Features

• Children gain: Confidence, Creativity, Inspiration

Features

• A gateway to a Spanish-speaking child's first step in learning English
• Elementary English listening, speaking, and reading needed to learn another language
• Desarrolla el vocabulario elemental, el numero y reconocimiento de la letra, y el conocimiento fonetico
• Revisa las frases en ingles pertenecintes asituaciones reales de la vida
• Compromete los ninos con historias simples

Product Description

Teaches essential skills for school. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

For kids who can't get enough of stories, songs, and the alphabet, Clifford Reading is sure to please. Young appetites for learning and funcan be easily satisfied with this simple yet well-designed program that teachesthe fundamentals of reading using a strict phonetic approach.

After a brief introduction to Clifford and his friend Emily Elizabeth, the twoanimated characters give an overview of a handful of letters, along with wordsthat can be made from them. Armed with this knowledge, players may then choosefrom six different games that use these words and letters. In one game, playersbreak balloons with the selected word--pop enough balloons, and Clifford getsdunked in the ocean! In another, players sort parrots into pairs depending onwhat sound they have learned to make.

The games in Clifford Reading are simple, but they succeed in makingentertainment of phonics drills. What's more, success brings definite rewards.Players who correctly identify words and sounds in enough games earn prizes,printed projects like paper airplanes and puppets; these can be colored theold-fashioned way, with crayons and pencils, or decorated on the computer prior tobeing printed out. Even better, each time players conquer a group of words andletters, they receive a book that uses those words--one that they can readwithout any help at all! Like the prize activities, the books can be printed,colored, and kept for posterity as visible signs of reading progress.

Clifford Reading favors substance over flash. The animations are simple,but the program runs smoothly and its content is extensive. With its multiplelevels of difficulty and entertaining games, this is a top choice for childrenwho are hungry to start reading on their own. --Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Wonderful!
I bought this program for my 4.5 year old son, and we both just love it! This is the first program I've ever seen that had real, tangible rewards that you could print out and actually do something with. So far we've gotten finger puppets, a tick tack toe game and a connect the dots game. And the bonus "books" that are great self-confidence boosters. The program really makes fun work out of phonics. My son has already had some reading background, but this program is more fun for him than anything else we've ever done. His very favorite part is where you have to pop balloons of sight words and eventually Clifford get's dunked in the water. My son laughs and laughs over this and wants to keep doing it over and over. We've had lots of programs since he was two years old, but this one is really something different.

Fun and Educational
I bought this for my 4 year old girl. She rarely watches Clifford so I took a chance with this one - but SHE LOVES IT! This game is a good solid tool for teaching and reinforcing reading and phonics. She now knows all the sounds each letter makes and can read more and more words. Only drawback, instead of wanting a kitty for a pet, she's now asking for a Big Red Dog - I tell her, "We'll See!" HA! Great game! Get it!

We like this Alot!
I must say that this is one of the better games we own. It's very engaging, fun, and a good learning tool to boot. I can't say enough about the game and the way it runs. Nearly no tech support would be needed. and, the directions are given pretty clearly throughout the game so the child doesn't feel lost, nor do I as the parent for that matter. It's a fun game and I feel my son gets alot out of it.

We like it.
My son has had this since he was about 2 1/2. It is by far his favorite and has its pluses and minus'. Positive: Easy to follow directions for young learners. Negative: Some games are a little too advanced, especially compared to the others. "Pop the balloon with the word Cat on it." It's hard enough for a three year old to find the word Cat let alone click on it with a mouse as it flies across the screen. Positive: He likes to "Earn a ticket" so it motivates him to do well. (With enough tickets you get a prize...like a maze or paper airplane you can print out). Negative: He, at three, learned to work the system and likes two of the easier games that earn tickets quickly with less work. Positive: I like the letter recognition of the t-shirt printing game. He has learned a pretty good letter to phonic association. Negative: Not a large enough vocabulary.
Overall, compared to other children's software we have used (Jump Start & Sesame Street) it is the best. My son enjoys it as long as there is someone to help him when he gets frustrated with the mouse or is unable to complete a task. I am actually shopping online for the next version.

