Features

• They'll work as secret agents and travel to every continent to track down the mad scientist, Dr. Listick
• As they travel, they'll learn more than 30 skills that they'll need to use in their missions against the evil scientist
• Skills include -blends and digraphs, estimation, contractions, odd & even numbers, Roman numerals, time, vocabulary and more
• Prepare your children for school by giving them a jump start -- use JumpStart Advanced 2nd Grade!

Reviews (2)

DONT BUY THIS
(....)I cannot install this on XP. I have tried all the work arounds found on the "Support" web site and a few of my own but it will not allow me to install. I am a software developer and know this software is flawed--they did not test it on XP.

Reader Rabbit reading Phoincs 3-6 Jewel case
This is not working in my system from the first day of having it, I have WINDOWS XP. I am so NOT happy I am not sure how to go about returning it asap even for an exchange. Please help me.
Angelia ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Storytelling reinforces key listening and vocabulary skills. Using 63 Crayola crayon colors and 18 fun textures, children can create realistic, dimensional scenes. They can color and save 20 3-D scenes plus a title page from each adventure story, then simply edit the colored scenes together for a slide show with voiceover and music. Children may also print storybooks in color or black and white or as line drawings. They can create these storybooks with or without text. ... Read more

Features

• Your child will have fun at Camp Happy Tails, with Reader Rabbit and Mat the Mouse. Together they'll go on a learning adventure where they'll save the campfire celebration.
• They'll use their thinking and puzzle solving skills to locate important supplies across the island
• Great games help kids think mathematically, learn spatial relationships, and build language skills
• Also includes lots of songs, ghost stories and poems, for creative interactive fun

Amazon.com Product Description

Now kids can play and learn with their favorite Learning Company characters online at KidsEdge, the safe, family-friendly Web site with over 170 educational games and growing. Parents receive detailed progress reports, as well as recommendations for helping their children excel. One membership covers the entire family. This package contains the KidsEdge travel CD-ROM, which allows kids to play games even when they’re not connected to the Internet, and the ClueFinders Mystery Adventure CD-ROM. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Absolute Junk!
If you are a computer expert, enjoy constant crashes and unavailable servers and your child has patience beyond belief then this is the product for you. This product does not work! We spent a week trying to log on to the server which was down, then when we finally got on and registered the games and activites (which are no very good at all) take about 10 minutes to come up before you can play them. If you are hoping that you will be able to let your child play independently with this product, you better think again. You will be the one trying to navigate the instructions and reading the rules. Your child will be able to click every once in a while when you tell them to click on a certain item, but that is about it. DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT!!

Smart Choice
So glad to see you finally added this product. I have been hooked on the Kidsedge website for a year now. It is the best all around educational "magazine" I have found. I get great ideas for my third graders -- the ones who need motivation and the GATE kids. We used it today during science and ended up at a virtual museum tour on bugs. I couldn't get the kids to stop for lunch! The articles are interesting, and I am always downloading them for the teacher's room. My husband teaches computers in high school and liked the recent article on cheating in America. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Invaluable
I've tried both Encarta 2004 and Britannica 2004. As other reviews here pointed out, Britannica is also good, but the interface leaves a lot to be desired and program is very very sluggish. I'm on a 1.6Mhz Pentium 4 Windows XP system, with 1 gigabyte of memory. So I was a bit surprised how slow it was.

I decided to go with Encarta because it's faster, has more multimedia, and I like how Microsoft updates it (and displays a list of what was updated/added). I haven't tried the older versions of Encarta so I cannot compare, but 2004 looks and works fine for me. Some have complained about the Visual Browser "carousel" on the main page of the program. This can easily be disabled in the program options if it annoys you. The Encarta interface is very clean and organized. Colorful detailed buttons on the toolbar make it very easy to access the most common tasks and the search function is very fast. It seems the more you dig into it, the more goodies you'll find. There are great interactivities, games, dynamic atlas, 3D and 2D virtual tours, thousands of quotations, an entire dictionary program, and lots more. If you're used to the Internet Explorer browser, the "Favorites" menu in Encarta is identical and a great way to bookmark and organize your favorite places in this vast program. It's very easy to get "lost" for hours just clicking around.

