Choose Next.
3. Your learners: add each child with their name, grade and colour (Add another learner for the next one). Choose Next.
4. How do you want to start? Choose Create my first plan to turn a curriculum into lessons now, or Skip planning — I'll log learning as we go to start with Today and Quick Log.
5. If you make a plan, follow its steps (see Make a plan) and choose Create plan. LearnDesk opens on Today.

Everything else has a sensible default. Change it later in Settings: subjects, terms and breaks, grading, attendance rules and the backup reminder.

Explore the demo

Choose Explore the demo to try LearnDesk with sample data. Nothing you do there affects your own homeschool. When you're ready, use the banner at the top of the demo to start your own.

Make a plan for a curriculum

A plan is one curriculum or resource in order: Lesson 1, Lesson 2 and so on. LearnDesk remembers where each child is in it; the dates are only a forecast, so a missed day never breaks the order.

1. Open Plan and choose New plan.
2. Basics: a title, a subject and the learners. For two or more children, choose Teach Together (one shared lesson list, each child keeps their own record) or Separate Copy (each child moves at their own pace).
3. Lessons: choose Generate (for example Lesson 1 to Lesson 120), Paste a list (one lesson per line), Import a CSV, or Add later.
4. Schedule: choose when it happens: on set weekdays, every learning day, a number of times a week, every few learning days, a weekly target, in a loop, or with no dates.
5. Check the Review and choose Create plan.

To change lessons later, open the plan and choose Add lessons, or select lessons and choose Edit. Lessons that are done keep their records.

Teach from Today

Today shows the lessons the family does together first, then each child's own work, and anything that needs attention, such as a catch-up or a plan that is behind.

• Done: tap the circle beside a lesson. Its time is filled in from the plan's minutes a lesson, when it has them, and the next lesson moves up.
• More choices: tap ⋯ beside a lesson for Partly done… (the time is kept and the lesson stays current), Skip on purpose or Do next lesson.
• A shared lesson with someone away: open the lesson, set who was there, and choose Mark as happened. The family moves on; the child who was away keeps it as a catch-up.
• A simpler view: switch a child between Full day and Now/Next.

Nothing is ever marked overdue. Work that wasn't done stays in order and moves forward.

Repair a sick day or a week off with Adjust Plan

1. On Today or Week, choose Adjust Plan (or Adjust Plan… from a child's ⋯ menu).
2. Under What changed, choose a lesson, a plan, one child's day, the family's day, or a range of dates. Then choose who and when, and a Reason such as Sick.
3. Choose how the plan responds. Carry forward naturally is recommended: the day's flexible work goes back in line and later lessons slide along, in order.
4. Read the Preview: what moves, what stays put, and each plan's new projected finish. Then choose Apply changes.

Fixed commitments such as co-op, and lessons you moved or locked by hand, stay where they are. Changed your mind? Choose Undo in the message that appears, or later from the change history (History in Adjust Plan).

Record learning with Quick Log

For learning that wasn't planned: a library visit, baking, a documentary, a museum trip.

1. Choose Quick Log (the + button on a phone).
2. Choose who it was for, say what happened, and enter how long. Add a subject if you like.
3. Choose Log learning. For more, such as a trip type, an earlier date, photos or several subjects, choose More details first.

One entry counts for every learner you chose: their hours and their attendance for that day. Its photos go into their portfolio, and a field trip also shows in their activities.

Attendance and hours

You don't keep a separate attendance sheet. Each day is suggested from what was recorded for that child: lessons done and Quick Log entries.

• See it in Records, under Attendance and Hours, for each child and school year.
• To set a day yourself, open it under Attendance and choose Change status. Your choice stays until you choose Back to the suggestion.
• How a day is suggested (anything recorded, a number of minutes, or only what you mark) is in Settings, under Attendance and time.

A lesson taught to three children together counts its time once for each child. It is never added up as more hours for one child.

Targets and state starting points

Targets, such as 180 days or 900 hours a year, show how far each child has come. Set your own on the school year's page (Settings, then School years), or start from your state's:

1. Open Settings, then State starting points, and choose your state.
2. Choose the suggested targets and checklist items you want, then Use the ones I selected. Nothing is applied until you choose it, and it never replaces what you already set.

