There are different categories of homeschool software. Later i will be talking about some of these. But the most obvious would be educational homeschool software. These would be programs that the children would use to learn a topic or to learn skills that will help them to learn or mature. I’ll give an example of each.

I will review a couple of examples. One would be the “Jump Start” series like this.

Jumpstart Kindergarten

There are a bunch of Jump Start titles and they feature mini “game” activities that are linked together by themes or a large task to be accomplished. This has been popular with my daughter and my sons. Another series like this would be the Reader Rabbit Series - here’s an example:

Reader Rabbit Kindergarten Bounce Down in Balloon Town!

This one is a little more like cartoons on TV - so if you are wanting to avoid that, lean towards the Jump Start titles. But if you are trying to wean your kids away from the TV, Reader Rabbit might give them the appeal to ditch the Tube.

Although these titles are overtly “teaching” in their games and activities, I just want to mention two pieces of homeschool software that are games, but they are teaching at the same time. The first is Lego Chess. Not only does it teach chess, but each time a piece is taken there are silly little cut scenes. They are based on “Cowboys and Indians” and they often have little slapstick comedy elements that kept my oldest boy’s attention long enough for him to get the hang of chess by the time he was six years old. And now he’s pretty good. I’ve seen him beat some adults, of which I’ve been one on rare occasion!

This last one seems like a pure waste of time game:

Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It’s Dark Outside

When son #2 was just four or five, he learned a great deal about facing the dark.  There were some fairly complicated puzzles where he had to collect items to be used in other areas.  I was surprised how well he could work through those.  Puzzles and problem solving can have a wide range of impacts on later learning abilities.

Any of these would be great homeschool software to ease kids from summer fun back to the rigors of classwork.  Next time we’ll take a look at some homeschool software for parents to help with the administrative tasks that need to be managed.