Recently, I have had the opportunity to review the Annual Membership Plan from My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping.This is actually the second time I have reviewed My School Year. Three years ago, I had the opportunity to do my first review of My School Year. There were several components to the program that I really liked, but there were other parts of the program that felt burdensome and not as easy to navigate as I and other members of the Homeschool Review Crew would have liked. My School Year took those suggestions and worked very hard to make their online record keeping easier to use.
Upon registration, I noticed some of these upgrades right away. I felt like setting up my students this time was much easier than it had been before. I simply clicked on My Homeschool then Setup and then on Students.
It then opens a new window where +New Student is an option. I then just put their name in, select a favorite color for them and then click on the drop down for show more options. It is under this option that I added birthdates, selected whether or not they would receive notifications from My School Year and if those notifications would be in the form of emails or texts.
The next step I took after setting up my students was to start entering the classes that they are taking this year. Previously, there were two options for setting up the classes in the lesson plan; Quick Split and Rapid Repeat. Quick Split works great when using living books or other books that need to be read or for other material that has a defined time period to be completed. It splits the material up into same size chunks. Rapid Repeat works well for those classes in which they go in numerical lesson order (i.e. Lesson 1, Lesson 2…). Now in addition to the Quick Split and Rapid Repeat there are Advanced Options for both.
I found the Advanced options of both the Quick Split and the Rapid Repeat to be helpful upgrades.
I had to set up a school term for each child. There can be one term if everyone will be attending school on the same days. This was always the case when the kids were smaller. Now that Brock and Adisyn both have part-time jobs, their school days are not the same on the younger kids who are home much more throughout the week. So I decided to set up two school terms. This more accurately represents our family.
Other Components of My School Year
Other useful aspects include the transcripts, report cards, awards etc. that can also be created/recorded through My School Year. It’s hard to believe I will soon be completing Brock’s transcript since this is his senior year. My goodness, time flies!!!
What Do I Think of My School Year?
I certainly feel like they’ve improved their product immensely! There is a learning curve now but not nearly like it was before. I feel like they’ve done a nice job upgrading their product so that it is even more useful than it was previously.
I like that My School Year can be accessed from any internet connected device, including my phone. Often I have just a few minutes while waiting to pick up a child from work, or the dentist or…that I can now use to help get and keep our homeschool and family life organized.
We are just getting started into our “real school year,” while we do review items throughout the summer we don’t do full blown school until fall. My School Year has been a helpful tool as we’ve started back into those full blown school days schedule.
Connect with My School Year on These Social Media Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MySchoolYearWeb
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MySchoolYear
I encourage you to read reviews from other members of the Homeschool Review Crew by clicking on the banner below.
Blessings,
Jennifer
