Saturday, February 23, 2008

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!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Need More Time in the Morning?


Yeah right, who doesn't! And what is the one thing that we all know shouldn't fall victim to the morning rush, but often does?
Breakfast.

The folks at Breakfast Breaks know that mornings can be crazy and they have put together a portable, and more important HEALTHY, breakfast in a box. I admit...I was a bit skeptical of these at first. I am a huge fan of convenience, but it usually comes with a high price: empty calories, high fructose corn syrup-laden juice imposters, sugar-loaded cereals...you know what I'm talking about, right?

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up my box of Breakfast Breaks and found.....
100% real juice
whole grain cereals
100% natural dried fruit
(The stuff I was already giving Little J anyway!) plus
a spoon, napkin, AND a wet wipe already packaged up and ready to go, all I needed to supply was the milk for the cereal.

Now on an average day, I can probably handle getting all of this together for my child on my own - but the next day was the day that we needed to bring my parents to the airport for their early morning flight out of this wintry abyss and getting out of the house on time was going to be a struggle. Throw in ANOTHER snowstorm and a frantic call from my mother saying they would like to leave an hour earlier than planned and my whole schedule went completely out the window.

Enter Breakfast Breaks! Little J happily ate his yummy, nutritious breakfast in the backseat while I drank down a Grande Latte (at least it has calcium) for my nourishment. Now, if they can come up with an adult version that can be eaten with one hand while battling airport traffic in a snowstorm....

Breakfast Breaks come in four varieties.