Amazon.com Product Description

Disney's Phonics Quest challenges kids to enhance and master their phonics skills while taking a magical journey with Mickey and his friends.Using state-of-the-art voice recognition technology, kids will actually beable to speak their answers out loud as they master a variety ofphonics-based, multilevel learning activities. Kids will join Mickey on aquest as the sorcerer's apprentice to uncover the magic of phonics fun.Mickey's quest begins as he opens the sorcerer's magic book and loses sixof the Sorcerer's belongings. As each challenge is mastered, Mickey regainsone of the Sorcerer's belongings so he can eventually return in triumph tothe castle. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Not Very Rewarding
In a word, disappointing. We purchased this game thinking it was representative of Disney interactive products. At first, our five year old son enjoyed playing it but quickly bored of it. Kids have to repeat the phonics exercises over and over and over again - sometimes more than 10 times - to receive any kind of fan-fare or reward in retrieving the Sorcerer's lost items. Excellent graphics and great activities but there certainly should be more verbal or graphic reward as incentives to make the child want to further pursue the game. Kids of this age react much better to more frequent reward...and this game just disappoints for computer active, advanced children. Other Disney products have been better received.

Almost very good
My daughter is 4 and loves all things Disney. This game has a lot to offer and in the beginning she was very gung-ho about playing. But at this age, there needs to be rewards rather frequently to maintain their interest. In Phonics Quest, there are plenty of choices for her to choose from-which is great. And many of the games are quite educational. There is a game for sorting and listening skills. One for ryhming words. Another for patterns. There is simple spelling-fill in the missing letter, and so on. The problem with it is that the kids have to work for a long time to get each prize-the missing items from the castle for which Mickey is on a quest. By a long time, I mean that they have to answer about 20 or more problems in each of the 6 rounds. Then, there are 6 prizes in all to get. Now, after all of this hard work, one would expect a little fanfare for the kids to make it worth fighting for. But the fan fare is almost non existent and then just rushes you off to do it again. I find its the fan fare that keeps them coming back for more. Jaclynn has stopped coming back for more after about 4 rounds and dubbed the game boring.

Good teaching tool, but not enough magic
We just got back from Disneyworld so my daughter was very eager to play this new "game."

She is still playing it, but keeps asking: "where's Mickey?" The idea is that Mickey travels around trying to retrieve stuff missing from the castle. Each missing item can only be recovered after completing a lengthy phonics drill. During most of the drills Mickey and the recognizable Disney characters are off-screen. And you have to correctly answer a large number of questions before you get a prize. The cute animated graphics only briefly disguise the fact that these are pretty routine exercises.

The software worked very well on our old PC (AMD 500 Mhz, no graphics card). No problems installing or delays in loading etc...

The software automatically adjusts the difficulty level based on the accuracy of the responses. This should allow the software to be used for a long time as a child's skills improve.

The software comes with a microphone and voice recognition software. Unfortunately you have to "train" the voice recognition software to understand a user's speech patterns by reading lengthy texts into the microphone. Do you see the problem here? If my daughter could read those texts then we wouldn't be buying this CD... I can read the texts, but my voice is quite different from my daughters. The end result was that when a "voice recognition" opportunity appeared during the game my daughter would shout answers into the microphone and get no response.

My 5 Year old loves this games ! Excellent product !
We purchased this title yesterday and she has been playing it for two days straight. This is by far the best reaction we have seen out of the 15 or so titles she already owns. The game is easy to interface with for kinds as young as 4 and entertaining enough for kids up to 6. Unless your child has some challenges with learning, I don't think it would be a worthwhile purchase for any child much over the age of 6. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Reader Rabbit Preschool Classic delivers learning fun for ages 3 to 5. Kids journey to a crazy amusement park with Reader Rabbit and friends, where they adventure and play through 12 activities and wild games. Four difficulty levels help kids recognize letters, numbers, shapes, and colors, and develop phonics, reading, and counting skills. In all, 40 age-appropriate skills are covered while having fun at Reader Rabbit's educational amusement park. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Great Educational Fun!
When my 6 year old was struggling with new math concepts, I bought a lot of software. I wanted something for her that was both educational, and fun. This program is by far the best we've tried. You can set the difficulty levels, so kids don't get frustrated, but also they don't get bored. The characters are really cute, and because there is an overall goal of building the boat, kids want to keep playing! For each 3-5 question activity they complete, they get a boat part as a reward. The various activities cover all math basics, including fractions, money, and time.

