Amazon.com Review

An exciting new set of learning games featuring the ever-playful Reader Rabbit and friends, Thinking Adventures provides tons of activities designed to get kindergartners mastering all kinds of important skills. The goal is to throw a party for Sam the Lion, and there's a lot to do to get ready--matching, sorting, patterning, memorizing, and problem solving all play a role here.

As always with this series, the difficulty level adjusts automatically, and there's lots of printable worksheets and certificates. Reader Rabbit is always ready with helpful hints, which is great for kids who like to play without parental assistance. This is a great accompaniment for other Reader Rabbit titles--kids love the characters, and this title is more about general learning and entertainment than other programs that focus exclusively on math or reading. Younger kids will have a great time exploring with the easier skill levels--nearly every scene has lots of fun clickables, and many games can be easily handled by preschoolers. Reading isn't necessary, but good listening skills are--more easily distracted kids may need some assistance in understanding game instructions. You'll appreciate the progress reports--and knowing in which areas your child excels or needs some extra help. --Jill Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Quite Engaging for Any Youngster
This software immediately caught my 4 year old's attention. The animation is great, and Reader Rabbit even addresses your child by their name (which you supply the program).

Many wonderful games for children to learn sequencing, matching, similarities & differences, and many more things. A second disk is even included that allows you to print helpful worksheets so that you may work away from the computer.

This software is money well spent.

Excellent educational games require advanced mouse skills
As with all of the Reader Rabbit titles, this one has excellent education activities and an engaging storyline. My daughter loves it. Parents should be aware, however, that this title requires more advanced mouse skills that other software for this age group: two activities require the user to "click and drag". In another game the child must click in very small areas and in the "present wrapping" activity it is very easy to accidentally exit the game.

Too confusing for 4 years olds!
I had always heard great things about Reader Rabbit software but I was very disappointed in this one! My four year old got frustrated after 5 minutes and gave up. She found the instructions to be too difficult to understand because they were very detailed and spoken too quickly. The premise is that you're supposed to gather items for a surprise party. You need to obtain a specific amount of each item and it goes into an empty room once you gather enough for the party. You need to go to different areas to make cookies, wrapping paper etc. I don't know how a four year old could do this without adult supervision. This software will sit on the shelf until my daughter gets older. Hopefully then she'll enjoy it.

Uninspired and dull with clunky interface
There is one part of this game where the main character enters a room that is entirely empty except for a carpet, a few drapes, and blank walls. It's like someone forgot to work on the scene. There are other parts where the animated characters do the same things over and over and over, and the tasks are extremely repetitive. Other scenes are equally dense or unimaginative. The artwork is awkward and ugly. The interface is non-intuitive, as is the flow of the story. There's also this Blob thing that lays on the ground to help you with navigation, and he's a depressing little thing.

So, this title is not recommended. Try Freddi Fish or Puttputt or SpyFox. Avoid this turkey in disguise.

Not very impressed
My kids did not find the games very interesting and neither did I. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

The Big Thinkers! series bundle gives kids a chance to explore and learn with three software titles: Big Thinkers! Kindergarten, BigThinkers! First Grade, and Let's Explore the Jungle. Kids are introduced to activities that enhance skills in subject areas such as math, language arts, science, social science, and creative arts, and they can also experience an interactive field trip to the jungle.

In Big Thinkers! Kindergarten, kids set off with Ben and BeckyBrightly to fill their brains with fun as they explore and discover learning skills specific to the kindergarten grade level. The comical hosts jump, skip, and run from room to room, transforming their bodies into items, such as a clock, a recycle bin, and a fish, as they introduce early math concepts, telling time, spelling, letter recognition, sorting, measurement, geography, and animals.

Big Thinkers! First Grade allows kids to expand their knowledge of the first-grade curriculum by taking a fun and exciting romp through the Brightly house. Kids open doors, explore rooms, and watch the Brightlys perform amazing feats as they discover reading comprehension, word building, money identification and making change, addition and subtraction, fractions, measurement, music exploration, and more.

Let's Explore the Jungle allows children to decide where they want to go and what they want to know while discovering the plants, animals, and environments of the world's three major jungles: Asia, Africa, and the Amazon. They can learn where chocolate comes from, why the giant anteater walks on its knuckles, and exactly how the flying snake flies. From the depths of a river to the towering jungle canopy, hundreds of entertaining click points are waiting to be discovered. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

BIG THINKERS
The Big Thinkers games by far surpass all other educational games. They keep the children entertained by continuously challenging and rewarding. The games progressively get harder the better your child does. My girls like the Big Thinker games more than the other games available. I can sit down with her while she is playing Big Thinkers and enjoy watching her play. It doesn't get boring like other games on the market.

BIG THINKERS KINDERGARTEN
I HAVE PURCHASED NEARLY THE ENTIRE RANGE OF THE HUMONGOUS ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE. MY KIDS ARE MAD ABOUT THE GAMES AND I FIND THEM PACKED FULL OF ENTERTAINING CHARACTERS AND VERY WELL COMPILED. THE GRAPHICS ARE BRILLIANT. I AM PURCHASING THIS PACK OF BIG THINKERS AFTER HAVING PLAYED THE DEMO ALONG WITH THE KIDS. I FIND IT TO BE FULL OF EXCITING "HIDDEN" ADVENTURES AND HAS A REFRESHING WAY OF EDUCATING THE KIDS. ... Read more

Features

• Accelerate the kids' learning by teaching important concepts and vocabulary skills
• Children will learn to recognize letters and letter sounds, and use them in sequencing and logic games
• Voiceovers will help guide your child when he or she is stuck
• A variety of thinking games give your kid a break
• Personalized printouts help the learning continue while children are away from the computer

