Math 1 On Track Software

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machine's hard drive. Without this capability, your son/daughter -- or you -- will always have to handle the CD's, popping them in and out of the machine.

My daughters seem to be 1-2 years ahead of the prescribed lesson plans in this series. For instance, in kindergarten, they are doing Grade 1 Math. Therefore, the games (which are rewarded to the child after finishing every two lessons) are too fast-paced for them. As a result, they get frustrated by them.

Conversely, the drag and drop method employed by the software is consistent with novices, requiring a click to "pick up" an object and a click to "drop" it. Any child who has been using a computer for more than a few months (like my daughters) will find this counter-intuitive and frustrating.

Finally, the "workbook style" methodology of this program was unexpected. We're accustomed to "game style" learning programs in which you:
a) choose a game, and
b) play it repeatedly until you've mastered it.
The only way to go back and repeat a lesson (i.e. to improve your skills) is to "erase" your entire workbook (all lessons) and start over. My daughters quickly moved from exercises that were too easy to ones that were too hard since in the "workbook style" you would typically only do one or two lessons in a day int he software and a few in the paper workbook (included). The idea of starting over was not desirable, either. The result was, again, frustration.

My recommendation is to purchase this software if you plan to work with your child and help them plan out a schedule in which you use the paper workbook and the software in conjunction, limiting the lessons to two a day. If this is your plan, then I highly recommend this software.

Purchasing this software and letting your child work with it on her/his own won't work.