With other programs, my daughter would play, and then get bored or overly frustrated very quickly, but because of the ability to customize this game to your child's skill level, she played for hours and hours. The skill levels on it vary widely, so it can teach concepts from a 1st through 3rd grade level, unlike so many games that are only relevant for one grade. My daughter's gotten tons of fun math practice out of this game, and she's still playing! I'd recommend it to anyone.

A kid favorite!
My sons will be in 2nd and 3rd grade in the fall. They just love this game and would rather play it than any of their other games. I hope to find a sequel for they will be done with this game before long.

we love it
We got this software for our five year old daughter and she loves it. At first she needed some parents' help. But soon she likes to play by herself, occasionally asks some questions. She got it a few weeks ago and has already learned so much from it. Her favorite parts are actually pretty challenging for a five year old -- fraction, money and time. She will need to learn some more from school to play the difficult part of this game, but she can already "play" most of it. she enjoys play and learn at the same time. we are very happy about this game. Our daughter is a very advanced five year old who joins 2nd grade reading group in her school everyday. This software helps her catch up with the math part and really enjoy it.

Reader Rabbit 2nd grade Rules!!!!!!!!
I'm a 2nd grader and my friends and I play Reader Rabbit 2nd grade at school and we love it! Everbody in the class says, hey can I go on the computer. It is fun and educational. I asked my mom to get it for home, so I could play more.

I LOVE THIS GAME!
Okay, I'm in sixth grade- a little old for a second grade game, but I DON'T CARE! This is a really great computer game that features my favorite Reader Rabbit character, Sam the Lion. He's so strange. And if any of you get stuck in the skillways because you can't get past the trapdoor (this happened to me), you can jump OVER the trapdoor by pushing the Up arrow and the LEFT arrow. (Many thanks to my eagle-eyed little sister for discovering this.) In short, this is a really great game that is not just for second graders. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

The Man with the Yellow Hat has promised Curious George a present, but George doesn't know where they are supposed to meet. What's worse, the note the man left for George has ended up in pieces! Putting it back together is going to take a little work... not to mention some help from a clever young friend.

Curious George Reading and Phonics is a five-part activity game designed to teach children ages 3 to 6 the basics of letter recognition, the principles behind sounding out words, and other fundamental reading techniques. As Curious George searches for the scattered pieces of his note, players practice simple spelling, work to distinguish between letter sounds, and sort out words that rhyme. Along the way, they earn bananas that take them, step by step, closer to their meeting with the Man with the Yellow Hat.

For children who are just beginning to learn the alphabet and venture into reading, Curious George Reading and Phonics provides a relatively easy route to skill enhancement. The drills are simple and can be set to one of three levels of difficulty. They are also broken up by low-key arcade sequences that reward success and allow children to take a breather, jumping George around in pursuit of bananas before he hits the next learning hurdle. The light expectations and gentle pace of the game make it a perfect choice for players who are resistant to learning, offering them lots of chances to get it right.

Kids who have already played more intense language games will polish off the drills in this package in short order, but Curious George Reading and Phonics is still a first-rate choice for those looking to introduce a child to educational play. With clean, easy-to-follow activities and familiar, engaging characters, this is a game that will get new readers off to a solid start. --Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Too hard for the suggested age range.
My son loves the Curious George stories, so we thought this game would be a natural for him. Unfortunately, mechanics of the game play are too difficult even for my 4 year old. If only simple key presses or just mouse movements were used, it would be fine. There are parts of the game where these simple mechanics are used, and these parts are easy and enjoyable for my son. Unfortunately, only the transitions between games when George rides his bicycle use these simple mechanics. (They don't even show George wearing a helmet during the bicycle riding!) The other parts of the game require coordinated key presses of two or more keys, primarily the arrow keys and the space bar. While this is simple for an adult, most 3 and 4 year olds don't have sufficient ability to coordinate these multiple key presses. My son often gets frustrated with this game. Another drawback is that the portions of the game must be done in sequence, so if your child gets stuck on one part, the following parts are inaccesible until the problem part is completed. Overall, the concept is good, but the game mechanics and the implementation of the game make it practically unplayable for most small children without direct parental supervision and guidance.

