My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping {Homeschool Review Crew}
As a homeschool parent, you know that lesson planning and record keeping make up a large part of the journey. The past few weeks, I've been using the Annual Membership Plan from My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping, which is an online homeschool planner and record keeping program.
I used to be a paper planner person, but I've learned the advantages of an online planner. It's always fun to try out a new (to me) digital planner. Does that make me a computer geek?
I will admit, My School Year comes with a bit of a learning curve, which I found somewhat challenging to maneuver through. The video tutorials are definitely a help, and a good idea to watch at the get-go.
The start up process found me setting up a student account for SJ, the school year (terms/semesters), and his classes. There is a list of pre-named subjects; from there you can provide the specific name of the class. For example, the subject is math, the class is accounting.
After that came the tedious task of entering the lessons for each class, using the Create-A-Plan. Fortunately there is a "cheat sheet" which provides the necessary steps in using either Quick Split or Rapid Repeat for entering your lessons. There are also video tutorials.
You'd use the Quick Split to divide up the material into evenly divided lessons, such as a book to be read, or dividing lessons over a specified period of time.
The Rapid Repeat will create a pre-selected number of lessons, such as chores, music practice, or repetitive lessons.
The Planbook displays all of his assignments, and color codes them by past due assignments, current day's assignments, and future assignments. Here you would be able to edit, mark complete lessons that are completed, or grade the day's lessons.
The Calendar can be displayed by month, week, day, or agenda. It gives you and your student a quick glance of each lesson for the day. You have the option of specifying a time for each class, or leave it marked as "all day." I usually don't set a specific time, but now that SJ is working on high school classes, I thought it would be a good way to help keep track of his hours of schooling.
One feature that is handy is the Teacher's Aid. It reminds you of tasks, such as setting up lessons for each class, or entering extra-curricular activities, or listing books your student has read for the year. It even asks if your student has earned any awards for the year.
Another handy feature is that My School Year can be used on mobile devices, such as tablet of phone. I'll admit, I didn't try it out on my phone. But it does seem like it would be handy to use. Imagine entering lesson plans, or student's activities, etc., while sitting in the waiting room while your child is in therapy, or something like that.
Yet another handy feature is that your student's lessons can be emailed to you, and your student, each day. I couldn't figure out how to get it to email to my son, but it did email to me, so I would just forward the email on to him.
I had hoped I'd be able to make accounts for my daughter and me, to keep track of our work schedules, her endocrinologist appointments, etc., but it seems you can only enter students in grades K-12. It would be handy if it left a blank box for grade level, so other family members outside the K-12 grade range could be included as well.
As you know, there were several other Crew families who reviewed My School Year, so be sure to click the banner below to read the other reviews.
Connect with My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping via social media:
Twitter
YouTube
To make sure you don't miss anything, subscribe to Life on Chickadee Lane, or Follow my blog with Bloglovin.
I used to be a paper planner person, but I've learned the advantages of an online planner. It's always fun to try out a new (to me) digital planner. Does that make me a computer geek?
I will admit, My School Year comes with a bit of a learning curve, which I found somewhat challenging to maneuver through. The video tutorials are definitely a help, and a good idea to watch at the get-go.
The start up process found me setting up a student account for SJ, the school year (terms/semesters), and his classes. There is a list of pre-named subjects; from there you can provide the specific name of the class. For example, the subject is math, the class is accounting.
After that came the tedious task of entering the lessons for each class, using the Create-A-Plan. Fortunately there is a "cheat sheet" which provides the necessary steps in using either Quick Split or Rapid Repeat for entering your lessons. There are also video tutorials.
You'd use the Quick Split to divide up the material into evenly divided lessons, such as a book to be read, or dividing lessons over a specified period of time.
The Rapid Repeat will create a pre-selected number of lessons, such as chores, music practice, or repetitive lessons.
The Planbook displays all of his assignments, and color codes them by past due assignments, current day's assignments, and future assignments. Here you would be able to edit, mark complete lessons that are completed, or grade the day's lessons.
The Calendar can be displayed by month, week, day, or agenda. It gives you and your student a quick glance of each lesson for the day. You have the option of specifying a time for each class, or leave it marked as "all day." I usually don't set a specific time, but now that SJ is working on high school classes, I thought it would be a good way to help keep track of his hours of schooling.
One feature that is handy is the Teacher's Aid. It reminds you of tasks, such as setting up lessons for each class, or entering extra-curricular activities, or listing books your student has read for the year. It even asks if your student has earned any awards for the year.
Another handy feature is that My School Year can be used on mobile devices, such as tablet of phone. I'll admit, I didn't try it out on my phone. But it does seem like it would be handy to use. Imagine entering lesson plans, or student's activities, etc., while sitting in the waiting room while your child is in therapy, or something like that.
Yet another handy feature is that your student's lessons can be emailed to you, and your student, each day. I couldn't figure out how to get it to email to my son, but it did email to me, so I would just forward the email on to him.
I had hoped I'd be able to make accounts for my daughter and me, to keep track of our work schedules, her endocrinologist appointments, etc., but it seems you can only enter students in grades K-12. It would be handy if it left a blank box for grade level, so other family members outside the K-12 grade range could be included as well.
As you know, there were several other Crew families who reviewed My School Year, so be sure to click the banner below to read the other reviews.
Connect with My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping via social media:
YouTube
To make sure you don't miss anything, subscribe to Life on Chickadee Lane, or Follow my blog with Bloglovin.
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