I have two small children with a keen desire to learn but not to do their homework... sounds familiar! Every week, the School would issue a new list of words for my kids to memorize. For some reason unknown to me, my lovely children dreaded homework time and would rather go back to the computer and play games. The computer is perceived as a form of entertainment and appears somewhat more appealing.
I decided to use this fact of life to my advantage and build a software program which would let my kids do their homework on the computer. Eureka, it worked. My 10 years old appears to be enjoying doing her spelling homework on the computer rather than having to deal with her persistent (nagging in kids language) parents. The results have been pretty good. The homework gets done, and my daughter has enjoyed very good grades at School. Most of the homework struggles have disappeared.
The "Spelling Home Work" also has benefits from a parents' perspective. It takes a parent approximately 15 minutes to create a new spelling list and associated sounds. Once created, you off the hook for the remainder of the week. I thought I might be able to share my success story with other parents and decided to market my small software. This is really a no risk investment considering the low cost and potential return.
THIS IS SHAREWARE
This "Spelling Home Word" is a Shareware product, it is not free. If you find this program to be of any benefit to your child, I would appreciate if you took the time to fill the enclosed registration form (register.txt) and sent in you $10 donation. You can freely distribute to other parties. This is my first crack at creating and marketing some shareware program. If I get a half decent response, I will keep building on version 1.0 and provide you the latest upgrades.
PACKAGE CONTENT
The "Spelling Home Work" program should have come to you with the following files:
HOMEWORK.EXE (Main application)
WORDLIST.TXT (Spelling word list)
WORD1.WAV, WORD2.WAV, THROUGH WORD20.WAV (Sound files)
EMPTY.WAV (Sound files)
PWDFILE (Password control file)
README.TXT (This file)
MANUAL.DOC (Owner manual)
CORRECT.BMP (Graphic files)
WRONG.BMP (Graphic files)
LOGO.BMP (Graphic files)
REGISTER.TXT (Registration file)
ERASEALL.BAT (DOS Batch file)
TECHNICAL STUFF
Minimum System Requirement:
* IBM Compatible - 486 (any speed)
* Windows 95
* Sound Card (to hear sounds)
* Microphone (to record words)
* 4 Megs RAM
* 10 Megs free hard drive space (20 Megs if include Owner Manual)
Installation Instruction (if received on floppy disks):
1. Place the diskette in your floppy drive (let's assume it is assigned to letter "a:").
2. Click on the "Start" button (lower left corner)
3. Click on the "Run..." item.
4. Type "a: install" in the window. (remember to replace the "a:" by your own floppy drive letter).
5. Click on OK button.
Installation Instruction (if downloaded from Internet "Homework.exe"):
1. Create a "HW" directory on your hard drive. (type "md c:\HW").
2. Copy the "Home.exe" self extracting file in the HW directory. (type "copy a:home.exe c:\hw").
3. Double click on the "Home.exe" file to extract the required files.
4. Delete the "Home.exe" file to save hard disk space. (del c:\hw\home.exe).
Create a shortcut to your new application:
1. With the mouse cursor on the desktop (all applications are minimized), right click the mouse.
2. Select "New".
3. Select "Shortcut".
4. In the Command line window, type "c:\hw\homework".
5. Click on "Finish" button.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
If you have any difficulties with the "Spelling Home Work" installation process, feel free to send me an Email at rrouette@mb.sympatico.ca.
