Features

• Children gain: Confidence, Creativity, and Inspiration

Features

• Garfield -It's All About Math builds your child's abilities in basic math operations -Addition, multiplication, subtraction and division
• Garfield -It's All About Reading & Phonics has replayable games that will build knowledge of words, word sounds and pronunciation
• In Garfield -It's All About Writing & Grammar helps kids improve grammar, writing, memory and concentration skills
• Garfield -It's All About Vocabulary and Spelling offers 20 activities for superior phonics and vocabulary
• Ages 6-7

Reviews (4)

a terrific product for little Little Bear fans
We have already tried a number of software products for young children, and I would rank this as one of the very best. The material is true to the children's series, so you see most of the characters from the show (Owl, Cat, Hen, Duck, Father Bear -- though not Emily or Little Bear's grandparents) and Little Bear and Mother Bear's voices seem to be voiced by the same voice actors as those of the television show.

The CD starts with Mother Bear calling Little Bear into the house when it starts to rain, and quickly switches to the activity selection screen. There is: 1) cooking -- adding ingredients to a bowl, cutting out shapes, and decorating cookies; 2) costumes -- drag-and-dropping various costume pieces and props onto Little Bear, Duck, Cat, Owl or Hen; 3) painting -- using a variety of colors and fill patterns to color any of six different scenes; 4) stickers -- drag-and-dropping characters and props onto various scenes (campsite, garden, bedroom, picnic, boat or house); 5) puzzles -- drag-and-drop 4, 6 or 9 pieces onto a template; 6) matching -- finding pairs of characters' pictures amid a layout of 8 or 12 "cards". An activity section has 27 projects which can be printed out; these include recipes (fizzy lemonade, gingerfriends cookies), games (sound bingo, finger puppets) and arts & crafts projects (vegetable stamps, making a water xylophone). There are enough activities to keep a child interested for a long time and options, such as the number of puzzle pieces to fit, mean the activities can be interesting for children of different ages. At any point you can print scenes in one of three formats (a color picture, a coloring book line drawing, or as a card), and printing has been without bugs.

Running this on a PowerMac G4, installation was quick and easy. The only weak point is the booklet, which contains nothing but installation instructions.

Recommended for ages 3 and up, but we are assisting a younger child and he loves it. He can do some things himself but needs help with others.

This is a terrific product, and I endorse it without reservation.

You'll Have to beg them to get off the computer!
My son played with this software on the computer at our town library's children's room and I had to beg him to leave the library! We went back a few more times and I finally realized that this software would capture and keep his attention over and over again. He even asked for the software for his 4th Birthday present! Since he loved it, I thought it was great, and the librarians thought it was educational, I purchased it for him. Happy Birthday Tyler!

Little Bear - Rainy Day Activities
I read the reviews before I bought this product and found them so helpful I thought I'd write my own. My daughter loves this game. She's 3 and a half and can get around all by herself. The card memory game is so good for them yet simple enough so that it's not frustrating for them. Adding sprinkles and decorating cookies is also one of her favorites. There's so many variations to this game I'm sure your child will have a favorite, too. Enjoy!!

Wonderful software for any day
My 3 1/2 year old daughters love this computer game. It is very child-friendly. You don't have to be able to read to figure out what to do. They can easily get around from activity to activity without a problem. There are a number of different activities which my daughters really enjoy. They get to "make" gingerfriend cookies with Mother bear, adding the correct amount of ingredients for her. They then get to decorate the finished cookies. There is a coloring book that allows them to floodfill the areas for ease and fun. They can add pictures to a scene (kind of like a sticker book, but one that you can re-use :o)). They can dress-up Little Bear and his friends in costumes in another activity. This is a very good computer game that is well-worth the money. It is one of their favorites. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Can you help Fred, Velma, and the gang solve the mystery behind thePhantom Knight and his dragon? Scooby-Doo: Phantom of the Knight offerslaughs, pretty good animation, and a series of challenging puzzles to entertainyoung children for hours. Since the villain and clues change with each newadventure, replay is just as much fun as the very first game. Set up much likean episode of the classic television series, the program puts players in an old,castle-themed amusement park to explore for clues to its haunting. Some of thescarier areas will require feeding Scooby or Shaggy to coax them in; snacks canbe obtained by several tests of skill along the way.

