In every homeschool group that I am in, I see the same types of questions being asked. Parents are worried about how to keep records of their child’s progress. There are varying requirements by each state, and so many ways to maintain these records. Making this process easy is the goal of variety. One such example of this is a product that I was recently given the opportunity to review. The Annual Membership Plan from My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping is a product that I was anxious to try out.
About the Product
My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping goals are to provide organization for the homeschool family, and to track the students progress. Helping moms (and dads) stay on top of the demands of lessons, record keeping, and daily life. It has received the 1st Place award of the Practical Homeschooling’s i-Learn Award for best homeschool planner.
In order to utilize the product, the parent/teacher sets up their membership and then adds their students. Students can even be given their own access. Tools that are designed to execute these goals are as follows:
The Calendar: This customizable feature allows you the ability to color coordinate students or categories for visual organization. Doctor’s appointments, activity schedules, and lessons can all be added to the calendar. The calendar can be viewed on any device with an internet connection, or allows it to be printed, which allows the user to have constant access. Another feature of the calendar is that you can choose to have it emailed to the user either daily or weekly.
The Planbook: This is akin to the paper plan book that teachers have used for decades. However, this electronic version allows you the ability to create, alter, reschedule lessons or mark them complete. It shows you what items are due, coming up, or are already overdue.
REPORTS: This feature allows you the ability to create and print report cards, transcripts, lesson plans, attendance.
The Teacher’s Aid: The alerts show you what is needed to be done. For example, if a child received an award, or if they need more practice on a specific skill. The Teacher’s Aid can also email you the daily or weekly lessons.
For a virtual tour of My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping click the image below.
The cost of the Annual Membership Plan is $50, however, there is a $5 monthly plan available as well, and is used for the entire family, regardless of size.
What Did We Think?
Full Disclaimer: We used this product during the summer when I did not have a lot of core subjects or many activities to place in the calendar. I used it as much as I possibly could, and was able to use all functions of the product.
Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this product. I can see the potential there and some of the features are amazing. For example, emailing the tasks to the student is a benefit when the student is old enough for their learning to be more self-sufficient. However, at this point in my homeschooling career, this is not a feature that I found particularly useful.
I found that it was time consuming to create the electronic lesson plans. I am more of a paper-pencil planner. All three of my children are in the same classes for several subjects, yet I couldn’t figure out a way to group them together to share lesson plans without having copy the lessons.
The video tutorials were user friendly, I just feel like there weren’t enough. I had a hard time setting up lesson plans, and I am proficient at computer usage. I feel like someone with a limited technology background would struggle. There were help option under each area for users to access.
I did like that more than my children’s educational lives could be tracked in the calendar. I could insert sports, doctor’s appointments, etc. into the calendar and have access to it at any point through my phone.
The reports feature was the best part of this product. The reports generated were extremely professional looking, however, at this stage in my children’s learning I am unable to use transcripts. My only need is for attendance and grades.
Follow Up:
If you would like to learn more about My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping you can follow them on the following social media platforms:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MySchoolYearWeb
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MySchoolYear
If you would like to read what other members of the Review Crew thought about My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping, click the banner below.
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