Characters Don't Look Exactly Like PBS TV Show
Just an FYI...the program is OK but I find that the actual characters do not look exactly like the ones that are on the PBS TV show (except for Clifford himself). Somewhat disappointed. I bought another Clifford program (Clifford Learning Activities) and it contains all the characters that are on the show and they look and sound just like the TV show. My daughter likes Clifford Learning Activities better. ... 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

Disney's Zoog Genius 2 is a quiz show that delivers a quality curriculum--on the subjects of language arts, history, and geography--with pop culture panache. Kids can interact with their favorite Zoog Disney friends, striving towards Genius status as they answer questions. Disney's Zoog Genius 2 is set in the "Zeether," a nebulous world existing between the computer and the television. The game's game show format encourages tweens to participate inone- and two-player action, promoted by a short learning curve with minimalinstruction required, for hours of playability. Kids can also downloadtrivia packs from ZoogDisney.com to keep the gameplay fresh. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Teacher Recommended!
The teacher says yes! Well, I grew up with Schoolhouse Rock. I sing most of the songs to myself when teaching these areas of language arts. My students tend to play the videos (of the originals as played on TV) over and over as they play the language arts games. From the conductor in Conjunction Junction to the boy in Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here, they all show up. Schoolhouse Rocky shows you the way as you learn, laugh and sing along. Also: look for Math Rock, which is just as good!!
Several different levels are available on both games.

It STILL Rocks!
I totally loved the between cartoons cartoons that inadverdently taught me about history, grammar, and political process. They STILL rock, only our techie-kids can get even more from the CD Roms. My 4 year old laughed out loud and found the context very entertaining, and like her mother, had no idea just how much she was learning. I highly recommend this CD Rom. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Wonderful vocab and spelling booster
My First Incredible Amazing Dictionary is exactly what I was looking for to teach my 5 year old reading and vocabulary. It is a straight forward but well designed list of about 1000 first words. The words are presented in a list with pictures, and when he clicks on the picture the word comes out. The dictionary pronounces the word, pronounces the entire explanation, then shows an animated picture that demonstrates the meaning of the word. It is wonderful for homeschooling or just to give the child an edge in school. My boy spent about 10 hours clicking around it when I first showed him the game. Now, I am currently making him go through 16 words a day, in alphabetical order, to write each word down as he listens to its pronunciation and meaning. I give him a small candy as a reward afterwards, and he doesn't mind doing it because the animated pictures are very interesting, and all different. I think this is an excellent idea from DK and definitely wonderful teaching tool. Besides the dictionary, it also has word games, but my son isn't ready for it now. He will be!
Highly recommended for homeschoolers. But if you are just looking for a game, this is not really a game and your child probably won't play it too long, compared to other computer games.

Outstanding Vocabulary Development Software for pre-k to 3rd
Dorling-Kindersley's My First Amazing Incredible Dictionary is an absolute delight! Pre-readers up through 3rd graders (or so) will find this software easy to use and intriguing. The graphics, animation, and sounds are mesmerizing. Any child who can point and click can easily entertain himself for at least 30 minutes at at time. After clicking on a letter of the alphabet, the child is taken to a page with pictures of words for that letter, arranged in dictionary format. A click on any picture sends the child to the page for that word. The child then has the option to click on the word itself or the word's definition, which will result in voicing of the text. The child can click on the large colorful photgraph or cartoon drawing depicting the word. The fun is in discovering what will happen with this click. Will it be animation of the picture, a sound or both? Whatever the case, children are usually delighted. The vocabulary items include the obligatory concrete nouns, but also abstract verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepostions. There are easy links provided for words with the same spelling but different meanings. I have used this software with hearing impaired, speech impaired, and learning disabled children at work as a speech/language pathologist. All of them loved it. Besides the dictionary, there are games that children will find fun to try alone or with a friend. Enjoy!