Targets and starting points help you organize. They aren't legal advice and don't certify compliance with any homeschool law. Check your state's current requirements yourself.

High school courses and transcripts

1. In Records, open High school and choose Add course, or make a plan whose tracking is Credit-bearing (a course).
2. On the course's page, link its plans and records. Grades and hours from them add up to a suggested grade.
3. At the end of the year, choose Finalize course with the final grade and credits. The transcript keeps those facts even if a plan changes later; to change them, choose Reopen course.
4. Print the transcript from Reports.

Weighted and unweighted GPA come from the grading scale and level weights in Settings, under Grading.

Student Mode for a child

Student Mode shows one child only their own work, as their whole day or just Now and Next. They can check off what they're allowed to, and use flashcards, words and stars if you turn them on.

1. Optional: in Settings, under Student Mode and this device, set a Family PIN.
2. Open Learners, choose the child, then Open Student Mode (or Open Student Mode from their ⋯ menu on Today).
3. To leave, choose Back to parent view and enter the PIN. Forgot it? Choose Forgot the PIN?: after a short wait the PIN is cleared and nothing else changes. Set a new one in Settings.

On a tablet that belongs to one child, set a PIN, then set This device to that child's learner device: it opens in Student Mode. Student Mode is a focused view, not a security lock.

Print a report or save a PDF

1. Open Reports and choose a report: weekly plans, attendance and hours, a reading log, a report card, a portfolio, an evaluator packet, course descriptions and a transcript.
2. Choose the learner, the school year or dates, and the paper (US Letter or A4). The preview shows the printed page.
3. Choose Print, or Save PDF to keep or send a file.

On iPad and iPhone, choose Save PDF, then print or share the PDF from there: it lays out more reliably than printing the page from Safari. Reports always print light, whatever the app's theme.

Back up your homeschool

1. Open Backup (on a phone, under More) and tap Back up homeschool. The file holds everything, photos and PDF files included.
2. Keep the .learndesk file somewhere safe, such as iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive.
3. Back up again after you make changes. LearnDesk reminds you when it's been a while.

Short on space? Data-only backup makes a smaller file with all your records but without the photos and files themselves. Restored on the same device, it keeps them; on another device they show as not on this device. Make a full backup now and then too.

Anyone with the file can read your homeschool, so keep it private.

Move to a new device or to the installed app

1. On the old device (or in Safari), back up your homeschool.
2. On the new device (or in the installed app), open LearnDesk with your private link.
3. Choose Restore from a backup file and pick the file. LearnDesk checks it and shows what's inside before anything changes.

Want to keep using both devices? Link them instead, and they stay up to date.

Use LearnDesk on more than one device

1. On the device that has your homeschool, open Devices (on a phone, under More) and choose Link another device. The first time, name this device and choose Show a code. A six-digit code appears; it works for 5 minutes.
2. On the other device, open LearnDesk with your private link and choose I already use LearnDesk on another device. If LearnDesk is set up there and not linked yet, open Devices and choose Enter a code instead; linking replaces what that device has.
3. Type the code and choose Link this device (Replace and link on a device that's already set up).
4. On the first device, check the name and choose Approve. The other device opens with your homeschool.
5. From then on, changes made on either device reach the other when both are online.

Your homeschool is encrypted on your devices before it leaves them, and only your linked devices can read it. Nobody can recover it for you, so linking isn't a backup: keep saving a backup file now and then. Photos and PDF files stay on the device that added them; the other devices show that they are elsewhere. To stop, open Devices and choose Stop syncing on this device; the homeschool stays on every device.

I see the LearnDesk product page instead of my homeschool

This browser hasn't been unlocked yet, or its cookies were cleared. Open your private link from START HERE again, or paste it into the box at the bottom of the product page. Your homeschool is still in this browser's storage; opening the link brings it back.

Contact us

Message us on Etsy at JYKDigital. Tell us which device and browser you use. Please never send your backup file or your private link.