I never thought that my kids would go wild over software that didn't involve trading messages with their friends, finding some adorable fictional animal for adventures or sports statistics. Until now, my daughters have spent most of their time in front of the monitor either using AIM or visiting some fictional fuzzy world, while my son would be mesmerized by his fantasy leagues and high school friends.

Yet, when I installed Microsoft Student, the reception was overwhelming. This software is a combination of applications, including the Encarta reference set, a math tutor and a bunch of utilities to make school tasks easier.

Upon installation, the first thing you'll notice is the new search bar on your desktop. This is a multifunction search field that lets you search for a subject in the Encarta encyclopedia, for a definition in the dictionary, an entry in the thesaurus or lets you go straight to various entries in Encarta Kids, a colorful version of Encarta that makes looking up terms fun.

Type "davinci" into the bar when it is set to use Encarta Kids, and you'll immediately see a screen to guide the user through some of the most likely reasons to do the search as well as fun, learning activities.

Choose an article about Leonardo DaVinci. Or play a game about famous paintings -- can you find the painting created by DaVinci? Read an article about inventors and inventions. Or learn fun facts about the artist -- such as his involvement in the invention of the bicycle and the helicopter. (See, parents; you don't know everything about this famous man.)

Encarta Kids also provokes the child to learn about various topics. The home place lets her choose from topics that would interest the younger set -- including animals, science, sports and people. With lots of bright colors and large pictures, even social studies can seem fun.

Microsoft Math puts a scientific calculator and various tools at your child's fingertips. (Why did we have to spend $100 plus on that stand-alone calculator, anyway?) It has an equation solver, helps find formulas and even offers math tutorials on screen.

It's so helpful; it begs the adults in your home to sneak down to the computer to play with Microsoft Math so you can look smart when your child asks you to help solve the type of problem that you haven't seen in two decades.

I noticed that my kids started to depend on the Microsoft Student search fields immediately after it was installed. In many cases, they would choose to view maps from this service rather than going online, which is another advantage -- you don't need to have an Internet connection, although having one makes the experience better.

Learning Essentials, one of the applications that comes with Microsoft Student, helps the child (or adult) through critical school related tasks, such as creating various types of essays and presentations. With video tutorials on writing, researching and presenting, this application does more than let your child look up facts. It gives him a feel for how to get his tasks accomplished.

With all that, the feature that may be the most helpful is actually hidden. Microsoft Student lets you highlight a word or phrase and then press a key combination to pull up the pages that pertain to that word or phrase.

I'm not sure why Microsoft doesn't push this product harder. The street price online for Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007 ranges from $49 to $79.