Good for early learners
This program introduces children to more than 1,000 words andtheir meanings through pictures, sound effects and spoken words. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Play six exciting games that make spelling fun. Start with a game show format that takes you on a wild planet-hopping excursion, where every stop steps up your spelling skills. Then mix in fast-action intergalactic games packed with thousands of cartoon-style animations, sight gags, and wacky jokes, making you want to practice. The software is more than just fun, though. It's a serious learning tool with a 5,000-word database of the most commonly used words in the English language. I Love Spelling automatically tracks your progress, collecting misspelled words into personalized practice lists. You can even create customized lists based on what you're learning in school. This software gives you a unique, fun advantage in spelling. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

I love Spelling
Extremely slow and no option for customizing. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Explore the world of letters, sounds, and words with Blue and her friends in this activity pack filled with multilevel learning games. Identify letters, build vocabulary, practice phonics, and create rhymes as you collect words to help Blue build silly stories in her Word Book. The more words you collect, the more stories you can create and print out.

Blue and her friends help strengthen early learning skills, including initial letter recognition, upper and lowercase letter discrimination, alphabet recognition and sequencing, phonics, visual and auditory discrimination, consonant blends, word formation, early vocabulary, and rhyming. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

buggy software and confusing play
I wanted to like this software. I think very highly of the Blue's Clues franchise and the products they usually put out, but this game has been a nightmare.

We are running this on a PowerMac G4 with OS 8.6 and 384 MB RAM. We've never had any problems with kids' software, and made the supreme mistake of installing the game while our son waited to play. Four times in a row, with no other applications running, the cursor locked up and we had to reboot the computer while our two-year old howled in frustration. Later, alone, I looked at the README file, which suggested I turn off all extensions except QuickTime and the CD drive, which I did. It worked for a while, but then the cursor disappeared. I then accessed the developer's web site but found no FAQ or patch there, and no way to contact them.

From what I could see of the game it was interesting and fun. I think that explanations of gameplay are sometimes wordy without being illuminating to a young child, but once the child understands the individual games and the Word Book it would be enjoyable...

Fun & Challenging
This was one of my daughter's first Blue's Clues software games. The game can be a bit confusing at first. So it should be played first by an adult to get the feel for game and instruction style. Once I did that, I then played it with my daughter a few times. Now she can play it by herself and loves it! We enjoyed it so much we've purchased all the Blue's Clues software games.

Fun & Educational, with Lots to Do
This game has many activities that are great for learning letters, phonics, rhyming, and more. It has been one of my son's favorites since he was 2-1/2, and now he's 4 and still loves it. As he gets older and understands more he gets different things out of it, both with regard to education and entertainment. And I like how it works, because you can skip through animations and load times are quick as you move from one activity to another (unlike many other preschool games out there). And you can save games to pick up where you left off.

Captures attention
I purchased this software for my 3 year old son. At the time of purchase he was 2 1/2 and I needed some software that would keep his attentionlong enough to learn some basic preschool concepts. Since he was a big fan of Blue's Clues I thought it would be perfect. The program did capture his atttention right from the start. The characters all had their own versions of play and covered seperate concepts. The games were a little to simplified at times and some of them seemed to be to hard for he age of my son. I feel that the program would have been better if skill levels could have been altered for the different age groups of 3-5. Overall the software was definately worth the cost and just as importantly it made learning fun for my child.

Not her favorite, but useful
I bought this software when my daughter was 3. She doesn't love it and never asks for it, but if I put it in, the games hold her interest. I don't think she understands the overall scheme of making a "word-book," and she can't do everything the games will let her do. However, after a few frustrating times playing the spelling game, I was surprised that she could construct the pictures using the shapes provided and put the letters in their places to spell the words. From just this game she learned how to drag and drop with the mouse. And something clicked in her mind about reading. I saw a direct transfer of her putting letters in already-made places to her trying to make words with magnets on the refrigerator and learning to read words on paper. I think she also got a better idea from this game about how to guess a word based on the clue of the picture. All the words from the game quickly became sight words for her. My daughter's not 4 yet, but can sound out words and knows words by sight because of games like this. ... Read more

