| Back to School on One Income | |
This week I will discuss some great educational shareware and freeware to help your kids "make the grade" in school.
Comments: I first downloaded this game when my nine year old son was four. He loved it! It's action packed, teaches eye-hand coordination as well as word recognition. With the shareware version, you get the Part 1, which has about 11 levels to keep your kids busy for hours.
Description: This is a neat program for younger kids. Kids can work with the alphabet in eight variations of letter games, including the ABC Song and matching pictures with letters. There are seven counting games as well as memory games.
Comments: This game did not keep my four year old son's attention for very long. He did seem to enjoy the matching games, though. The graphics and sounds are fairly basic, which could explain my son's lack of interest in the game. I would still recommend the program for pre-schoolers.
Comments: Frankly, I was disappointed with this program. It was too difficult for my first-grader, and it did not keep the interest of my fourth-grader.
Comments: My 9 year old son totally loved this game. He played it for over an hour the first day I downloaded it. The game combines questions to answer with a fun, graphics-rich game to play. I highly recommend this one!
You can pay $30 to $60 for software, but why? There is a tremendous amount of wonderful shareware and freeware to be found on the Web. The following programs are examples of some software my kids have tried.
Word Rescue
Requirements:XT Computer (286 or higher recommended)
475k of conventional memory
1.2 meg of Hard Drive Space (for shareware)
Description: Your kids help Benny Bookworm stop the Gruzzles, who have stolen some words with their meanings.
Educational Value: 
Entertainment Value:
Early Learning
Requirements: Sound card and Windows 3.1x
Compressed Size: 3,243,626 bytes
Educational Value:
Entertainment Value:
Primary Learning
Requirements: Windows 95
Compressed Size: 2,898,992 bytes
Description: This game is designed for children in grades K-6. It has 10 programs, including spelling, math, geography and presidents.
Educational Value:
Entertainment Value:
Word Games at Camelot
Requirements: Sound card and DOS 3.3
Compressed Size: 629,286 bytes
Description: This program is designed for children 8 years and older. It improves language skills by teaching the meaning of more than 3000 words.
Educational Value:
Entertainment Value: