I received 4 Cd-ROMs from Core-learning, one full-length program and 3 demos.

Crayola Art Studio was the main, full-featured program, and we love it!  The kids and I took turns playing with it, and it was hard to just watch and not make suggestions of “try this” or “do that!”  Take your basic paint program that comes on your computer and at least triple your options:  designs, patterns, images, backgrounds, and many more tools (markers, crayons, paints, even charcoal and spray paint)!  I think the only complaint was by dd10 because she wanted to be able to put people into her picture instead of just animals!  With the backgrounds and other images provided, you can design your own coloring pages to print.  After we played around, I thought I’d actually watch the “Quick Start Tour,” and I found many more activities to do.   

Another demo I received was "Art and Creativity."  There is a sample of Creativity Express, a visual arts curriculum for K-8; I’m not sure this is a program we would use for homeschooling, as I would rather do art together with all of my children vs. one child at a time doing art on the computer.  The other demo is corefx, which has animation and photo editing, their site says “graphic design and digital art,” which we’re not quite ready for around here.  It the kind of program we may need in the future when my kids are a bit older and putting on plays for mom and dad aren’t enough. 

Then there was the math and language arts demo; I wasn’t able to access everything, but it seemed to be set up for school systems.  Math is arranged by skill instead of grade, which I know is helpful for some homeschoolers.  Core-learning is beginning to offer online programs, or you can purchase the programs on disc.

I knew exactly what I was looking for when I checked out the Health Series Demo.  I knew it wouldn’t be from a Christian perspective, but I wanted to see if we could use it anyway.  I can’t tell you much about the content of the first series, Health for kids, because I never made it that far.  My first concern was that there was a lot of reading and the words were moving onto the screen in large font in order to be entertaining.  If your child isn’t reading fluently this isn’t going to work.  At some points the program or characters talk but not always.  And the characters are my other problem at this level: they are junior high age and just seem a bit too mature for the ages 7-10 that the program is geared for.

Then comes the Family Health series for grades 5-10; “Becoming an Adult” caught my eye right away.  There was a section on “Friends” with the quote “Sometimes you can share things with a friend that you can’t share with anyone else, not even your family!”  That just isn’t going to work for our family.  Then under “You & Others” is a section on harassment, which discusses sexual harassment, and I did see the term sexual preferences.  They also talk about personal identity, which would be from a humanistic world view.

In summary, Core-Learning covers a broad range of subjects in order to fulfill their mission of providing “effective learning solutions for the development of fundamental knowledge and skills. Its primary focus of skill development is in areas that both support higher order thinking but also provide important life skills. Products address key elementary and middle school curriculum areas in math, English language arts, health, art, and technology.”  We enjoyed the creativity allowed by the Crayola Art Studio, but I wouldn’t use their health program, and I’m not sure I would support this company at all.

Thanks for stopping by,

Danielle

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