You've probably heard your share of ideas to get your youngsters motivated to do their chores.  My personal favorite is the jar of marbles.  When your child does his or her chores they get some marbles.  When the jar is full, they can cash them in for a reward.  This method is great for reinforcing good behavior (and you can deduct marbles bad behavior). 

Today we have a software version of the same idea.  It is a lot more exciting then the jar and probably less likely to produce neighborhood marble thieves.  The program is called My Reward Board and is available as a 15-day Free Trial from http://www.myrewardboard.com  It runs on a Windows PC and features a task chart, a goal monitor, an allowance piggy bank, a demerit dart board, and a few jokes and puzzles.

It does require as much attention from the parents as it does the children (meaning you will do a lot of entering and approving information).  But hey, if that's all it takes to keep them motivated... I'm game.

It seems like the majority of children’s software these days requires the CD in the drive in order to run. It’s an effective copy protection tool, but also a huge pain in the bum. Sure preschoolers can handle CD-ROM’s… but have you seen what they can do to them?

The solution is known as drive emulation. Basically, you take a part of your hard drive and make it act like a CD-ROM. There are many tools available. Today, we will look at one of the more popular titles… Alcohol 52% (and yes, it’s okay for minors).

Alcohol 52% is the little brother of Alcohol 120% and is offered in both a free and paid version. The free version requires you to install the Protection Database Search Toolbar. This is not adware, spyware or any other devious underhand thing. It provides you with access to a protection database to see what protection is used on a game along with the ability to search the Internet for information. If you don’t want another browser toolbar, there is the option to uninstall it at http://www.alcohol-toolbar.com/

The free version allows for 6 simultaneous virtual CD-ROM drives (probably more than enough) and the paid version supports 31. It’s not hard to use, but definitely not for Luddites.

To download the free version, go to http://www.free-downloads.net/programs/Alcohol_52__Free_Edition