Hello @amykjones ...
It's not entirely true that there is nothing about creating/setting your home page in Canvas. Canvas allows you to choose what students see when they log in to your course. For example, some instructors want students to see the "Modules" page right away. But other instructors want their students to see a page that the instructor has designed (which may include a "Welcome!" paragraph, images, and other information. If you would like to create a "Welcome" page, you can certainly do that.
I would also like to recommend some really good video tutorials for you which you might find useful:
I hope this information will be of some help to you. Please let Community members know if you have any questions about this...thanks!