A mixed bag; some bits great, some not
I bought this for my daughter's 4th birthday, since she wanted a game of her own (her brother is 8 and loves computer games). She is also a big Curious George fan.

The adventures consist of five short phonics games punctuated by a little arcade-style game in which George must 'leap' (using the arrow keys) to capture bananas as he moves to the next location. My daughter had only the slightest difficulty learning to use the arrow keys and the space bar, and now she's got it conquered. I did not have any problems installing or operating the game (on our XP machine).

My problem lies in the widely varying difficulty of the games. The first one involves letter recognition; the second involves picking out the sounds of letters that START words; the third involves sorting 'packages' into those labeled with word that rhyme and words that do not; the fourth involves picking out the sounds of letters that END words; the fifth involves spelling actual words.

Even when set at the easiest level, the rhyming game (#3) and the spelling game (#5) were way over her head. The rhyming game is very speedy; the packages will fall off a conveyer belt if you do not pick them up fast enough, and manipulating the arrow keys in this case was way too complicated. The spelling game, even at the low level, involved silent letters in dipthongs like 'leaf.' She could sound out words like 'dog' just fine but the silent letters left her frustrated.

The game is progressive - you don't move onto the next one until you've finished with the one you're currently on, so getting stuck on #3 led to whimpering and sadness.

Nevertheless, she is constantly asking to play. It's a fine game but you'll have to plan on playing with your kid until he/she can manage the rhyming and spelling alone.

What a waste of money!
I bought this game as a Christmas gift for my twin grandsons, who are three years old and very adept at using a mouse. When we loaded the game, we were shocked to discover that it requires children to navigate using the arrow buttons and space bar, rather than the mouse! (Try to explain that to a mouse-savvy three-year old!)

If this were the game's only flaw, I could have lived with it, since they eventually would get the hang of keyboard navigation. However, once they started playing the game, I was unable to exit from it. Clicking on the exit button produced no results. When I tried to exit by navigating through the windows menu, rather than shutting down, the game instead continued to run -- in two separate versions -- the audio portion only. We had to remove the CD-rom and crash the computer to exit.

Needless to say, this did not make for a joyous Christmas morning! And since we opened the software, we cannot return it to Amazon.[com]

Save your money for a game that preschoolers can actually play, such as Blues Clues Learning Time! ... Read more

Features

• Fun puzzle activities and artistic games introduce nouns, verbs, adjectives, vowel sounds and more
• Progress is always checked to see how well the kids are doing and exciting arcade-style games provide a break to keep them motivated
• Print out specialized reports to reward performance
• Special bonus workbook keeps the learning fun going!
• Ages 5-6

Features

• In Garfield -It's All About Letters And Words they'll enjoy 15 different word and letter activities -- identifying letters, word sounds and more
• Garfield -It's All About Numbers & Counting brings your toddler 15 more activities that teach counting from 1 to 20, ordering and more
• With Garfield -It's All About Colors, Shapes & Time your little one will discover how to match colors, identify shapes and tell time
• For ages 3-4

Features

• Includes I Love Phonics!, My First Reading Adventure: I Want to Read!; My First Reading Adventure: Now I¿m Reading!
• CD 1: word recognition, fluency, vocabulary development, reading comprehension & more
• CD 2: understand letter sounds & phonics; learn alphabetical order; identify rhyming words
• CD 3: identify letter sounds & spell words; identify spelling patterns; read key sight words
• For kids ages 3-7

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

Features

• Using a unique Personalized Learning System, you will have custom instruction tailored to suit your study needs
• Four courses containing over 100 exercises
• Build skills in pronunciation, vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading, writing, and grammar
• Talking dictionary and movie clips help to build speaking skills
• Topics covered include -Basics, Travel, Business, or Everyday