Amazon.com Product Description

Big Thinkers 1st is the perfect learning supplement to your child's classroom experience. Ben and Becky Brightly's contagious wonder and ability to transform into a variety of shapes and forms engage kids in a fun world of learning and discovery unlike any they have experienced before. Your little learners always feel successful as they collect oodles of SmartStars. All of their efforts and successes are rewarded on their way to the SuperStar of Smarts Challenge. Your children are in control as they laugh along, while the Brightly twins bend and stretch to provide activities that help kids learn all the skills necessary for success in the first grade. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Well Worth IT!!!
This is a great program. It does all that it promises. I'm only sad that I discovered it so late. I have purchased at least eight other "first" grade programs, but this one is by far the best. There is so much to do,yet your child is not overwhelmed. All the games are fun, my daughter especially likes the barnyard music keyboard and the storybook in the reading room(sort of a play on the mad-libs of old). Children do not have to wait too long to be rewarded, 'smart-stars' are given out generously.
Since this is an older program, it may be somewhat difficult to find. But if you can, buy it! It will not dissapoint. ... Read more

Features

• Garfield -It's All About Math builds your child's abilities in the basic math operations -Addition, multiplication, subtraction and division
• Garfield -It's All About Reading & Phonics offers replayable games that will build their knowledge of words, word sounds and pronunciation
• In Garfield -It's All About Writing & Grammar helps kids improve their grammar, writing, memory and concentration skills
• Garfield -It's All About Vocabulary and Spelling offers 20 activities for superior phonics and vocabulary skills
• Ages 7-9

Amazon.com Product Description

Join Little Bear on a playful adventure through the woods on the way to a "Just Because" party. Little Bear Preschool Thinking Adventures gives kids a nurturing environment where they can learn through experience and discovery. The program is filled with learning adventures that will keep children engaged for hours. From picking vegetables with Mother Bear to conducting the cricket chorus, every activity builds important preschool skills. Kids can develop critical thinking skills and become an active participant in the imaginative world of Little Bear. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Great for chilren through age 5 or older
I agree with everything each other review wrote but I had to add that my daughter has had this program for over two years and she still loves it. She started it at 3 and is now 5 and has not ever been bored with the activities. She was able to play it by herself at 3 and now can really go through it quite quickly. There are so many activities and they change so much she doesn't seem to do the exact same thing every time. I would hightly recommend this game for any child age 2 to at least 5 or 6.

A nice CD, but not the first I'd buy
This is a nice CD, and one of my 2 year old's favorites. Little Bear's 'just because' party is a cute idea, and it is filled with interesting games. The coloring module alone is worth the price - it is very well designed, and there are quite a few nice scenes that your child can color on.

However, the navigation is a bit wonky, and Little Bear can get rather bossy and annoying as he constantly reminds you that you're not doing something in the right order. The opening screen, where you select which person you are, is difficult even for me to figure out. This is made worse by the fact that Little Bear has a rather annoying voice.

My biggest complaint is that the PC version allows you to spawn multiple copies at the same time. My daughter gets impatient and keeps clicking on the "start" icon, and can get 5-10 copies all running with the audio slightly out of sync. It takes some time to enter and quit each instance.

And yet, my daughter adores this CD, and repeatedly asks for it. It keeps her happy and out of trouble. So, I recommend it despite its high parent annoyance coefficient. (The music is pretty, but repetitive and annoying if you're trying to do something else nearby.) So buy it, but I would suggest buying some of the "Living Books" series first, like Grandma & Me or the Dr. Seuss titles.

Little bear
Very entertaining and educational. My nearly 3 year old enjoyed it thoroughly. Highly recommended.

Very Gentle, Sweet Games
This is very gentle CD. Little Bear is having a Just Because party. He takes his wagon and goes for a walk running into the other Little Bear characters. Each character has a game or activity for Little Bear to complete for his party. His mother tells him to pick berries, his grandmother helps him make hats and so on. At the end, he has a party.

This is fairly hard for a youngster (age 3) such as my son to navigate. He likes to play just certain games - catching berries for instance, and it's hard to navigate and get to that point and skip the other games he doesn't want to play. It is in a more linear fashion a story.

