Vantage Learning My Access! Home Edition Review

      I had the great opportunity to review the My Access! Home Edition writing website.  I was excited to incorporate this into our daily homeschool routine, as writing is an important part of our school day.
     My Access!Home Edition has some great features.  It allows for each student who uses the program to log into their own personal writing page.  It also gives the parent/teacher the same option so that you can monitor the progress of each user's writing skills, as well as make writing assignments.  In addition, a parent's guide and a student's guide are also available on the website.
     We used My Access almost every day.  My children thought it was fun to use the website as a way to record journal entries or to write book reviews.  The My Access!Home Edition was best suited for my two older children, who are in grades 6 and 8.  I was curious to see how much progress these two would make in their writing abilities, as they both struggle with writing somewhat.  Although it took several attempts to get started, they were both able to utilize the features of this writing program and save their work relatively easy.  On the following days, it was somewhat difficult to find a way to start writing about a new topic, as opposed to having an assigned topic given to them.  (I chose this option to provide extra encouragement and incentive to get them writing).  However with some perseverance, we were able to pursue a daily writing routine using My Access!Home Edition.  I chose to track the kids' writing progress by reading and critiquing their writing samples myself, as opposed to the website's feature of generating progress reports.  This seemed to fit my needs as the teacher better, but the option of tracking progress through progress reports is available.
     I would suggest that if you are considering using My Access!Home Edition writing website, you should explore the website and all of its features prior to introducing it to your students.  Your familiarity with the website will make it easier to be the navigator for the writers.  Also, consider it as an option for any grade, but  in our situation it worked best for middle schoolers.
     If you are interested in learning more about or purchasing the My Access!Home Edition writing curriculum, you can get additional information by visiting www.myaccesshome.com.  The cost of this program ranges from approximately $90.00 to $130.00.
     I did not receive any compensation for this review.