Features

• More than 120 hours of activities and step-by-step lessons
• Interactive games that practice letter formation and letter recognition
• Amusing poems that enrich the child's vocabulary; 34 storybooks to practice reading aloud
• Video clips that strengthen the child's grasp of phonics
• Computerized resource activities build on prior knowledge; parents track progress

Amazon.com Product Description

You are invited to join Reader Rabbit and Sam the Lion on their sparkly preschool adventure. The Land of Sparkalot has lost its shine and needs your help to re-sparkle everything from the stars to the flowers. Your prereading, counting, and matching skills could save the day, and the night, too! Help Reader Rabbit and Sam the Lion collect the sparkling brillites and you'll really make things shine in this Sparkle Star Rescue mission. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Nice graphics but too much sparkle and sound effects
Overall this is an ok cdrom. The activities in general suit the age group recommended for it. However there are a few things that detract from this software's effectiveness as a fun learning tool.

The opening movie-like sequence is just a flashy distraction that could have been better designed, replaced or excluded. My niece usually bypasses it with a click and goes straight to the menus.

The menu is interesting enough but some of the menu paths lead to the same place and I wonder what is the point of this.

My biggest gripe is some of the sound effects that tend to drown out the instructions (a major disadvantage) and as far as I can tell, you have to click them off everytime you restart the program .

Also, what is the point of being able to add users if you can't delete some of them? My niece likes to type a lot of letters without care to what she's typing so we have a long list of users who are either ABCDEFG, or AAABCDEDFGHIJK etc and there is no way to get rid of these that is obvious to me.

The activities are easy enough to complete once you figure out what to do but it would have been more appropriate to be able to customize the experience i.e. have several levels for each activity so that the parent/adult can select the most appropriate level with less or more requirements for completion to get the brillite stones as a reward. My niece has managed to get a few of these in some activities but in others, she has yet to achieve the number of repetitions required to collect one because she usually gets bored and switches to another activity before she completes the required number.

The colouring activity is creative and unique but some of the smaller shapes are difficult for preschoolers to target with the mouse without a severe amount of concentration and focus and so trying to colour these shapes is an odious task when it should be fun.

Also, the counting activity with the rockets, (while very unique and creative), is a definite candidate for multiple levels of difficulty since at age 3, most pre-schoolers have not grasped subtraction yet and this activity requires that they be able to understand this concept to complete some of the mission tasks.

In addition, the counting activity and some other activities need a more obvious and more visual completion/reward message for each time the task is completed. This is the one area where the graphics are lacking.

some things done right, others not so good
We are a loyal Reader Rabbit family, having tried many children's software titles and consistently finding the RR series at least as good as any similar software and usually much better, but I would say this particular title is a mixed bag. On the positive side, the graphics are good, the characters are familiar and there is an overarching purpose (collecting brillites to plug into Mount Brill) that lends depth to a typically shallow gaming genre. On the not-so-positive side, the games are often exceptionally tedious and it is not always clear what one is expected to do. I really appreciate that there's a framework story and a big finish with a "Congratulations" to help your child get excited about the accomplishment but, as another reviewer has mentioned, the child can easily get the brillites needed to finish the game while they still have another (and incomplete) set of stones -- what are those for?

There are six activities that rely on matching, counting and letter recognition skills as well as listening to instructions, but there is little devotion to teaching these skills -- it's basically just testing them. I'd say this is one of the weaker members of a strong software series .... perhaps not the first program that you might want to buy for your preschooler, but entertaining and with some positive attributes if you're shopping for a third or fourth.

a big disappointment
My son really enjoyed Reader Rabbit Toddler, so I thought this would be a good next step. Sadly, while this game has all the bells and whistles, looks wonderful, etc., it is not very playable. If a child has trouble completing the tasks, they will soon get bored.

Many of the games actually require the knowledge they are purporting to teach. For instance, one of the games which is supposed to teach letter recognition is not actually playable if the child doesn't already recognise the letters.