I haven't looked through an encyclopedia on CD-ROM since the early 90's when CD-ROM technology was just starting to take off. I'm pleased to see how detailed and invaluable they've become. I'd recommend this to anyone.

I love this product!
I've not seen Encarta before so I have no idea about previous versions. However, this version is very impressive. I'm a computer professional and I can say that very few products have a user interface that 'flows' this well. My primary reason to get this was for my 10-year-old, but I think I'll be using it a lot more than her. The maps, dictionaries, articles, and links to related content on the web are great, but how they are all tied together is what really makes this product shine.

It does take a while to load and you want to install everything on your hard drive (about 2Gig). If you don't load everything to your disk then you'll wear out your arm swapping between the 5 CDs when you look at different articles.

Good, but better Encarta Reference Library
It is better to buy Encarta Reference Library, because it has more text and features (Atlas and so on). I have reviewed it if you want extra information. The system requirements are about the same.

Encarta 2004 versus Britannica 2004
I have bought both Encarta and Britannica for years (EB in printed edition too: 32 volumes, 32.000 sheets). This is my opinion in brief: Encarta is excellent in all aspects, but Britannica's authoritative text (sometimes outdated) makes interesting to buy both.
TEXT: Britannica is a superb encyclopedia in text (not in visual aid) since 1768 (you know: an article by Einstein and so on...). Text in electronic version differs from printed encyclopedia (very large articles have been shortened). Britannica claims that it has more items than Encarta, but this is a joke: articles like "Mexico" are only one (with a lot of subdivisions) in Encarta, while in Britannica subdivisions are unconnected, and you must "jump" from one subdivision to another, which is slow and very annoying, especially if you want to copy it in "WORD". Very often, the text is not updated.
In the other hand, Encarta's text is not bad at all. Most articles have the name of their contributors (professions, works...): They are not John Doe. You can find large fragments of literary works, literature guides, a lot of sidebars and thousands of quotations. "Encarta Africana" is included. The Pop-Up (double clicking a word) Dictionary and Thesaurus has sound for correct pronunciation (by the way, it can read aloud, with a robotic and ugly voice, a whole article). The "Translation Dictionaries" to Spanish, French, German and Italian must be improved, because they are minimal. It gives you a lot of "Internet links", even if you are not connected. With Britannica you must be "on-line" and it searches in an EB Web page.
In theory you can update Britannica over the Internet free for a year quarterly (4 times), but this does not work: You can not find new files. Encarta can be updated free EVERY WEEK with new articles and additions or corrections to the old ones (till October 2004). With Encarta updating really works. Technically, is amazing to see the changes in old items.
ATLAS Britannica has not a real atlas; only a worlds map whose maximum detail is the States of USA. Statistics are very poor. Encarta's Atlas is like another encyclopedia, with a great detail (1 cm/ 4 km all over the world) and 20 types of atlas presentations (statistical ones can be counted by dozens). If you look a geographical article (city, river...) you can see in a corner where it is placed and, with only a click, open the atlas. In articles of cities, if you are on-line, you can see in another corner the weather of this place in that moment. If it is a USA place, you can read the latest news.
MULTIMEDIA: They say that "serious" or "adult" readers do not care about "pictures"; that multimedia is only for kids. I do not agree, because I think that, sometimes, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Works of art, anatomy, historical maps, diagrams ... Encarta devastates Britannica with a lot of photos, paintings, drawings, charts & tables, animations, interactivities, videos, music and sounds, pictures, 2-D and 3-D virtual tours, 360-degrees views, timeline, games... It is not only the quantity and quality. It is the easy access you have to all the multimedia, and that text and multimedia are fully integrated. Britannica is not really multimedia. It has photos and videos, but they make the program slow and sluggish. They should edit an alternative version with only text, as they did with the first edition in 1995. It worked fast and easy in old computers.
INTERFACE AND PERFORMANCE: This is the worst side of Britannica. With Encarta you only have to type a word or the beginning of a word to see all the articles and multimedia that contain it. If Encarta does not find anything, it gives you automatically alternative spellings. Even if you write the name of a small village lost in any country, you see it in the atlas. If you need to copy text or pictures, the integration with Microsoft WORD is perfect. It has additional ways to find content, including subject or multimedia browsing, "related articles" and the standard A-Z method. The "Research Organizer" is very helpful too. Encarta's TEXT FONT is very clear (Britannica's...) and you can choose 3 sizes.
Navigating with Britannica is different. 2004 edition is better than 2003 one, but still it is disappointing. I will only give you an example: if you do not know the exact and correct spelling of a name or word, it does not help you with similar spellings (unless you open a window and fight with it). As I said before, the program's performance speed is very slow and sluggish, and it must be dramatically improved. To go "back and forward" you do not find any icon and you need to open a "menu".... One "pro" for Britannica: they say it works with Macintosh.
I repeat my modest piece of advice: Encarta is excellent in all aspects, but Britannica's authoritative text (sometimes outdated) make interesting to buy both.