However, it's a cute CD and we have enjoyed it. I particularly like that there are some parent things on there as well. You can print up hat patterns, recipes and party ideas.

enjoy.

gentle fun with Little Bear and friends
Little Bear is having a "just because" party. He is inviting all his friends and your child can help him with his activities: coloring pictures, choosing vegetables based on description, finding hidden ducklings, catching berries in a basket, matching caterpillar pairs, matching sounds, making party hats -- and then attending the party before a good night's rest. Most of the series' characters are here (Mother Bear, Little Bear, Grandmother Bear, Duck, Hen, Owl and Cat) and seem to be the genuine voices. There are three levels of difficulty for each activity. The program runs on Macintosh or Windows and I had no problems installing or running this program. Navigation is more confusing than that for Little Bear Rainy Day Activities -- this is linear rather than returning to a central room, but game play is fun for young children and it is fun to see Little Bear and crew.

Note: This is one disk, not two as stated in the description. ... Read more

Features

• Children will like Garfield -It's All About Reading & Phonics -- it offers replayable games that will build their knowledge of words, word sounds and pronunciation
• In Garfield -It's All About Writing & Grammar helps kids improve their grammar, writing, memory and concentration skills
• Garfield -It's All About Math Readiness gives young students 20 activities they can enjoy time & again. These lessons and games introduce basic measurements, time, money, number orders, basic addition and subtraction.
• In Garfield -It's All About Vocabulary and Spelling kids will become better communicators -- it offers 20 activities for superior phonics and vocabulary skills
• Ages 5-6

Features

• Children have fun while learning important, age-appropriate skills
• In Pooh Toddler, kids learn letters, colors, and shapes
• In Mickey Toddler, kids discover hidden letters, collect balloons, and more
• Rolie Polie Olie takes kids on a fun learning game
• For kids ages 2 and up

Reviews (5)

Not the best, not the worst
I bought this game for my son who is almost two. He enjoyed it to a point, some of the games are a little hard for him, but he can play most of them. My biggest disappointment is that I will be taking it back this evening because the packaging says it will run on Windows XP, well this is partly true. It will run, but not correctly. I have run into this problem before with trying to find an educational game for my son that will actually run correctly. Overall, though, if it would actually work on my computer, these games would be pretty good.

Disappointing
My son began playing on the computer with BabyWow. After counless hours of learning with BabyWow! he advanced to Reader Rabbit Toddler. Both of these are quality games. Compared to these, Disney Learning Toddler was disappointing.

Fantastic Starting Software
My son started playing this at 16 months. You can hit any key on the keyboard to make something happen or progress to point-and-click. Thanks to the Mickey and Minnie games my son learned his letters and shapes by 20 months. He also amazed us by learning how to point-and-click at 18 months. He's now 29 months and still enjoys playing some of these games but has progressed to Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo.

I have to say that this is one of the best purchases we made for him and it's helped him stay ahead of his playmates when it comes to counting, the alphabet, and his computer skills. Within the coming months we'll probably give the Disney preschool software pack a try.

Bored 4 yr old.
Both programs lack any variation within the games. There is one task and one way to do it. There is far too much explanation for each game on the Winnie the Pooh game. My grandson who will spent hours, if allowed, on the computer was bored in minutes.

Learn ABCs, 123s and much more with Disney Friends!
I bough this CD-ROM 3-pack mainly for the Pooh and Mickey discs (the Rolie Polie Olie disk is not part of thiw review as I was unable to unstall it at the time of the review...an error with the disk, perhaps?). My daughter, who is 27 months old, LOVES both Pooh and Mickey and I thought this would be an excellent way to introduce her to the computer while using interactive methods to teach ABCs, 123s, and much more.

