How it works
How Sustenance works.
You record real learning as it happens. Sustenance turns those notes into a report your home education assessor can read. The child never has to touch it.
A drop at a time.
01Who does the logging?
You do. The parent is the recorder. The child never touches the log.
A sceptical observer once put it to me like this: “If the child won’t engage with worksheets, how can they engage with a logging app?” It’s a fair question, and it rests on a wrong assumption. The child isn’t the one logging. You are.
There is nothing for the child to fill in, no prompt for them to answer, no streak for them to keep. You write down what you already noticed — the conversation in the car, the thing they built, the question they wouldn’t let go of. The app is for you.
02Why parent-recorded evidence counts
Parent observation has always been how home education is assessed. This isn’t a workaround. It’s the normal way.
It’s how school works too. A school report is the teacher’s record of what a student did, not something the student wrote about themselves. The adult who was there describes the learning. At home, that adult is you.
A home education assessor wants to see that learning is happening. They don’t need it to look like school, and they don’t need the child to perform on demand. They need a credible, specific account from the person who watches it every day.
In my own AEARS reviews (Tusla’s Alternative Education Assessment and Registration Service), that is exactly what was wanted: a specific account of what actually happened, in our own words.
03The rest of it
A moment is a few lines of text, tagged to a focus area, with the date it happened. When a review approaches, Sustenance gathers what you’ve logged into a report, grouped by focus area, with the dates intact.
How the log works, the eight focus areas, and how a report gets made are covered in full on the homepage.
04What the child’s side is, and isn’t
Sustenance also has an optional space for the child: a low-demand environment for life skills and self-chosen topics, with a companion creature. No streaks, no scores, no demand-loaded prompts.
It works entirely on its own, and so does the log. A family can use only the parent log and never open the child side. The log does not depend on the child doing anything.
If the child does use it, what they do can flow into your log as a draft you review before it counts — never automatically, never as surveillance. Only structured signals cross over; conversations and behaviour never do.
Frequently asked questions
- Who does the logging — the parent or the child?
- The parent. The child never touches the log. You record what you already notice — a conversation, a trip, a problem worked through — and Sustenance shapes those notes into a report.
- Does the child have to use the app?
- No. The log works completely on its own. The child's side is a separate, optional space — a family can use only the parent log and never open the child side at all.
- Is parent-recorded evidence enough for a home education review?
- Yes. Parent observation is how home education has always been assessed. Home education assessors expect the parent to describe what the child does — the same way a school report is the teacher's record of a student, not the student's own.
- What if learning doesn't happen on a schedule?
- That is the point. You log real moments as they happen, in any order, on any day. There is no timetable to fill in and nothing to retrofit the week before a review.
Be part of the early audience.
Sustenance is in active development. Join the list to hear as the app takes shape and get first access when it opens.