A TOS Review: My School Year (planning and record keeping program)

Requirements for homeschooling differ from state to state. In my state, we are only required to keep track of our school hours. Some states require a bit more accountability. Some of us need to plan our lessons down to the minute. Some of us (a-hem) follow a more freestyle form of schooling. 

Regardless,  planning and record keeping are important parts of homeschooling. I recently had the opportunity to review My School Year ( Homeschool Record Keeping) program from MySchoolYear.com.

MySchoolYear allows parents to keep all of their plans and records in one convenient spot.

Its features include:

·         Attendance tracking

·         Automatic grading

·         Lesson plan generators

·         Report cards

·         Activity trackers (like field trips, etc.)

·         Reading logs

·         Transcripts and more!                           

I found the interface to be user-friendly. There are a lot of neat extras that can help you stay on track.

For example, the Teacher’s Aid feature recently reminded me to add any awards that Josiah might have received during his 8^th grade year to complete his transcript.

I am not one to plan every minute of my day, but I did find a couple of features that I am excited about. 

Obviously, the attendance tracker is a great tool for me. Another feature I am using (especially this summer) is the reading log. Josiah is dyslexic and doesn't like to read. I like to give him goals and help him track his progress. 

My School Year has a reading log that I have been plugging books into for Josiah to use as his summer reading list. It helps me by reminding me what books we've chosen and which ones he has already read. I, of course, am including any audio books we listen to, as well. 

Josiah is very active. He has been on a swim team for the past 5 years or so. He decided he wanted to take the summer off. We have been trying to stay as active as we can. Josiah recently ran (and won!) a 5k. I read on Facebook the other day where another homeschool family had joined a track club. The track club encourages the kiddos to run a total of 26 miles through the whole summer. They are rewarded with fun goodies, etc. 

I decided that we would make our own little club and set a goal for running goal for the summer. I am going to use the Events feature to track his mileage and his rewards. It provides a nice visual that will make it easy to see his progress. 

I think overall that My School Year is an easy-to-use and helpful tool for any homeschool family. I am always getting helpful emails concerning set-up or helpful planning tips. The best thing is that there is a 1 month free trail available so you can take a look yourself. 

You can connect with MySchoolYear.com via the following social media outlets. Don't forget to click on the banner below to read more reviews. 

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/MySchoolYearWeb/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/@MySchoolYearWeb
Google+:  https://plus.google.com/+MyschoolyearWeb