First, the Mickey CD specifics:

* learn letters with Mickey by playing hide-and-seek with six different letters at a time (Mickey says each letter)
* learn numbers (1-10) with Pluto by instructing him to bark at the gophers who pop out of holes holding numbers (Mickey says each number)
* learn shapes with Minnie by helping her find things that are of a certain shape. Shapes included are circle, square, triangle, diamond, and heart.
* explore music concepts with Donald by dragging the mouse over different items in his backyard to make noises
* there are coloring pages that you can print out which focus on the concepts addressed throughout the CD, and more

Pooh CD specifics:

* learn opposites with Pooh as you drag the mouse over different thigns in his house
* learn shapes, colors, letters, and numbers with all of Pooh's friends as you pop balloons containing these things
* help build your memory with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Roo as you try to remember what each character likes (they give you clues and you must guess accordingly)
* explore music concepts with Christopher Robin and Pooh ans 4 of his friends by dragging your mouse over different instruments to make music as well as dragging your mouse over the characters to sing songs
* explore different languages (French and Spanish) with Owl and Roo by helping Pooh choose items from behind a stage and hearing the word in both English and another language.
* there are coloring pages and other printing options based upon the concepts addressed throughout the CD

Rolie Polie Olie CD (some details as shown on box):

* help Olie clean his room and search for Spot
* make music with Oilie in his kitchen
* go scuba diving in Olie's tub
* make "Tellys" out of household items
* mix and match colors in Olie's room

I think this is a wonderful CD-rom set (without reference to the Olie CD, of course)! My daughter LOVES playing the different games on each CD-ROM and frequently asks for "Mickey" and "Pooh" games. she really likes to pop the balloons on the Pooh CD, and likes the shapes with Minnie on the Mickey CD. The best feature is that this game is truly made for young children who don't have the hand-eye coordination to fully operate a computer and mouse. The mouse activates functions on teh CD-ROM not by clicking, but by rolling over things (during play) and keeping the mouse on an item to change between tasks. There are special larger cursors throughout the game as well, so it's easier for littler ones to see what they are moving. And if they can't yet operate a mouse (my daughter just knows how to click the mouse, but hasn't figured out how to make it move yet), tehy can press keys on the keyboard and it will activate different parts in each "game".

I wish I could have reviewed the Olie game, but I will definitely edit my review once I am able to install the Olie game (still haven't figured out why it isn't installing correctly - get an install error each time).

I would definitely recommend this product, in particular if your toddler is already fond of the particular characters in teh game. My daughter was very familiar with (and in love with) Pooh and Mickey prior to purchasing this game, so it's possible that she enjoys it so much because many of her favorite cartoon characters are the "stars" of the game. But as a parent, I think this software is definitely an invaluable learning tool - the familiar characters are an added bonus. ... Read more

Features

• Exciting reading games for first-grade kids
• Explore the world of weather on Cloud 9
• Work on skills one at a time or have fun with the story
• Skill levels automatically adjust to kids
• Tracking reports monitor progress

Reviews (2)

Hours of fun and laughter
We got this for our daughter who was 7 at the time,and she chose to play Reader Rabbit over playing Playstation or Nintendo 64 games. The friendly characters are so encouraging and so cute that my daughter walks away when done playing with a smile on her face and a really good attitude. That doesn't happen when playing other video games.

An enjoyable game (the first time)
My daughter rushed to complete all of the tasks needed to start the show. It took a period of a few weeks playing an hour at a time. She was very persistent and enjoyed creating the signs that pop up throughout the scenery. The costume-matic (which forces you to make exact change) was very good for my first grader and took some time so that she didn't exceed the amount required. However once done and we saw the show, the game leaves you unable to do anything else. We have to sign on as a new person or uninstall the game to start it over again. I'm considering trading my game with friend, so they can enjoy it. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

High School Advantage 2002 offers students ages 14 and older challenging yet entertaining activities to promote mastery of biology, chemistry, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, U.S. history, world history, geography, writing, andSpanish. The program aims to build critical problem-solving skills in thesecore subjects with in-depth, multimedia tutorials. The Office 2000 ComputerCoach, included with the software, will help students explore and masterExcel, PowerPoint, Word, and Access.

