By late October, the idea had taken root. I knew what we needed: a digital structure to replace the school bell. But I didn't want to buy an off-the-shelf planner. I wanted to build this myself.
The "After Hours" Project
I have a day job (which I very much need to keep!), so this project had to happen in the margins. For a solid week, once my actual work laptop closed, my personal one opened.
I refused to look at competitors. I didn't want to be influenced by what other people thought a Home Education app should look like. I wanted to build exactly what Ash and Claire needed, nothing more, nothing less. It meant a lot of late nights locked away coding while the house slept, but Claire and Ash understood. They knew I was building a life raft.
Learning the Lingo (The Hard Way)
I almost made a fatal branding error on day one. I proudly titled the project "HomeSchoolHQ".
Thankfully, I quickly remembered my early research. In this community, "School" is a dirty word. If I launched with that name, I’d have virtual cabbages thrown at me before I even started. I quickly scrubbed the name. For now, it was nameless. It was just "The App."
The First "Customer" Launch
The first pass of the new app was... functional. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. It allowed Claire to log in and add lessons, and it gave Ash a view of her day.
The effect was immediate.
- Ash's Morning Routine: She would wake up, grab her phone, and check the list. Just seeing "English, Walk, Minecraft" visualised gave her brain the predictability she craved.
- Claire's Mental Load: The anxiety of "what are we doing today?" evaporated. It was on the screen.
Feature Creep
However, a common voice around software development was raised, one that I was very used to: never give a customer exactly what they asked for, because they will immediately realize they want more.
"This is great," they said. "But wouldn't it be nice if we could tick them off? And wouldn't it be cool if we could move things around? Oh, and can we add pictures?"
I sighed, smiled, and opened my laptop again. The prototype was a hit, but the work was just beginning.