Once enough clues have been collected, players decide who's to blame, then checkto see if the guess is right in an action sequence that closes play. Threelevels of difficulty are available, and each offers increasing pressure in theform of red-herring clues and harder challenges to acquire Scooby Snacks.Installation is very simple, and the CD-ROM comes with several Scooby-relatedgoodies like a printable poster and online previews of upcoming movies. (Ages 5to 10) --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (16)

hard but no replayability
I brought this for my daughter and played it myself first. I enjoyed the difficulty that the game play provided but was extremely dissappointed to find that the second time I played was exactly the same, all the items in the same place, the game play the same, it was easy. The only thing that really changes is the villan and the clues.
The kids have played once, with helpful hints from me to get them going when they got stuck. They havent been back which dosent surprise me as they tend not to replay games that do not have some varability.
It could have been a great game as it has the difficulty but without varibility it is not as good as it could be.
Solving the villian and clues does not play a big enough part in the game to make it replayable.

Great fun & learning
My 5-yr-old LOVES this game! With an age range being 5-10 I thought it'd be too hard for her, but after I showed her how to play, she can solve the mystery with her favorite characters. Yes, it is basically the same mystery over & over, but that's what she likes about it (It's like reading a favorite book again & again). There's alot of logic & sequencing needed & builds memory skills. You have to remember how to get to all the different rooms through many secret passages and find the clues in a certain order. This is loads of fun. We will be getting the rest of these mystery adventures.

Parents Cheapsheet for this potential Frustrating game.
It took me an hour to realize that to get past the first suspect and clue, you needed to give the "feather duster" to the old lady. That opens the locked door and makes the most of the other suspects appear. For the other locked door in the town, listen carefully to the Jester's rhyme after you give him the first ball.

With these two hints, the game is just like the "Jinx at the Sphinx". Without them, you will want to throttle the programmers. I played the game myself before I let my 5 yr old play. Since I knew the tricks, he enjoyed it completely.

Good Luck.

Disappointing Waste of Money
Bought this program for my 7 year old son. (The product says ages 5-10). What a piece of [...] this is! I have had other programs from the Learning Company that perform rather well. While installing this program you are forced to install lots of other junk "tag-a-long" programs (AOL, Quick time etc.)just to complete the install. Finally getting the program to run I, the 36 year old adult could not figure out how to make any progress in the game at all. How can I expect my son to figure it out? It was Impossible to even get to the games in which you earn "Scooby Snacks" that are needed to get around in the Castle. Printed out the entire "Book" of instructions and still could not get anywhere. I wish I would have read the other reviews first, I would not have bought it. My son doesn't even want to try it anymore since it's so frustrating.

Not for Little Ones
I bought this for my 5 year old and were BOTH stuck! He has played it several times and can't get past the first clue. He became frustrated with this game and stopped playing it. I too thought maybe it was me, but I am apparently not the only one out there who wasted their money on this game. I can only hope the other games for Scooby fans are better, as my son now wants a new one since "this one won't work". ... Read more

Features

• Zoombinis Logical Journey is a math adventure -- the evil Bloats have taken over Zoombini Isle, and it's up to you to get the Zoombinis to safety
• In Zoombini Mountain Rescue, kids have to use their math skills to save the Zoombinis trapped on Zoombini Isle's tallest mountain!
• Kids will test their logical thinking and mathematic skills, without ever using numbers
• Print out activities and let kids take them along anywhere
• Skills include -Data analysis, critical thinking, testing & formulation of theories, Pattern-matching, and many more

Reviews (7)

My 8 yr old loves I spy!
For those who say this is boring, maybe your kids should just stick to video games. My son is loving the books and the computer games. He conquers them pretty quickly and we have to buy more but hey, it's getting his mind working looking for hidden items. We went for an open house at his school a few months ago and the teacher picked up an I Spy book and said that it was the main thing all the kids fought over in class. We love all the books, computer games and the gameboy game that is out. Good investment for little thinkers out there!