Customizable features include user-controlled navigation and self-pacedstudy, progressive levels of complexity, and progress reports. There arereference materials, including notes, libraries, and glossaries, as well asmultimedia features such as audio, video, photos, 3-D-renderedimages, and animation. The instructional puzzles and games come withadjustable skill levels to reinforce academic content. The program ishassle-free with easy installation and use, simple, streamlinednavigation, and it allows you to track each user's scores and progress. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

HS Advantage 2002 lacks cohesive planning
The individual products are generally good and learner friendly. However, each title appears to be programmed by a different "team" who thought their computer settings should be yours as well. This means: I had to change screen color characteristics (16 colors, 256 colors, etc.) using Win 98SE and even load an alternate driver for the video card before one program would run.

This was an incredible hassle to set up before it could be used and then reset to do anything else or run another title from the same publisher. It would be nice if those who bundle this software actually sat down with an entire set of disks and tried to use each one--it could lead to consistency of performance. Imagine that!

If you don't mind "adjusting" your computer, these programs are generally well thought out and progress the student appropriately. Myself, I'll look for a more considerate package that allows kids to pop a disk in and learn.

AVOID THIS PRODUCT!
We bought the 2001 version. It fails to load or run on two separate Win98SE systems. Encyclopedia Of Science *hangs* one system requiring a push-button reboot, and complains of "insufficient memory or disk space" (I have 256 MB/40GB respectively) on the other.

DiabloII (Classic & LOD) and MechWarrior II, IV, and Black Knight both run on both machines, so do IE6, Reader Rabbit, Knowledge Adventure, Print Master, Forte Agent, and many others.

Editorial reviews put this as better than the 2002 version. Unbelievable.

High School advantage- disappointing
We homeschool our children and have enjoyed past 'Advantage' titles, and so were disappointed with this one. The three math programs; Algerbra, Geometry and Trigonometry were good, but duplicated "Math Advantage". The others were old, poor, and dry as dust.

Watch Out!
Watch Out! Amazon says that this is for Macintosh... Well it isn't!! Only for Windows 95 and up.

One of the Best Educational Software made for HS!!!!!
Wow, after using the Math CD's including in this product, I enjoy using it so much. I like the interactive math lectures and quizzes. They also have online links. I found so much useful information that will help me with my High School work. I totally recommend this product to all students and teachers. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. ... Read more

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 (1)

Complete junk -- doesn't work on windows XP at all
Despite the assurances in the description and packaging that this works with Windows XP,
it emphatically does not.

The science one crashes every 1/2 hour or so.
The Carmen Sandiego one locks up within 5 minuntes every time.
I'm so annoyed I'm not going to even bother installing the last one.

This is complete garbage software. I wonder if they do any QA at all.

Perhaps it works with Windows 95 or something, but it certainly doesnt work with windows XP.

My testing:
I tried it on two completely different windows XP machines: one 3 years old with pentium 2 processor running XP pro, and one 2 months old running latest and greatest pentium 4 and XP home. Neither works. Both show the symptoms described above.

I checked the websites for patches for this software, and none are available. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

From publishing and illustrating their own stories to exploring the West in a survival adventure, kids ages 8 and older will get a taste of a wide variety of subjects in Elementary Advantage 2002. Engaging activities cover grammar, spelling, reading, social studies, geography, science, basic math, fractions, and beginning typing.A junior encyclopedia customized to this age group makes learning come alive with articles, images, Web links, and more.

Customizable features include user-controlled navigation and self-pacedstudy, progressive levels of complexity, and progress reports. There are reference materials, including notes, libraries, and glossaries, as well as multimedia features such as audio, video, photos, 3-D-rendered images, and animation. The instructional puzzles and games come with adjustable skill levels to reinforce academic content. The program is hassle-free with easy installation and use, simple, streamlined navigation, and it allows you to track each user's scores and progress. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

dissapointing...
I have bought Math Advantage 2002 and that was an excellent software package by Encore Education. But the Elementary Advantage 2002 is the biggest disappointment. The grammar, spelling, reading sections teach nothing but are annoying games that do nothing to explain wrong/right answers. I wanted my niece to learn about grammar, spelling, etc., but there are no tutoring sessions or explanations. Very disappointing... considering the price.

misleading subjects
Elementary Advantage purports to teach spelling, typing, and grammer. However, these subjects were merely "see how fast you can complete these answers" and do not teach a thing. The other "subjects" were other company's software (knowledge adventure, etc) that they must have trashed.
Not recommended!

