Homework Helper in a Box

Because I can’t resist worrying about things long before I need to, I’ve been wondering how we are going to deal with the whole “Mom I need to research _____ for school” issue once Little J is a bit older. I am completely against him having internet access in his room and we don’t really have the set up for a centrally located computer where I could keep an eye on him. Maybe we’ll move before it becomes an issue.

But if we don’t, I will definitely let him use Microsoft Student! The folks at Mom Central Consulting kindly asked me to review a copy of Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008. This is a great solution for families facing the exact problem I will be – how to provide a collection of relevant, reliable information without setting your kids loose on the internet. It includes articles that can be accessed through searches as well as an atlas, dictionary, thesaurus, and language translator. It also has a companion, Encarta Kids which is geared younger learners aged 7 to 12.

But, Microsoft Student goes beyond just an encyclopedia. It is a full service homework helper! It includes the amazing MS MATH which includes tools, tutorials and step by step problem solving instructions to help students learn math concepts. Included in MS MATH is a full featured graphing calculator (valued at $100+) AND free online access to “Hotmath” ($49.95 value). Students can quickly find their textbook, and select the problem they are solving. Using the Equation Solver, they can instantly receive step-by-step guidance on how to solve a problem, and what the correct answer should be. (Take it from a former tutor…at $30 - $50 an hour, this more than pays for itself after one or two uses.)

The learning essentials section has great templates to get students started writing reports and presentations. It includes great organizational and brainstorming tools such as K-W-L charts and Venn diagrams that support the types of things your student is learning in school! It even has organizational tools to help with college applications.

The language section is a must-have for anyone who is taking a beginning level foreign language. It supports four languages and can translate either way as well as conjugate verbs. (I SO wish I had this when I was struggling with Spanish in high school!)

The literature feature contains over 1,000 book summaries in a Cliff-Notes type format. The teacher in me cringes a bit at this feature but realizes that most students have access to this type of material somewhere or other and any good teacher can tell whether or not a student has actually read the text. These can always be a good review tool. ‘Nough said.

This really is a great program and is an absolute steal at $37.50. The great folks at Mom Central Consulting and Microsoft have generously provided me with a copy to give away to one lucky commenter. If you’d like to have a copy for yourself, leave me a comment . Please remember to leave me a way to get in touch with you! Our random winner generator (Little J) will be picking a lucky winner out of a hat.
All entries must be in by midnight CST Friday February 29th.

Please check system requirements here. Please read them carefully – I did not and had an old version of Office 2000. I managed to make quite a mess of my laptop and wasn’t able to get much work done for a couple of days until the wonderful folks at my office’s tech-support (thank you guys!!!!) upgraded me to Office 2003 and got me back up and running. Lesson learned!