When you complete a section there is a long movie which plays, with a really cheesy broadway musical type of song. Once my son (a 3-year old) figured out how to play this movie, he would spend all his time playing it over and over again , learning nothing (and driving me crazy in the process).

My son soon got bored, and I got him Dr. Seuss Preschool instead, Reader Rabbit ended up in the trash can, and family harmony once again prevails.

I gave it two stars instead of one because my son did have fun with it for about 2-3 weeks.

Big Step Down From Reader Rabbit Baby & Toddler
This program has a lot of narrative preamble prior to the introduction of each simple (and very repetitive) game. If the object here is to teach children patience and listening skills, then maybe it's on target. However, in my opinion any child who is developed enough to have that kind of patience and listening skill is going to find the games completely unchallenging. So far I have been unsuccessful getting my boy to show the slightest interest in this CD.

Beware Windows ME users!!!
I purchased this game at Toys"R"Us and I installed it on my PC, it ran fine but when I went on-line the first time after the installation I could not get to any secure sites. I found out later that the program had crashed my browser, so I am posting this warning to any Windows ME users just to be aware of this problem. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

This program teaches phonics with a systematic progression,beginning with simple animal sounds ("What goes quack?"), then progresses toletter sounds ("Which object starts with the p sound?"). These are the first steps toward real reading. There are fun activities like Get on Track, in which kids must move Letterbod along the track to learn the correct way toform all 26 letters. In Bingo kids compete against Mack the Mouse to boostskills, and learn to instantly recognize consonants, vowels, and blendedsounds. Kids learn phonemes (the building blocks of phonics) as theyslide letter clusters and combinations into place to make over 300 words. Aspecial parents' section lets you customize the program to match yourchild's learning needs or school curriculum, and access detailed reports on your child's progress. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Difficult and not fun
I purchased this for my 7 year old son who is making slow progress in reading. It starts on such a very simple level, identifying animal sounds, that he was immediately bored and had no interest in using it. The worst part about this program is that you cannot access any other level until you have completed the first level. There are no instructions. You just have to click around and nothing can be accessed but the animal sounds game. After my 4 year old son played the animal sounds game for a long time, another level was finally available. This product was a waste of money. Both kids have said it is not fun.

Pretty Good
I have the I love Spelling for about 3 grade and up. That is super. This does not keep my students attention. It is hard for me to navigate correctly. As you can imagine tough for my students too. There are some very neat aspects of it though, but just hard to get where you want to go. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Curious George as a cub reporter--a professional match made in heaven! And this story-within-a-story approach goes beyond teaching reading, writing, and spelling skills. Kids who master this CD-ROM are well on their way to understanding structure and storytelling as they help write articles and watch Curious George's (mis)adventures unfold with each of the 12 activities.

Whereas most CD-ROMs have a reference-book approach, where you open up to a table of contents and click straight to the good parts, Curious George Reads, Writes, and Spells opens up and envelops the player like a good storybook. If you get impatient and try to skip activities, the flow of the story becomes disjointed. The "book" begins with Curious George and his friend bringing Lola, the talking parrot, to The Curious Times; they think Lola would make a great story for the newspaper. Ace reporter Hildy Hawkins agrees, but has to scurry away to cover another big story. Curious George can't resist letting Lola out of her cage, and the parrot escapes. As George and his friend chase Lola around town, they disrupt sign painters, distract construction workers, and even manage to get some stories assigned to them by a beleaguered-looking newspaper editor.

This plot has 12 twists in all, and each of these plot elements is accompanied by a reading, writing, or spelling game. One of our favorites was a sly reference to Donkey Kong, where George must scale steel girders and avoid I-beams to pluck letters hanging from a construction site and use them to spell words. As the story builds to a chaotic climax and then wraps up with a final activity, there's a nice feeling of completeness. This wonderful CD-ROM won't just teach kids how to write--it may teach them how to write well. (Ages 5 to 8) --Anne Erickson ... Read more