Good in a Very Microsoftish Way
Encarta is good. It is very easy to use. It has a web site that a registered user could access. Its world map is far superior than the Encyclopaedia Britannica's. However, its contents are sometimes not that good.

For example, I searched "John Rawls," a prominent moral and political philosopher, today. Its first line reads:

[ Rawls, John (1921-), American moral and political philosopher, whose major work, A Theory of Justice, has had a profound impact on ethics and political theory since its publication in 1971. ]

For God's sake, Rawls died on Nov 22, 2002. It's March 21, 2004 today. And Encarta, which supposedly should be updated weekly, did nothing to correct this mistake. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Playing 3rd Grade Adventures is a lot like falling intothe middle of a Saturday morning cartoon adventure. On the first CD- ROM, "The Mystery of Mathra," Uncle Horace is lost in a South Americanrain forest said to be the home of Mathra, an evil mythical bird. Youhave to join with a team of young rescuers to find Horace and learnwhat's destroying the jungle. But get ready to practice a lot of math,reading, science, geography, and problem-solving skills along theway.

Following this long and twisted tale takes players through "The MonkeyKingdom and the Goo Forest," where problems are presented by a colorfulcast of apes, spiders, and even a quartet of talking flowers that sounda bit like the Beatles. Each problem solved earns you whimsical itemsfor bartering--sneezeberries, goo beetles, or snagnets--that laterbecome your ticket to the keys to the Lost City, where Mathra resides.

Solving "The Mystery of Mathra" takes a lot of perseverance. Althoughthe game is rated for children aged 7 to 9, and is equipped with asystem that adjusts the program to different ability levels, it'sreally too difficult for 7- and 8-year-olds to play alone. But 3rdGrade Adventures' games are clever, and kids will love playingalong with the animated characters. The package also offers a secondCD-ROM full of printable workbooks and activity sheets--just in caseparents feel their kids are having too much fun. (Ages 7 to 9) -- Sharon Griggins ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Few Math problems that can be solved by trial and error
In this game the two characters travel down a trail that takes them to places where they have to solve "ONE" math problem. Therefore, children playing this game don't get much practice and do not learn anything. Even worse, you can solve this multple choice problem by trial and error and then proceed down the trail to the next math problem. My four year old that does not know any math is able to complete the game just by trying every answer at every math station. My two daughters do like this game, but it does not teach them any math. The Jump Start Math for Second Graders is actually much more challenging. There at every stage chidren have to solve many problems and sometimes they have little time to do this.

Excellent and challenging for a 3rd grader
Cluefinders 3rd grade is terrific. It has provided hours of fun for my daughter and her friends. I like to play it with her, too. I'd highly recommend it.

Cluefinders 3rd Grade
I've played a lot of different educational games and this one is the best so far! I'm seven and love it. I especially like the geography. I like the story and the graphics too. It's easy to understand and also challenging.