slightly disappointed
I don't usually have to sit and continously inspire my daughter to watch "learning software". In fact, she stays up late and I have to tear her away from some programs. Not this one. ADVANTAGE is overly stuffy for some reason, low tech, and dull. Its appropriate for elementary level study, I guess. But my kid is on 'roller-blades', and this thing is on 'skates'. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Arthur, Francine, Baby Kate, and a host of other familiar faces are on hand to give children a guided tour of the preschool curriculum in Arthur's Preschool. This educational game is designed to give early learners some practice in basic concepts such as counting, shape recognition, the alphabet, and more. By helping Arthur's friends in these drills, players create pictures, build robots, and complete half-built puppets, just to name a few.

Children who don't mind straight-up education drills are the definite target of this game, aimed at the 3 to 5 years age range. Arthur's Preschool places a heavy emphasis on learning over play. The various activities--whether identifying letters by the sounds they make, choosing a particular shape in response to a verbal cue, or doing simple counting--offer, essentially, an electronic version of old-style educational flash cards. Each activity is designed to maximize learning and has a built-in scale of escalating difficulty. They will challenge users to harder tasks if they ace the first level of toughness.

For players who want their learning activities sugar-coated with a little arcade play or humor, Arthur's Preschool is certain to feel a little dry. This is not a flaw, though, so much as a difference in approach. Thegame provides learning statistics for parental review and offers one "achievement certificate," complete with a connect-the-dots game, for each academic subject. The game also offers a series of creativity-oriented games--arts, crafts, and musical activities--in addition to its more hard-core subjects.

With so many games and activities, it is safe to say this game is genuinely trying to pack everything but a teacher and school friends into its school-in-a-box. Arthur's Preschool takes itself seriously, true, but children who take it seriously, too, are sure to learn a great deal. --Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Great software!
This application is a bit older, and I don't think the publisher has upgraded it to XP or 2K. But that was not a problem for me, I have a bit older system.

My kid loves it! It's great. She is a big fan of Arthur and they really captured the essense of all the Arthur characters. Some of the activites are skewed a bit young, but for my 3 and a half year old, that was fine. It's the fist thing she asks to do if she sees me sitting at the computer. Highly recommended.

Windows Incompatability Problem-Very Dissappointed!!!
This CD-Rom is not compatable with Windows XP and it should be stated clearly somewhere on the packaging. The whole thing froze my computer. Extremely dissappointing!

Not Compatible with WIndows 2000 or XP
I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't work on Windows XP and Windows 2000.

Excellent as a first preschool CD
My three year old really enjoyed all of the games and skill areas. The ladybug bridge activity was especially good for spatial skills. I would highly recommend this for 2 - 3 year olds as a first software program for preschool skills, but most of the games are too easy if the child has already mastered basic preschool skills using another program. My son had already mastered Elmo's Preschool before we tried this, and therefore it was mostly too easy and not as effective.

Good games, marred by bad implementation
My son has been using this for the last two months. He's 2 & 8 months, slightly under the recommended age for it.

As a game, it should have a lot going for it. For a new user, there are a variety of skills tested, from counting (using baseball), to alphabet (using a robot builder), to shape sorting (using piggy banks of different sizes & coins to match).

However, it is quite flawed in many ways. In most games, the instructions on what letter to select, will stop abruptly if a key is pressed or the mouse is clicked.

For example, in the alphabet game, Arthur will say something like, "Hand Brain the upper case letter A", & there are 5 choices. If however, my son happens to click anywhere on the screen, Arthur will stop before the sentence completes & my son will click at random. It's tough to pick a letter if Arthur doesn't say which one is to be picked!
That sort of thing happens in many of the games, so for us, quite a few of them are un-playable.

If you play the games more than a few times, there's not much variety in the games. The almost exact same things happen each time, even if they were completed correctly the last time.

Quite soon, I'm not sure if my son is learning new stuff or simply remembering the game's prompts from previous experience.

Bottom line : Good game with possibilities for a month or so, will become old hat after that. ... Read more