Cheap Elementary School Learning System 2006 (DVD) (PC & Mac) (Software) (Mac OS X, Windows XP) Price

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Customer Reviews of Elementary School Learning System 2006 (DVD) (PC & Mac)

Great Supplemental Material
This learning system is a great supplement to my teaching. I teach my children at home and occasionally have school children over after they get out of school. The kids like this program and often ask if they can use it. The best part is that it is self-paced and students can work or repeat items as needed. My daughter used this system for review prior to taking her required standardized test and she scored very well. This is not a system where the parent can just plop their children down and expect the software to teach them everything. It is a supplement to adult instruction. Parents should take an active role in their childrens education and not expect software to do it for them. <
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>System Requirements: This set requires a DVD Rom (not just CD) and that your computer run Windows XP. This is a very media intense product and low memory, older systems may have diffucultly with some of the options. This is why I gave it 4 stars, it would have been nice if older systems could run these disks as I am sure there are a lot of families who could benefit from it that do not have newer computers. There is no disk space required because you do not have to install anything (which is nice). The other person said their features did not work and I had no problem with all 3 disks working straight out of the box. <
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>Packaging: The disks (3) come in paper covers like most software does. The larger box has them contained within a card board retainer. The box has a book system on the front that allows you to see what topics are covered. <
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>Contents of Software: <
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>Math: 2 hours of multimedia presentations, 1 hour of video. My daughter used this and she was presented with good information about the topic and then was given interactive problems to fill out during the process. Then she was able to do actual math problems and practice what she had learned. This set covers topics of Basic Math, Beginning Math, Multiplication, Division, Fractions, Geometry, Pre-Algebra, Learning to Use a Graph, Sorting and Grouping, Calendar use, Charts Graphs and Diagrams. <
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>Science: Over 5 Hours of Multimedia Presentations, over 700 interactive questions and answers, over 4 hours of video, and over 3 hours of audio books. My son loves this section. They use videos and other materials to get the kids basic information about the topics. There are quizes immediately following the presentation to ensure your child has retained the information. This set covers topicis of Electricity and Magnetism, Simple Machines, Animals, plants, earthquakes, mountains, weather, climate, solar system, stars and planets, earth, moon, space, bones, muscles, heart, blood, five senses, food, nutrition, tooth wisdom, rainy day recess, rainy day pe, keeping clean, lets explore series. <
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>History: Over 4 Hours of multimedia presentations, over 650 interactive questions, over 4.5 hours of video, over 4 hours of audio books. This set covers several US History Topics and World History. Things like Becoming a Nation, Covered Wagons and The Westward Expansion, Native Americans, Cradles of Civilization, Columbus, etc. There are 27 topics total. <
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>Geography: Over 6 hours of multimedia presentations, 950 questions and answers, 3 hours of video, 6 hours of audio books. <
>Things like Environment of each section of the US, Different geographical regions of the US, etc. <
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>English: Over 2 hours of multimedia presentations, over 345 interactive questions and answers, 40 minutes of video, and 2 hours of audio books. Things like Grammar, Literature including follow-up questions and thoughts, Greek Mythology, Wirting <
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>Bonus DVD Video: A parents guide to growing pains: Friendship. This is a nice little DVD that explains why we have friends, how to make friends, etc. Great for kids who may struggle with social aspects including bullies. <
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>Overall I am happy with my purchase and would recommend this to others as supplemental material to help their child grow and learn.

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Fogware is a suitable name for this publisher... the quality is foggy at best.
I've been searching for a "learning system" for my children. I want one that will replicate what they are getting at a local learning center. That program costs a lot per month per child. It emphasizes repetition by presenting open ended questions in math, english, etc. It is self paced. THIS Fogware Elementary Learning System does not do any of that. This Fogware merely presents concepts of math, english, etc. without any problem solving at all. But even the concepts were not adequately explained. For example, the concept of common denominator when adding/subtracting fractions was merely presented as a task to find the common denominator. There was no explanation that the reason you have to find the common denominator is so that both fractions are expressed as the same place value so that the numerators could be summed. For the same reason you would not add a digit from the 10's place value with a digit in the 1's place value, you would not add a numerator value from the 4ths (quarters, ex. 1/4) place value with a numerator value from the 3rds (thirds, ex. 1/3) place value. They should explain you must convert the fractions so that they are both represented in the same place value, ie. common denominator. Also the programs they provide are complilations of seemingly independent software pulled together by the Fogware publisher to sell in one package. Unfortunately, the Disk 2 from my set was not working at all so I cannot comment on the History content. Likewise, the Audio Books feature did not work either. If you do want a program that will give great instruction on basic math then seek out the Teaching Company. They have a Basic Math DVD (runs on TV) which has a brillantly clear instructor. (Be forewarned there are no fancy entertaining graphics with the Teaching Company Basic Math. It is a lecture format. Children must have good attention span.) My 9 and 10 yr old children gave mixed reviews to this Fogware Elementary Learning System. They enjoyed the age-appropiate colorful graphics. They also liked the ability to replay any page. But they were very disappointed there were very few "test questions" for each topic. This Fogware is cute on graphics, but weak on practice questions. I am returning the unopened Middle School Learning System.