Can't find 12th ladybug!
I really like this game but I am annoyed that I can't find the last ladybug in the find me game. I can find no game hint support sites either. Has anyone else had this problem? Is it a bug (ha ha) in the program? I have spent weeks looking but always find the ones I've already found. Can anyone out there help me? I am not a child, but my daughter can't find it either. Apparantly the game will not finish until all bugs are found because I have found all the treasures. Does this game not have more than one complete game to play? I thought it had 3 like treasure hunt.
Thanks,

Will Keep You Thinking....
My 6 year old daughter loves this game. It is not easy and keeps her thinking. I some times find some of the items hard to find but with persistance you will find them. It is never boring. The whole family enjoys this software.

Elementary Kids Love It!
I am a computer lab teacher in an elementary school. Last year, I used this software for quite a few weeks when my Kindergarten through Grade 3 students came in for activity period. Students in grades 4-6 would beg to get a chance to use the software when their assignment for the day was completed.

It was a stretch for Kindergarten to find some of the items, because they did not recognize some of the items in the riddles, but I made sure to point these out in lessons and then circulated to help them more.

It was exciting to watch as students became absorbed in this activity, and most of them grew in their visual and verbal awareness. Children in grades 1-3 could either click to hear the descriptions or read for themselves.

Yes, it is on the shelf this year, but will taken out to be used in two years. This year I bought I Spy Spooky Mansion for use, and next year hope to get the Î Spy Treasure software if I can find the funding.

I Spy School Days-big bore
My six year old great nephew completed all of the activities within two hours. He was moderately interested in the beginning and bored by the time he finished. I watched as he played, and thought they were boring, too. ... Read more

Features

• Kids will enjoy Garfield -It's All About Math Readiness -- great number and counting games help children to face math problems
• With Garfield -It's All About Thinking Skills they'll play 15 thinking games to develop matching, pairing and ordering activities
• In Garfield -It's All About Phonics they'll enjoy 15 activities that teach the basics of phonics, vowels and consonants, while promoting memory and concentration
• Ages 4-5

Amazon.com Product Description

Ariel returns to the sea with her curious daughter Melody in Disney's The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. Kids join Ariel, Melody, Sebastian, and new hosts Tip and Dash on exciting adventures in the underwater world of Atlantica.

Five activity areas feature arcade play, music, and creative fun. Kids dive to daring depths with Melody and Sebastian in a hunt for precious gems. Choreograph underwater dances, sing along with a selection of sea-themed karaoke activities, and more. Three undersea environments and 15 levels keep kids challenged and entertained. Plus, the cool purse makes it easy to share the fun with a friend. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

My Girls Love It!!
My daughter received this for her fourth birthday and she plays with it everyday. It is also interesting enough that my 8 year-old also plays with it. I had to help the 4 year-old quite a bit in the first week or two, reinforcing where to click, how to get from screen to screen, etc., but she's able to navigate the program herself now. I wouldn't recommend it for younger than 4 though, it has a lot of features that can get confusing for the little ones. My 8 year-old uses the program to its full potential, making picture scenes with props, sounds and colors, choreographing characters in an acrobatic show, playing a "pac-man" style maze game starring Melody and playing a diving game as well. For the price, I was surprised that it had such good features and pretty straight forward directions and navigation. It's a hit at our house! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

PC Users Don't Deserve the Actual Game?
Spiderman 2 for the PC is without a doubt one of the most misleading and ridiculously simplified games of the year. It is more difficult to put into words my frustration with this game without using profanities then it is to finish the title. The pitfalls of this game are numerous and quite damaging; enough to make you quickly return it to whence you bought it.

The most important aspect about this game to note is that IT IS NOT THE SAME AS THE CONSOLE VERSION. If you scan the box closely you will notice that this game has been given the ESRB rating of 'E', and is geared towards children of the ages eight and up. If you were taken by the similar box art and title, you may have noticed upon installing it that the controls are horrendously simplified and the gameplay is lackluster at best. The crosshair is a spider icon that, when readying an action, will display what you are attempting to do - whether it be 'zipping' from buildings or 'swinging' from the preset swing icons next to buildings. It is a game for children, and it does not try to hide it. The voice acting is terrible and the story is extremely linear and choppy, jumping from each boss to the next without much explaination.

