Explanation
Why documentation is the assessment
There are no child scores anywhere in Yearkeep. Photos, quotes, observations, ladders, and reviews are the record, and the record is the yearbook.
Search the product for a percentage about the child and you will not find one. This is a design rule, not an omission.
Scores change adults#
Once a number exists, adults optimise for it. A three-year-old's morning becomes practice for the measure. Documentation does the opposite: an adult who has to write one sentence about what the child did has to look at the child.
What the record is#
- A photo of the work, tagged with the block, the project, and the author.
- A quote in the language it was said.
- A one-line observation, optionally tagged with a domain.
- A ladder move: which rung, who moved it, who confirmed it.
- A review: what was noticed, what was decided.
Every one of these carries author, time, block, and language automatically, so the record sorts itself by month, project, domain, and language. Month pages assemble from it. Project panels fill from it. The yearbook is it.
What "progress" means here#
Progress screens are read-outs of the record. The dashboard shows minutes and counts about the adults' plan, tappable through to the entries. Ladders are five rungs with a marker, never a percentage. Domain outcomes are marked emerging or secure with linked evidence. Habit health measures the adults, and says so.
Where the product does look for problems#
Monthly checks look for the few things that matter: word combinations by two and a half, pretend play by three, sleep, language share, vocabulary growth. Their wording is deliberately non-diagnostic ("worth a look", "no rush"), automatic checks never go past "noticing", and each offers to adjust the plan, export a one-page evidence sheet for a paediatrician, or dismiss with a note. That is the assessment doing its job: making a conversation better, not replacing it.
The birthday#
Once a year the record becomes a book, and the book becomes next year's plan: the birthday review summarises interests, under-served domains, ladders, vocabulary, classes, and trips, proposes the roadmap, records the child's own words, and exports the yearbook.