Getting Better
Even though I'm getting a little too old,my like of this game is high.It gets scarier and better the farther you go,and it is very fun.I suggest that it is a good way to learn and have fun at the same time.

My son loves it!
My son loves this game. His approval means a lot, because he has practically every educational game for his skill level and can really compare. He is now asking me to buy him the 4th, 5th and 6th grade version of Clue Finders, so that when he is ready he could start playing them right away. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Get ready for some high-flying fun with Ms. Frizzle and her inquisitive class as they discover the magic of flight. The Magic School Bus Discovers Flight Activity Center lets kids spread their wings and learn about flight, aircraft, and animals that fly. There are art activities, arcade-style games, and science experiments: kids can play games like Blaze Blasters, pilot a hot-air balloon, and earn lots of feathers for their flight cap. Players will learn science concepts through activities hosted by characters from the popular Magic School Bus TV show. The activities are designed to satisfy the demands of both education and entertainment. ... Read more

Features

• As they travel through the space circus & see event from all over the galaxy, they'll learn all sorts of vital math skills
• Learn about number patterns, fractions, logic, problem solving and more
• Over 50 math skills are exercised
• As kids learn they earn SmartPoints, which they can trade in online for prizes
• Also includes trial version of Virtual Classroom

Product Description

Teaches essential skills for school. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Very Helpful Study Tool for the GRE
I really found this study tool to be quite helpful in preparing for the GRE. It helped me significantly improve my scores. I followed the personalized study plan the program devised for me based on my performance on the diagnostic and my specified time table. Furthermore, I learned to master the nuances of the computer adaptive format of the GRE. Although the program is a bit juvenile at times with the cartoons and movies, it helps enliven the sometimes dull GRE content and lessons. I would definitely recommend this product.

Crashes constatly
Impossible to use under Windows XP, since it constantly crashes.

Highly NOT recommended.

Can't tell you if it's any good--won't run on Windows XP
This program repeatedly fails to run on Windows XP Media Center Edition (on a Hyper-Threading chip)--it freezes up, even if I set it up to run in W95 & W98 Compatability modes.

Apparently, others have had the same problem, and TOPICS Entertainment (Well, ENCORE, however they're related) has recently acknowledged that it won't run on ANY XP platforms.

Sub-Par
I bought this and am quite frustrated with it. As has been mentioned there are silly/slow cartoons that you must watch everytime. In addition many parts of the program are broken and there is no patch to fix this. For example, the sound cuts in and out randomly. Also on some of the practice tests you cannot check your answers to learn what tricks were used to solve them, even though you should be able to, thr program gets confused and does not allow one access.

Could be better
I bought this set so I could prepare for the GRE, since there are not many options for CAT-specific software. While I find some of the low-budget cartoons amusing (there are segments where the program tries to make you chuckle), the software has some pretty big problems. The audio for many sections cuts in and out, which can be a bit frustrating in the middle of lessons. Also some of the word drills available in the games section don't work very well. I'd have to say that when the tutorials are working, it's a fun program that tries to put you at ease. However considering all of the glitches, I'd recommend searching more for other potential CAT-specific GRE prep programs. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Experience a thrilling Egyptian adventure with this award-winning software featuring A.D.A.P.T. Learning Technology! Join The ClueFinders on an archaeological dig and uncover a sinister plot to unleash an ancient force upon the world. Decipher ancient scrolls, collect clues, and rescue lost relics. The ClueFinders need your clever sleuthing and creative problem solving to stop the evil archaeologist's diabolical plan! ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Great in the classroom
I teach special education classes in a jr. high school. This program (and the 5th Grade Adventure) is terrific for my students who are 6th to 8th graders reading at 3rd to 5th grade level. they have the same interest as every other Jr. High student, but not the ability to process at the same level. My students play this game all the time -- It is not patronizing to the students like a Reader Rabbit game would be. I have purchased several copies so that more than one student can play at a time. I HIGHLY reccommend it.

