Homeschool Product Review: Elementary School Success Deluxe

As many homeschoolers know, it can be a real challenge to find educational software that is both reasonably priced and highly useful. Unfortunately, it seems that many educational software programs turn out to be heavy on misleading packaging, but thin on actual content. It is understandable that this fact would prove quite disappointing to homeschoolers who were very much looking forward to getting a lot out of an educational computer program.

When it comes to Elementary School Success Deluxe by Topics Entertainment, the rule of misleading packaging and less than fantastic program content applies. While this educational computer program isn't useless, the actual content actually differs quite a bit from what is advertised on the box. Before purchasing Elementary School Success Deluxe, consider the following information.

First, it's interesting to note that the grade-specific subject matter listed on the box of Elementary School Success Deluxe is not actually what is found within the actual program. For instance, the box states that for 4^th Grade Science, the program contains content that will help a child "comprehend life sciences, including earthworms, butterflies, moths, and more". In reality, the science portion of the 4^th grade material contains only 2 lessons - one on earthworms, and one on butterflies. While these lessons are good, it was still disappointing to find that the actual 4^th grade science content was far less substantial than implied in the packaging.

Additionally, there are many spelling mistakes in the Elementary School Success Deluxe program. Considering this is an educational program, the fact that it contains so many substantial spelling errors really is unacceptable. For instance, there is a section in the 1^st Grade Science portion focused on the planets. When this lesson is selected, there is an initial introductory explanation which appears on the screen. In that explanation, the word "planet" is always spelled as "plant". The word appears in this introductory explanation about half a dozen times! There were several other areas throughout where spelling errors existed, as well.

Finally, there are actually some activities in Elementary School Success which do not work at all. Once the activity is selected from the menu, another screen appears. However, at that point, none of the items on the screen respond when clicked on, and there is nothing to do but exit the activity and choose a different one.

Despite the downfalls of the program, Elementary School Success Deluxe does contain some valuable content and skill-sharpening activities. That's good news for those who already find themselves with a copy of the program, as it means they can still extract useful content from it. For those who have not yet purchased the program, the issues associated with it will probably be reason enough to avoid it altogether.

Topics Learning Company should absolutely fix the spelling errors throughout the program.