Homeschool Fever

I was sent a special learning software program to review for Homeschool Fever - and I must say I had a blast.  If you follow my personal blog over at Little Jack’s Corner, you already know I’m a bit kooky and a huge kid at heart, so is it any wonder that the bright colors, fun sounds, and games in this program got me hooked (even though I’ve been counting to 20 over…well..20 years now!).

Rising Star Learning is a small company that has designed 9 different learning programs aimed at increasing preschool and elementary skills in phonics, language arts, and math.  I have spoken with Jeannine from Rising Star a number of times by email and she is extremely friendly and personable.  That in itself is a plus!  What company nowadays offers personal service?  In today’s sheep-hearding type of mass marketing society, it’s always nice to return to small grass root companies that you know has a great non-mainstream product.  Not only do we help out small businesses when we purchase independantly distributed software, but the money goes into the pockets of the ones who need it the most nowadays…Americans.

I received my package, Fun with Math, this past Tuesday.  Jack-Evan is a bit too young at 6 months old to be counting (give him another month or so), so I had the pleasure of getting down and dirty with this little CD-Rom package.product.

At first, I was under the impression that the product I was holding was a DVD because it came in a DVD movie sized case.  The cover was nicely done with cute graphics and the company’s logo.  While you can tell this was not produced by a huge mainstream company, the styling flows nicely and is not garish - and it’s enough to give you confidence that the product inside is just as good as the cover looks.  After popping it into my tv’s DVD player and being told that the disc wasn’t compatible (duh), I noticed the obvious “PC CD-Rom” printed on the back of the case and on the disc.  Silly me…

Over at my laptop, I decided to see if the CD would be plug & play for a kid, right outta the box.  I’m pretty tech savvy, but most of the kids who’ll be using this program won’t be.  And what if their parents aren’t either?  Right?  Right.

Although the case had 2 inserts - a glossy folded page with simple instructions and a list of other Rising Star titles - I decided not to look at them.  So, without reading the inserts I haphazardly plopped my “Fun with Math” CD #1 into my laptop’s CD-Rom.  

It started up immediately.  It didn’t even need a typical sit-and-wait-20-minutes-and-click-100-boxes type of installation!  That, I liked immensely.  All it needed was to install a few record keeping files on my laptop, and away we go in less than 3.6 seconds.  I was taken directly to the login screen where it asked me to type in my name.  A record of achievements is kept for each child’s name  After typing in Lisa and clicking OK, I was taken to the games panel.  

Each CD features a list of progressively harder games, starting with counting 1-20 and simple addition / subtraction (1-10) in disc one, and ending with comparing numbers (greater than / equal to), skip counting, and addition / subtraction 1-100 in disc 3.  

Unique games include color-by-number, count the skunks, basketball addition, dot to dot puzzles, and frog adventure.  The games have simple lines (perfect for kindergarten/early elementary), vivid colors, and fun music & sounds.  The screen isn’t cluttered and the menu stays at the bottom, making it easy for a beginning computer user to navigate.

Instructions are kid-friendly too.  They’re spoken every time a new screen or game is opened.  The voice for all of the instructions sounds just like “Smart Cat” on ETV/PBS.  During a game, however, a pleasant medium toned real woman’s voice speaks (it doesn’t sound computer synthesized).  If you need to rehear the instructions, just click on “Help” on the bottom menu bar.

The entire set up, to me, was pretty intuitive - and I was even trying to look at it from a child’s point of view.  Menus are very easy to self-navigate, from making your way to the main menu, to choosing a game, to going to your Gold Star chart.  If your child wishes, he or she can even make their way progressively through each game by simply clicking on “Next”.

Other than teaching math, this game is also good for practicing computer skills, mouse skills, and hand / eye coordination.  Some of the games require a bit more dexterity and mouse control to perform them correctly - such as needing to click on a small dot in the Dot to Dot games (my favorite on disk one).  It provides good practice for obtaining point & click skills though!

Also, I would consider these games to be more along the line of review of concepts than actually something that teaches from scratch. In order to enjoy the games, one must already have at least minimal knowledge of number recognition, counting, adding, and subtracting.  Reinforcement?  Yes!  Complete Lesson plans? No.

It’s also good at self-correcting when a child makes mistakes - such as in the picture above.  I had purposefully clicked on a number on the dot-to-dot that wasn’t in sequence, and an arrow with an encouraging voice directed me to the correct next number.

As you progress through the CD’s you can tell the games get harder and more numbers are added into the mix.  There are new games on each CD as well!  My favorite game on disc 3 was the snowball one that let you Skip count while building a snowball tower.  I encountered counting by 10’s, 5’s, 2’s, and even 8’s during my session.  I remember I use to love skip counting as a child, so that’s probably why this particular game scored high on my personal favorites!

The goal for the child is to eventually get all correct answers in each game and earn a Gold Star for that game.  When your child plays a game and gets a wrong answer, a silver star will be awarded.  Gold Stars are earned when the entire game is played with no wrong answers.  Gold star charts can be printed for achievement as well.  There are 16 games (possible Gold stars) throughout the 3 CD’s.  Your child will also encounter “speed rounds” which will increase their speed in addition and subtraction.  Gold stars are not earned in those bonus rounds though.

 Overall, I enjoyed this learning set and think the software is well put together.  It was fun, interactive, self-paced, nice to look at, easy to navigage, and easy to load.  The game also takes up the entire screen and can’t be minimized, making it impossible for kids to accidentally open other adult programs on the computer.  They also can’t disturb other open windows resting behind them unless they know the ALT + TAB shortcut.  The only qualm I’d have with this software is how easy it is for kids to exit the program via the large exit button on the menu.  When it’s pressed, a girl appears asking if you’d like to exit - clicking yes immediately closes the program and drops kids off onto the computer desktop.  That’s no problem for older kids, but for younger kids you may want to more closely supervise their playtime so they don’t accidentally leave the program and venture into your other computer software!  A password protection system would be a great feature to lock this game down for the preschool Fun With Math players out there. 

In conclusion, I’m actually excited about having this set for Jack-Evan to use in a few years, as many of the earlier games such as dot to dot and counting to 10 are suitable for preschool age children.  I have a feeling we will have ourselves a fun little mommy & son bonding time with it.

You can find Fun with Math here.

BONUS: Buy one 3 disc set, get a “Learn Spanish” set free!
11/28 – 12/1/08 - Rising Star Learning Spectacular Shopping Special!
Buy any 3 lessons individually, or any 3 lesson packaged set (Early Learning, Elementary Learning, or Advanced Learning Set) for $44.95, and receive the “Learn Spanish with Phonics” set FREE ($24.95 value).