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Updates

What's new — a running log of updates, improvements, and fixes.

October 28, 2026
Added

New Writing Center, Friends & Clubs, Lesson Planner Upgrades, Voice Recordings, 20+ New Arcade Games & More!

We've been hard at work adding new features and making improvements across Homeschool Grades. Here's what's new:

📚 For Parents

  • ✍️ New Writing Center – Students write step by step (brainstorm, introduction, body, conclusion) with templates, sentence starters, spell check and "Read it to me", then send it in. You can comment, ask for changes, compare versions, leave voice feedback, set due dates, link it to a lesson, and print a report. (Pro and Plus plans)
  • 🗓️ Lesson Planner Upgrades:
  • A Past Due panel.
  • One card for a lesson several children share.
  • Start and end times, and more than one link per lesson.
  • Your own files on lessons.
  • More than one curriculum in a subject.
  • Undo for "Sick day? Move lessons".
  • Copy lessons to another child, or move a day and everything after it.
  • Quizzes, tests and assignments now create their grade entry for you.
  • 🃏 Flash Cards on Lessons – Attach a flash card set to a lesson, and your student gets a Study flash cards button right on it.
  • 🔒 Private Lesson Notes – Keep notes on any lesson that only you can see, with quick-add phrases. All of them are gathered in a new tab in the Document Vault.
  • 🎙️ Voice Recordings – Give spoken feedback on lessons and quizzes, add lesson audio, and send voice messages to your students. They can record their answers too. Find every recording on one page.
  • 📄 Reports Overhaul:
  • Pick reports from little previews.
  • A modern report card and diploma.
  • Saved report-card comments, and your school logo on reports.
  • New printable reports for chores, supplies, compliance, college prep, flash cards and quizzes.
  • 📝 Quizzes & Grades:
  • Print quizzes on paper, with an answer key and a named copy for each child.
  • Import questions from a file, or build a quiz from flash cards.
  • A bulk grade manager across subjects.
  • A "Today" view in Grades.
  • ✅ Attendance:
  • A bulk attendance manager and CSV import.
  • Extra school days for weekend field trips or make-up days.
  • A "standard school day" setting, such as 6.5 hours counted as present.
  • 🧹 Chores by Time of Day – Group chores into Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Anytime, drag them into order, and print a Daily List.
  • ⭐ Behavior Tracking – Log behavior with one tap, and let good behavior earn points.
  • 📂 Uploaded Files & Alerts – See all your students' uploaded work in one place, and get an email when they upload, straight away or once a day.
  • 🙋 Help Assistant & My Feedback – Ask "where is…?" on any page and get an answer. Your suggestions and our replies now appear on a My Feedback page.
  • 👥 Plus Plan & Easier Billing – A new Plus plan for up to 20 students. You can now update your payment method yourself.

🎒 For Students

  • 🏠 New Student Pages:
  • My Calendar, My Study Plan and Catch Up for past-due work.
  • My Grades: kids enter scores and you confirm them.
  • My Notebook, with formatting and spell check.
  • A World Map town to explore.
  • 📖 Reading Time – Set a daily reading goal. Students use a timer or tap "I read today".
  • 📚 Story Shop – Kids write stories for other kids to read. An adult checks each one first, and stories now carry age ratings.
  • 🐾 Pets, Characters & Houses – Spend chore points on pets, a character, a house and a garage. Swap pets and send pet gifts to friends.
  • 🤝 Redone Friends Page – Visit a friend's house and pets, find friends by exact username, and keep letters from past friends. Parents get a Friend Requests page and an on/off switch for each child.
  • 🏕️ Clubs – Hatch a shared club mascot together, vote in polls, go on a road trip with postcard quizzes, and join club activities.

🎮 Arcade & Minecraft

  • 🕹️ 20+ New Arcade Games:
  • Pixel Paint, Pet Shop Cashier, Fraction Pizza, Word Builder, Flappy Quill, Quill's Quest, Star Patrol, Pit Stop Racer, State Snap and Sky Builder.
  • Timber Island, Makers, Castle Guard, Snowball Arena and Paintball Arena.
  • Board Game Corner, Daily Puzzle and Science Lab.
  • Many of them can be played online with friends.
  • 🏆 Arcade Extras:
  • Easy, Medium and Hard levels.
  • A daily challenge with streaks.
  • A "to practice" list after each game.
  • A Friends & Family leaderboard.
  • A parent "lessons first" lock.
  • Arcade Duel can now be played with friends from other families when both parents allow it.
  • 🎯 Arcade & Minecraft Page for Parents – Each child has their own tab with their spelling words, games played and time spent, with graphs. Add words by pasting a list, uploading a CSV, using the built-in Word Bank or your Flash Cards, or let ✨ Make a list create one for you.
  • ⛏️ Our Own Minecraft Server:
  • Students sign in with their Homeschool Grades username, and earn and see their points in the game.
  • Join from a computer, phone, tablet, Xbox, PlayStation or Switch.
  • Parents set daily time limits and play hours, and an on-screen countdown shows the time left.
  • A daily gift for signing in, and /hsg start to get home when lost.
  • 🏝️ Timber Island Updates:
  • Islands ten times bigger.
  • A bigger pier.
  • Building with stone, iron and gold.
  • A merchant ship that visits every other day.
  • A daily gift box.
  • 🐞 Bug Fixes & Performance Improvements – Lots of smaller fixes to keep everything running smoothly.

Thank you for being part of the Homeschool Grades community! We're constantly working to make homeschooling simpler, more organized, and more enjoyable. Stay tuned—there's even more coming soon!

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