Mood:  caffeinated

I have a confession to make. I never learned how to write a good sentence, let alone a good paragraph. I don't know why. I'm sure the school district that I went to taught us. I loved the schools that I went to. I have many fond memories and many of the teachers made a huge impact on my life. I just never learned how to write until I went to college. It was there that I finally learned how to do research, put together an outline, and write a good paper.

My lack of good writing skills in school was one of the reasons why I was determined that I would teach my children how to write while they were still young. I was thrilled when we received Write With the Best to review earlier this year, and even more thrilled when I was offered Vantage Learning's MY! Access online writing program to check out. As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a free one year subscription to Vantage Learning's "MY Access! Home Edition" writing program to use and review on my blog.

MY Access! has everything that you could think of to help you teach good writing skills. In fact, they even score your child's writing assignments for you! The first thing that you do with you child is set a goal as to how many points you would like them to learn. You earn points when you complete a writing assignment or complete an activity that helps you improve your writing skills. They encourage the parent to come up with some type of reward when their child reaches their point goal. This encourages them to continue trying to improve their writing skills.

The next thing the student does is choose a writing assignment. There are four different levels of writing assignments that you can choose from: Ages 8-10, 11-14, 15-18 or Bonus Writing Prompts. They have ready made prompts, as well as an option where the parent  can add their own writing topics to the list. The writing assignments are divided into three categories - Narrative, Informative, and Persuasive. One of the selections in John Allen's age 11-14 category for Narrative was "A Day in the Life of a Bird". In the Informative category he chose "A Favorite Hobby" to write about.

I'm going to walk you through what happened when he chose "Banning Dangerous Pets" from the persuasive category. The first thing that popped up was a brief description of what the topic was about:

Banning Dangerous Pets

While many people enjoy the company of common pets, such as fish, cats, dogs, and birds, others prefer more unusual pets such as ferrets, spiders, and snakes. There are others who choose to own more dangerous pets, such as tigers, monkeys, or even sharks. Imagine your town council is concerned about people owning these dangerous animals and has decided that they should be banned. In a multi-paragraph essay, write a letter to your town council expressing your opinion on which pets should be banned. Be sure to include specific details and examples to persuade your readers.

John Allen then went on to write the following (you'll soon see that he needs a lot of help not only in the creative writing area but in the spelling area as well ).

While many people enjoy the company of common pets, such as fish, cats, dogs, and birds, others prefer more unusual pets such as ferrets, spiders, and snakes. There are others who choose to own more dangerous pets, such as tigers, monkeys, or even sharks. I think that these dangerous pets should live in the wild, and not have to be tortured in cages. Most of these animals are becoming extinct. Plus ceeping these dangerous animals is very costly

The first reason I Think they should live in the wild is becouse they need fresh air. Another reason is becouse I think they should be with their families. The final reason is becouse they should learn to live on teir own.

These animals are also becoming extinct becouse of hunters. The next reason is I think is becouse of trapers. The last is becouse of pouchers.

One of the reasons it is costly is becouse their food is cotly. They need to live in their environment. Third is becouse their just plain dangerous.

So finely I come to my conclustion. Some of you probaly changed your minds. But for those of you who didn't please don't keep these dangerous pets.

After submitting his essay, he recieved a score of 2.8 out of 6.0 and earned 72 points. AND, he discovered that he was below on all five of the score criteria: Focus, Content Development, Organization, Writing Style and Conventions. In there report they include a "Revision Plan" with detailed examples of how the student can improve his essay. They then allow you to go back and improve your essay for more points. You can also earn more points by doing short fun activities that help you develop good writing skills outside of writing an essay.

It's all very simple and very fun for the student. John Allen loved it and was challenged to work harder each time to see if he could achieve a proficient score and perhaps even an advanced score some day! I love it because he loves it. It makes life a lot easier for a homeschool parent when a child is challenged and enjoys doing a particular subject. I also liked the fact that a parent can add a topic to the prompt list. If your child has a writing assignment that needs to be done in history or science, just add it to his MY Access list and assign it for his next topic. You can kill two birds with one stone!

Vantage Learning's MY Access! online writing program sells for $99.95 and supports up to 3 students. This includes weekly reports that the parent receives via email concerning their child's progress! The company also sells a MY Access! College Edition and a MY Access! Professional Edition. To find out more about Vantage Learning and it's products, just click here or on any one of the hi-lighted links above. You can also read reviews from some of the other TOS Crew Members by clicking here. Happy writing! 

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