Customer Reviews

Elementary Success Deluxe 2006 (DW DVD)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this, hoping it would have some fun math and reading games for my child, but it was so boring. It had this horrible voice repeating the instructions over and over again before you could play. Even a child with angelic patience wouldn't want to sit through that every time. It now sits in our house, never used...more clutter.

What a HUGE disappointment. I was looking for an alternative to the Summer Bridge books for my 8 year old son to finish out the summer and thought that, since computer time is prized at our house, he'd be motivated by CD-ROMs. After only an hour and a half with these CDs, we're both perplexed and annoyed.

1) Installation: Each CD must be installed separately - language arts, phonics, math, etc - so they don't talk to each other about your child's performance. But it turns out, that would require waaay more thought than has been put into this software.

2) This one's the clincher: The box says ages 6-12, grades 1-6. However, when you sign in, you're not asked your child's age or permitted to create any kind of profile apart from entering his/her name. This seems odd because, you know, how do you get to the lesson content that is age-appropriate. Short answer? You don't!

TOPICS has tried to create single lessons that work for 6-12 year olds! That's right. For each course, there is just one little set of lessons. Earth Science, for example, contains two stories - one about earthworms, the other about moths. That's it for 1st graders and 6th graders - one set of lessons, one set of puzzles and games to reinforce ideas. Instead of being just right for my 3rd grader, oddly we found that the lessons were either too hard or too easy.

3) Typos: Besides being age-inappropriate, the lessons and games all contain significant typos that threw my son off. With the little content that is provided, you'd think they could've read for context rather than just run spellcheck. Examples: "Washington" was spelled "Washinton." In one 2-paragraph page about earthworms, we were told that earthworms don't have but do need eyes underground (a do/don't typo), that they are burned by UV rays the same "hat" (should be "that") cause sunburn, and yeah, there was another typo I've forgotten. But, yes, 3 typos that misled my son on one page of text. Awful...By then, he was saying, this is JUNK.

4) Interface: There is a bizarre game which is the only way to work on History/Social Studies course material. The game itself made no sense to either of us. Help was no help. A Prewriting exercise gives you some instructions, and then just stops. No explanation. No feedback. What about this could I not have done on my own?

5) And yes, that voice is pretty unbearable. It's a bad recording of a woman with a stuffy nose and a harsh tone to her voice.

At $40, it is a CRIME that you can't return software. If this is the best of what's out there, I suggest signing up for some supplemental courses with an online education provider or signing up for something similar at Kaplan SCORE or Huntington Learning. These CDs will only frustrate and discourage your kids.

By contrast, do check out Chessmaster, 10th edition. It does allow creation of profiles with age and experience level, and has boards for kids which give feedback in an encouraging way. TOPICS could learn a lot from this software which we purchased the same day.

It is (supposed) for kids of 6-12 but my 8 year old (2nd grade) was very fruntrated to find the right questions/materials for her. There are no clear indications on 13 DVDs. Also, the DVD quality is very bad. Two of the DVDs could not be read at all from my new dell PC (maybe my cd-rom drive is not good enough but I never had problem to read other DVDs). BTW, I bought mine from Cotsco wholesale store.

I ran out, last minute, to buy this for my children (ages 6 & 8), with hopes of educating them with activities. I cannot get the disks to install. My computer is brand new and meets all the system requirements. If I can still return this, I will. I am trying to save money on tutors, and I am only wasting my time trying to get this to install. Well, looking at the box, isn't very educating! I also thought, if this is supposed to be a product to educate children, why is there a "typo" on the subject heading of of the installation instructions.

This product could be a great thing, if I get it to work.
I am gonna go retro with this one, good old fashion workbooks.

Ibought this product -- Elementary Success Deluxe 2006 as well as the Middle School Success -- what an incredible difference! This actually has fun games and activities, often adjustable as to level. My kids found the musical disks beautiful and play them often. The Language Arts one has material challenging enough for my high school honor role student.

The Middle School package, unfortunately, seems useless.The one game is at a very elementary level. The rest of the many disks are just repackaged reference type material. There is one math actiivity that is quite challenging -- far too hard for middle school, it mentions university level physics & engineering and says it's geared for Algebra II!

If you're like me, and don't entirely trust the public education system to do its job, then the Elementary Success Deluxe 2006 may be what you're looking for. My children often come home frustrated from a long day at school, and their spirits seem to rise when I uncover this DVD package as they exclaim, "Time to do some REAL learning!"

Though I warn you, this package veers dangerously close to home schooling, so you'll have to restrain yourself lest you give your children negative stigmas associated with the home-schooled-kind.