Skip to main content

Vantage Learning MY Access! Home Edition Product Review




Today I am reviewing a product called "MY Access! Edition" - a product geared at improving the student's critical thinking skills in all subjects through increased writing skills. The product I received to review (free of charge - as always with items I review as a part of The Old Schoolhouse Crew) do not contain any "physical" items; the home edition I have been using is available online at VantageLearning.com.

There are multiple options available for purchase at the website, including the At School, International, Corporate, and At Home online versions; in the Vantage Online Store they offer resources to improve usage of the English language, graduate courses, assessment and training tools, police and fire practice exams, Excelsior college exams, and much more.

My children's use of the "At Home" edition has been as a supplement to our language arts curriculum; this program is not meant to stand alone, but works best when coupled with a more complete language arts scope. While it isn't best used on it's own, it will easily and adequately complement any curriculum a homeschool family might currently be using. The website describes the product as having "time-saving technologies, valuable self-guided instruction, and motivating feedback" - and I'm glad to say this description is 100% true! One of the great benefits of this program to me as a busy homeschooling mother of 5 is the fact that what it does, it does well and without much help from me :)

If your child has used Microsoft Word, picking up the use of MY Access! will be a breeze. The actual writing portion of the program is similar to Word, but has a few "tweaks" that are to it's benefit. The thesaurus was a real favorite among my kids - having available as a tool while they are writing was much quicker than opening another window and pulling up a separate website in order to access a thesaurus (although my 10th grade student prefers an online thesaurus which brings up dozens of word options - this program offers 3 or 4 optional words). And another positive element MY Access! offers is a wide variety of topics to write about, which can be assigned by the parent/teacher and separated by age level if desired. As a mom, I very much appreciate the progress reports - they are sent to my inbox on a schedule of my choosing & they keep me in the loop regarding my children's progress. Since grading is one of the things I least enjoy about homeschooling, it's a plus to have much of the grading "leg work" done for me.

On the other hand, my children and I found it a little confusing to navigate the website. There is an extensive tutorial, which is helpful, but even after multiple uses we still were stumbling around the site. I'm on the world wide web quite often, and don't usually have too much trouble navigating - but after more than a month of using the product, I still have trouble finding my way around. I would have to describe the home page as "busy" - there is a lot going on and it can seem a little confusing until you know which products you have access to and which ones you do not. Even after logging in, it was hard for me to access each of my children's accounts and to locate their assignments. I think a little improvement in this arena would go a long way toward securing MY Access! as a standard in our homeschool.

To wrap up my review, let me say that Vantage Learning has created a product that is of great use in the homeschool community, especially for students who are "new" writers. I would recommend MY Access! primarily for 4th through 8th grade students, easily adaptable for younger and older students. If your child has been writing for long, they may not enjoy the confines of the program, but they could still learn quite a lot (such as how to take direction regarding their writing - something they will need to do to succeed in college). For most homeschool families I know, the $99.95 cost of the program would yield positive results - many of us spend well over $25 per student each school year for consumable writing workbooks. Vantage Learning's MY Access! Home Edition offers much more value than the average workbook based program. We will continue to use this product throughout the rest of our school year and I'm sure to be pleased with the end results!

Check out their website for more information & feel free to leave a comment for me if you have any questions about this product.

Day 38 done :)
Lord bless!
Jan L. Burt

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

A Homeschool Mom's Devotional by award-winning podcaster Jan L. Burt

Colossians 4:17 tells the reader to "be sure to carry out the work the Lord gave you". How can this be applied to the enormously busy lifestyle of a homeschool mom? First of all, we must always remember that the Word of God has the answer for our every need and we can trust fully in God to use His Word to lead us, guide us, correct us, and bless us. Keeping that in mind, let's consider what this verse is saying. We are told to carry out, or complete, the work the Lord has given us. We are wives, mothers, homeschoolers. Those three BIG job descriptions come immediately to mind when I think of homeschooling mothers. Applying God's Word to our life means carrying out our work as wives, as mothers, and as homeschoolers. When I am exhausted from another long day (or long week, long month, long year, etc.) I still must honor the Lord by blessing my husband. Maybe that means having a hot meal on the table when he arrives home from work. Perhaps your husband

I Gotta Let You Know Two Very Important Things (Seriously, They Are Truly Important For You To Know...)

 First, a big --- fat --- hefty dose of encouragement for you, my wonderful homeschooling friend.  As you get ready to roll into the fall of 2020...stop for just one moment and hear what God's Word has to say to you right here, right now, on the brink of the last stretch of what has possibly been the most turn-your-whole-world-upside-down year ever.  Psalm 125:2 - As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore.   You are surrounded.  Completely & totally, that's exactly how surrounded you are.  Going into the great unknown as, say, a working mom whose children are going to be doing school online at home (or a working mom homeschooling and working from home for just the next several months, but not planning on continuing to home educate after things "normalize" again).  This is God's promise just for you as you embark upon this season of life. I really, truly believe He wants you to know that He has you surrounded

My Preferred Bible Reading Plan

We all know that reading our Bibles is a key part of living a healthy life as a follower of Jesus. But busy homeschool moms may, at times, struggle to know what part of the Bible to read on any given day. Some people read the Bible through, Genesis to Revelation, and when they finish simply start over. Others have reading plans that follow along with the sermons their pastor is currently preaching. And yet others find themselves "stuck in the Psalms", since they're not quite sure what to read. I'm not going to tell you how many chapters a day you should read, or that you need to do exactly what I do. I'm just going to share what has worked for me, and hopefully encourage you to get into the Word using some type of plan ~ because every homeschool mom knows what happens to our plans when we fail to create a plan, right?! I use a prayer and Bible reading guide called "Prayer Point" , published by Samaritan's Purse. About every 8 weeks, I receive a

Do You Homeschool? Then You Need to Read This Article!

Whether you have been homeschooling for a month, a year, or a decade, you've inevitably faced the "questions". Questions about socialization, college, athletics, driver's ed, high-school biology, etc. etc. etc. and so on..... It seems as if homeschoolers are ripe for questions from day one; but the flip side seems to be that there really is no flip side. We are expected to patiently answer any and all questions, smiling politely and pretending we've never heard this line of questioning before. But when we try to ask a few questions about, say, public schools as a whole or the issue of private schools being used as a last-ditch landing spot for students expelled from public school, well...ahem...we're pretty much told to keep quiet. No one wants to hear our questions, and often times no one really wants to hear our answers to their questions. They just kind of want us to....go....away. I'm not planning on going away any time soon. And neither are my fiv

Everything by Mary DeMuth

The book Everything by Mary DeMuth became a "keeper" for me almost as soon as I began reading. Mary sugarcoats nothing in her attempt to make Jesus' gospel what it rightly is ~ and as you probably guessed from the title of her book, it rightly is about everything. Eighteen chapters, three sections, one-hundred and ninety-eight pages...if you take the time to delve into them you will grow exponentially in your walk with the Lord. In Everything Mary calls us out, calls us higher, and admonishes us with honesty and openness. Sharing from her heart and relying heavily on the truth that is God's Word, she sets things straight. There aren't just one or two things about this book that I have taken to heart; and there aren't just a couple of quotes I could share here. The book in it's entirety is a game-changer! Please buy this book, read this book, apply the truths in this book to your life, and let the Lord become your everything! HERE is a dire