Fun and challenging - my son loved it!
My son loves this game, and solving the exercises and problems was fun to earn clues to the mystery. It seemed the appropriate level of challenge, as he will be entering 4th grade in the fall, and he needed help with some of the exercises, especially fractions. That was a good opportunity to introduce him to the subject. With the ADAPT feature, if they get stuck, the software keeps the level easy enough so they don't get too frustrated, and hard enough that it is still challenging. I highly recommend this software.

Great fun! and Learning Too!
Both of my children have thoroughly enjoyed the Cluefinder Series, especially this 3rd Grade Edition. I have tried many similar products but have found them to be either to heavy on the education, thereby losing the kids interest, or too heavy on the fun and they don't really learn much. In this product, the children get to work with a small group of kids (whom they may know already from other Cluefinders adventures)as they seek to solve the story/mysteries. I love the way the kids get rewarded for progress during their journey, providing even more incentive to continue. And the best part of all: they really do learn! During dinner one evening, my son showed off some of the math skills he had learned quite far in advance of his school classmates. And it wasn't just rote memorization. He had really learned the concepts. My hat is off to The Learning Company!

Kids love it
My daughter doesn't really like doing math and english, but when she plays this game, she forgets that she's practicing her school skills. My son loves the games too, even though he is a year behind her.

Most of the tasks start out easy, then get harder. The kids just seem to take it in stride, and by the end, they are doing difficult fraction-conversions (1/2 => 3/6 or vice versa), or unscrambling words, or playing "memory" with math facts!

IT BOMBS OUT!
I was very surprised to get this program home and find that it seems to have some major bugs. The concept seems great, the problem is the program keeps crashing if you play it too long.

The tech people say it has to do with the on-line registration, they report some people can register and some can not.

It is very frustrating to spend good money on a program and have it not work.

I hope they get the kinks worked out of an otherwise excellent game. ... Read more

Features

• Dozens of high-quality lessons that develop age-appropriate skills and unforgettable fun
• Multiple games and activities build spelling, phonics, and basic math skills
• Fun games and singalongs make the learning fun
• Three difficulty levels for better comprehension and problem-solving abilities
• Learning fun for ages 5 to 7

Amazon.com Product Description

A mysterious disease is plaguing the Incan king and his tribe. Your mission? To find the tropical cure in the lush rain forest of the Amazon. You'll receive help from the explorers, scientists, and natives who shaped its history. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A good game basically with too many technical errors
The original Amazon Trail was a fun game to play, if it worked. It featured gameplay that was challenging, educational yet engaging and feesable for children. However the following points must be made:
a) Certain sections of the game are difficult to master, and possibly difficult for those of many ages.
b) Frequent technical glitches disrupt gameplay. It took ages for me simply to get the intro running, and the game froze in annoying places. Unless you are a techie, be prepared for frustration and difficulty.
c) The makers of the games were over-ambitious. The game is both too long for the concentration spans of young kids and the graphics and animation were not good enough to support some of the demands of the game, hence the freezing.
As a basic game, good. Actual gameplay is difficult occasionally.

This game rules!
I love this game! It's old, but really fun and challenging : ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

This program includes animated traditional art tools, including Crayola watercolor, oil paint, chalk, and markers. Wacky tools include popping popcorn, foaming shaving cream, flickering neon paint, animated stickers, and many more. Magic Effects Tool transforms your creations into famous art styles like mosaic, neon, charcoal, and pointillism. Animated art tools provide program ideas and inspiration. Import and export photographs and graphics into the program in JPEG, BMP, and Kodak PhotoCD. Read about famous artist's artwork and learn about art styles and techniques. The Journal features artwork from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great CD's
My kids love this CD! Even I had fun playing with it Great graphics and lots of fun activities ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Creative ideas spark imagination. User tips for each activity stimulate creativity and provide new ways to have fun. The software features Quick Starts that are ready to print. Premade designs and layouts are at your fingertips to personalize. The decorations activity lets children create 3-D ornaments, toys, and other projects. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great Educational Software
My 4 year old daughter loves this software and I feel good knowing that she's getting a jump start on science.

There are simple video-game style games to play and lots of places to explore.

I recommend to to anyone! ... Read more