Managing a household with two teens and a toddler can be chaotic at times! We are currently dealing with year 8 and year 10- and all the assignments that go with it! This time of year is especially full on- the kids are working on their final assessments and getting ready for exams and everyone is getting a bit cranky (especially me!).
It can be hard to motivate them and coordinate all the assessments due. The good thing is they do get a lot of class time to work on their assessments, however then they need to come home and type up all the hand written work- and this is where it all falls down! My kids are TERRIBLE at typing. They went to a primary school with no computer skills classes and it's definitely set them back in high school. It is painful to sit there as they type oh-so-slowly and everything takes forever... and this is where Dragon comes in! Dragon Dictate is a program that gives them the option of dictating their notes to the computer... so no typing!!!
Dragon is designed to recognise your voice. When you set it up you go through a voice recognition process, which means that it makes less mistakes because it understands your voice patterns. Once you've finished teaching it you complete the basic training to show you how to use it- then off you go!
Sure, it makes the occasional spelling mistake or mishears you, but it's easily corrected once you learn the voice commands. It's a million times better than the voice control software they used to have when I was younger- it never worked!!! I dreamed of being able to just talk to the computer instead of having to type endlessly. My daughter never stops talking and it can be hard to get her to sit down and be quiet to work- so this way she can combine the talking and the working!
We've been spending the holidays ploughing through all the assignments (in-between my daughter's babysitting work and my son's volunteer work at the zoo) and it's just made life so much easier! They are loving just reading their class notes to the computer (and even the 2 year old is having a bit of fun with it!). I have to say- even I'm enjoying it! I've been using it to work on some blog posts and I can multi task thanks to the very long cord on the headphones!
So if you need some help motivating your teenagers to get their homework done I can recommend Dragon. To help you make the most of your time we are also giving away 5 Dragon packs to 5 lucky readers. To enter tell us why you need Dragon in your life!
This post has been brought to you by Dragon by Nuance. Dragon is available at Harvey Norman, Office Works and as a digital download. For more information please visit Dragon
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Deborah
This would be a great help to the girls espically the one starting high school next year but also I would find this very useful and time saving once I got used to the system
Sandra
I would love to win a Dragon, this would help make my Virtual Assistant business be more efficient and therefor saving money for my clients. I could do so much whilst talking away. I’d love to be able to blog more to help inform clients and friends on time saving tips, prepare how to documents as well as get the word out there about the Virtual Assistant industry, how it gives back business owners time to concentrate on the tasks that only they can do in business!
Jazz
Dragon would make life so much easier with the kids' homework. This term or instance my eldest is working on a series of poems and he finesses his lines by saying them out loud. Once he is happy with it all he then needs to take the time to write it all down and he might forget a few words as part of the process. With Dragon it could scribe his attempts and ensure nothing is lost.
Sandra
I would love to win this for my 9yr old daughter who's in year 4. She has dyspraxia & all the writing at school is wearing her out. Her teacher said she could type her homework, however even the process to tap a key is infinitely painful for all involved. What a magic system!!
Michelle Miles
I would love this for my nearly 7 yr old who has just discovered the joy of story writing on the computer but spends the whole time yelling at me HOW DO I SPELL .................................?
Danielle Knayer
This would be very useful for my reluctant writer who avoids any tasks which involve writing and is often late handing in assignments due to this.
tori
Dragon would make my son's life so much easier. He is nearly 7 and in year 1. He has multiple special needs including autism and his hand strength is incredibly poor. He struggles to write as a result and his teacher spends a lot of time transcribing for him to save him from struggling with handwriting. For him to be able to sit and use this in class (and at home) would literally change his life for the better - and hopefully it would mean that his exhaustion would ease so he could attend school fulltime again!
Lisa
I used to use a version of Dragon for work years ago. It was such fun, so quick and amazingly accurate. With Dragon, I could breathe fire into writing the book that's been stagnate for five years.
Janet Hopkins
With 3 young children moving through primary school and my husband and I both with our own businesses Dragon dictation would make us more time efficient during the afternoon homework crazy hour and really light our fire!
Karla Oleinikoff
My eldest daughter is starting High School, but still has trouble with her writing. This would make her assignments so much easier, and save on tears and frustration.
Dannyel Hodgskiss
Would love to win one for my little sister to help her be able to complete her homework a lot quicker as she is slow at typing and would save my hands wrists and fingers, it would then be passed on to my niece and nephew and then to my children
Karen Aldrich
This would be fantastic! It would save me from becoming a dragon. It gets very stressful in our home when my son and daughter both have assignments. My daughter is dyslexic and extremely independent. This makes for lots of frustration. If we had a dragon she could embrace her independence!
jenni schulz
Teenage daughter loves writing stories/songs, spelling not so good, but we are getting there 🙂 Also looking after my Mother with dementia. Would certainly help with managing my time better.
Cristal
wouls love this for MY study as well as for my son later on!!
Ellie
I would love to win this for my Brother (14years) and he can then pass it down to my daughter (4years) It would be amzing to have such a handy tool that makes doing homework that little more fun 🙂 Goodluck Everyone ♡