Since I must keep this short, I'll conclude by adding that Activision should be ashamed for putting this kind of 'bait and switch' title on the market. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Little hard hats will have a dynamite time blasting boulders, commanding the crane, and driving trucks from backhoes to bulldozers as they construct all kinds of buildings. Incredible activities, realistic controls, and countless choices give kids a new thrill every time. (Ages 4-7) ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Fun, fun, fun
I am a teacher of pre-school children with physical disabilities. The children in my classroom LOVE this game. They were so motiviated to play it that they learned to clip, drag and drive the trucks themselves. These are children who otherwise have motor and perceptual difficulties. They sing the songs together and have a great time. I highly recommend it to parents, and teachers alike. My only problem is getting them to play something else!

Plain Old Fun
My 4 1/2 year old son loves playing this game. It's just plain fun for him. He does not have difficulty in moving the mouse to perform various functions. In fact, he seems to be able to move about within the program very well. I would recommend this game.

again, simple, but loved by my son
This allows my son to smash things or blow em up, build things, and make pictures. OK, relatively mindless, but he loves it and can interact instead of passing watching the TV.

Recommended with these limitations in mind. It is a good deal in this day and age when taking your kids to the movies can bust the budget.

A good title ruined by unreliable software and lack of testi
This would be a great game, but on the Mac it freezes up the whole machine after one or two minutes of play, and on the PC it loses sound intermittently. Also some of the activities evidently have not been properly play tested - e.g. the crane game requires far too much precision for a young child, otherwise it would be a great fine motor activity...

Would be a great game, but software flaky and untested
This would be a great game, but on the Mac it freezes up the whole machine after one or two minutes of play, and on the PC it loses sound intermittently. Also some of the activities evidently have not been properly play tested - e.g. the crane game requires far too much precision for a young child, otherwise it would be a great "fine motor" activity. I would say spend the extra $$$ and get Tonka Digs 'n' Rigs, which is very similar, is much more reliable, and comes with add on controls for the PC. [NB: since I originally wrote this review, we've had more success running this on the PC, and if we avoid the frustrating activities such as the crane, my 4 year old actually does get a lot of enjoyment from some of the other activities. I'll now upgrade my rating from 1 star to 3 stars, but I'd still recommend Digs 'n' Rigs over this title.] ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Decorate Cinderella's castle, filling it with furnishings, pictures, and even food before bringing in the world's most downtrodden stepdaughter and her friends. With this game, Cinderella fans ages 5 and older can design their heroine's living spaces, print out especially well-decorated rooms, and experiment with a new variation on the age-old pastime of playing with dolls.

Disney's Cinderella Dollhouse is really a basic paint program posing as a watered-down version of The Sims. Players decorate Cinderella's kitchen, bedroom, and ballroom, but instead of adorning each empty space with flat images, girls choose from a gallery of interactive objects. What does this mean? Put a flute in Cinderella's hand and she will actually play it; give her a tray of cupcakes and she will offer them to everyone in the room. Adding different characters to the mix will change what they do and say. Girls can thus create scenes where the wicked stepsisters argue, or--by swapping the cast around--they can induce the Prince to make a declaration of love to Cinderella. The number of possible combinations is respectably large, and Disney provides a monthly download of additional objects to keep gameplay from getting stale.

Unfortunately, this game is something of a one-trick pony. Unlike an adult-oriented simulator, the characters' prerecorded responses to game objects are controlled by very simple rules. There are no deviations from the basic Cinderella script, girls cannot create their own characters, and ultimately, the animations don't disguise the fact that this is just another clip art gallery with new bells and whistles. Even with the game updates, older girls will outgrow the dollhouse swiftly. What's more, occasional sound glitches and a long introduction sequence--which can't be skipped--make the process of getting started tedious.

That said, the game does have appealing graphics and expands nicely on the concept of an electronic sticker book--an activity that is usually tossed into other games as a poorly executed afterthought. For younger girls who are fond of this particular fairy tale, or who have already shown that they enjoy decoration-themed programs, Disney's Cinderella Dollhouse makes a good selection. --Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (12)

One of the Best Kids Games We Own!
We bought this game two months ago, along with two other kids games, and this one is by far our favorite kids game! When I say we, I mean my 7 year old who bought it with birthday money, her two sisters who are old enough to play computer games, me, my friend who lives with us (age 21), even my husband has sat down and messed around with it. It is just addictive, and fun.

Not only do you get to decorate 6 rooms (Step-mother's parlor and kitchen, the mice room, and the bedroom, ballroom, and garden in the castle) then you can place people in the room and they will talk to each other. You can place items in their hands (such as flowers, food, a brush, a flute, much more) and hear them talk about what they are holding. Talk, and sometimes more! I love to have the flute out and people sitting at the piano in the step-mothers parlor. Hand something to Anastasia, and she'll say something (or sometimes say and do something), sometimes Cinderella will answer her, sometimes it will be Drizzella, the step-mother, or the Prince. It is totally fun and sometimes very funny to hear what they say to each other and see what they do with the items you give them. The game is also very easy to play and navigate, my five year old has no trouble playing all by herself.

I do have three complaints against the game, one that was resolved by another persons review (thanks!). First off, we have been frustrated by the Fairy Godmothers long introduction to the game, which we did not know we could skip by hitting the space bar. They never told us that, we would sit through the whole long poem, which isn't bad, but if you have heard it 20 times already you would rather just get to the game. Problem solved now, though. The next thing that frustrates us is that occasionally one of the characters decides to look around (they don't say anything, they just look around) and you can't do anything while they look. It is a minor annoyance, just as you go to place an item into the scene, the Prince just has to look around a couple times, and you have to wait about 30 seconds or so until he is done. The third thing that frustrates us is that we are supposed to be able to download new decorative items from online, but we try and try and can not make it work. Even with these annoyances, it is still a great game that we love and play a lot.

basically a dollshouse
The game lives up to its name, its a dollshouse. You pick the furniture and put it where you like almost as a number of things refuse to allow you to place them where you want even when there is plenty of room. You cannot place an object or person behind another item unless you put the back item in first.
The fun part is decorating the rooms and seeing the characters you place in the rooms interact. It would have been nice to have had more variety in the characters as you only get two cinderellas, anastasia drusella and the stepmother, the prince, three mice, a dog, aa cat and a couple of birds.
You can change the wallpaper, floor, ceiling, curtains etc (three choices of each) Also the furniture has three choices.
Disappointing is the promised downloadable decorations, they downloaded but wont run.
Overall the game is click and point, so the kids are not amused long and seldom return. It came in a package with three other games otherwise I probably would not have purchased it but games geared towards girls a few and far between with disney and barbie being almost the only ones.

Worst... Kid's Software... Ever.
Believe me, kid's software in general is not that great (though there are some notable exceptions.) So it is a pretty big deal for me to say that this is the worst kid's software I have ever seen. It literally kept my kid busy for about half an hour, and when I looked at it I saw why; no challenge, no interest, very little content.

The premise of the game is that you go to all these different rooms from the Cinderella mythos (the basement, Cinderella's bedroom in the castle, etc) and drop furniture, characters, and objects onto them. Sometimes these objects will interact with each other. Kind of like the excellent Catz! series, except for way more static and non-interactive.

First of all, even if this was enough to carry a game, which it's not, there's hardly any decent content. There are like 5 rooms total, and maybe 6 or 8 characters, and probably 30 total furniture and object items to throw on there. And then, your kid is done playing.

My daughter, who is 5 years of age, summed it up nicely: "Daddy, this game is boring."

Avoid, avoid, avoid. A waste of money at any price.

A very Good Game
My 5 year old enjoys this very much. She got it last year from Santa, so she was able to navigate it at age 4. This is her favorite of the Princess Games. However, she gets very frustrated with the Fairy Godmother telling her "No Room There", because while you can drag and drop the furniture, you cannot overlap it. When the room is full, nothing else will go in.

However, she has spent countless hours with this program, and overall enjoys it quite a bit.

Not one of our favorites
Our three very computer literate daughters (ages 3 to 5) didn't respond to this game. The graphics were much slower to come up on screen than other games of this type and you don't get to be very creative with where you put the items in each room. They also didn't like that the click and drag didn't work as well as it does in the Little Mermaid II game. Overall, we wouldn't recommend this one. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Based on the School Zone workbook series, this program incorporates critical math skills with interactive exercises and fun games. A solid curriculum, audio guidance, and clear examples help your child master essential preschool skills, including problem solving, following directions, and hand-eye coordination. The program randomizes problems with each use, providing a different experience each session. Engaging games provide an important break. ... Read more