Amazon.com Product Description

Your child will laugh and play with Kermit, Piggy, and all the Muppet Kids while learning critical thinking skills in this three-volume collection. The Thinking Skills software was designed by educators to teach as well as entertain. The set features more than 60 games and activities so your child can learn important skills through exploration. Feedback, which is such an important part of learning, is even more exciting with 3-D animated clips of the "grown-up" Kermit and Gonzo commenting on your child's progress. ... Read more

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

Features

• Children gain: Confidence, Creativity, Inspiration

Features

• 20 engaging activities and games; collect items to help Little Bill make a big surprise
• Develop early math and thinking skills while launching a submarine, traveling to outer space, and more
• 4 adventures--a different surprise for each season
• 3 levels of play automatically adjust to your child's progress
• Starring popular characters and voices from the hit TV show, including Phylicia Rashad

Features

• 8 entertaining activities packed with hours of positive playtime
• Puzzles and games, each with 3 levels of difficulty
• Memory matching and spelling games, jigsaw puzzles, mazes, and more
• Color, paint, and print out your favorite Busytown characters and buildings
• Designed especially for children ages 3 to 7

Reviews (4)

Non stop 3 year old fun
My son has this cd and it is all he wants to play. He has it on at least once a night. It has good graphics. and kids can do fun things like build a house, or drive a firetruck. It is easy to work, and keeps a child happy for hours.

Great for little bitty kids!
My son was two years old when we got this software, and he LOVED it! Really, all a child needs to learn at that age is how to work the mouse, and now to click, and how graphics interact. He doesn't need to learn Calculus and French. So if Busytown doesn't "challenge" the older children, that's fine. It wasn't intended for older children any more than Sesame Street is intended for them. But this software definitely has its place in the scheme of things, and I would recommend this as a GREAT first software program for toddlers.

Busytown is like a storybook that lets the child build things and make things move. It has different buildings or places they can enter and do different fun things, and highly enthusiastic actors doing the voice overs and vocals, singing catchy songs my son loved to sing with them. There are probably kids who will get bored with it as they get older. But you need to have something good, and fun and reliable for the smallest children. And this software appeals to the same children who love the Richard Scarry books, your 1-4 year olds.

Richard Scarry Busy Town
My son loves the Richard Scarry Busy Town software programs. They consist of things he is familar with and enjoys (example: building a road or using a tractor and planting a field). Each program has a difficulty level that you can set. The beginner's level has a flashing star to help your child along, so if you do not want the flashing star to assist your child then changing the difficulty level will eliminate the star.

Richard Scarry's Busytown 200 cd-rom
This is not very educational. My 4 year old finds it boring. Most of the program they give you the answers by flashing a star to tell you which direction to move or which item to choose. It does not help them think at all and I would not reccomend it. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Carmen Sandiego is up to her old tricks yet again. This time she's after all knowledge ever discovered by the human race. With a fleet of "knowbots" dispersed around the world and a six-pack of accomplished thieves to direct these insidious machines in their work, she is determined to give herself a monopoly on information. "Knowledge is power," Carmen says, and if ACME can't stop her, soon she will be the most powerful woman on earth.

As a new agent of ACME, you try to trap the knowbots and destroy them by correctly answering a series of questions on topics ranging from art history to math. The quizzes come in a variety of formats, and most are timed, making it essential to answer as quickly as possible. You may team up or compete with other players as you try to destroy the knowbots. Doing so allows you to collect clues that lead to Carmen's minions and, ultimately, to the arch-villain herself!

As with most quiz-format games, some aspects of play in ThinkQuick soon become repetitive. The game's verbal instructions, though they are intended as comprehension skill builders, are sometimes on the vague side. Despite these minor flaws, ThinkQuick is flexible and combines a nice range of games and puzzles. In addition to permitting multiple players, it also offers online play. Player avatars come in both genders and have adjustable skin tones.

Carmen Sandiego's ThinkQuick Challenge is a well-rounded educational game, challenging players' problem solving, reading comprehension, and general knowledge (among other abilities) while offering plenty of entertainment besides. These pluses, along with the game's engaging sense of humor, make it a admirable successor to the earlier Carmen games. So sign in with ACME, and let the chase begin! --Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Boring
This game is kinda cool when you first start playing it, but then it gets preety dull. All you do is answer questions to defeat robots(which never go away). So, I strongly encourage you not to by this game.

Doesn't teach, just quizzes the child.
I was disappointed in this software. Other Carmen Sandiego programs at least make an attempt to teach but this one simply bombards the child (aka "player") with multiple choice questions. My daughter is eight and relatively bright, but we're not very happy with this product.

Carmen Sandiego strikes world knowleg after MUCH change!
In the educational new Carmen Sandiego themed game, Carmen and her new specially trained master thieves--armed with robots who have the power to steal knowlege--are after such concepts as ABC order, technolegy, and solar-power enegery.

Chase Devineaqux, new head of ACME, is recconizing your super smarts and sending you on a mission to recover the stolen knowlege. To do so, you must catch the knowlege robots, prove your knowlege, gain a hideout code, solve a VILE puzzle to enter the hideout, and bust the thief.

A bit easy once you get the hang of it, but it can be challenging at some points. The catching of the Know Bots (either by tagging them or zapping them) can be more of a arcade type thing, but once the knowlege part kicks in, you have to be smart to succeed.

What suprised me most, though, was that they changed really changed the way the game is compared to the Where in the World and USA games. For one, in the Where in the World and Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego games, you never really see ACME, and in this game, when you do see it, it doesn't seem that real. Second, what happened to The Chief? Why isn't she heading ACME any more? Third, there are only six thieves working for Carmen now. Before there were thousands. Fourth, there's no getting lost and then trying despertly to get back on the trail of the thief. The old way is half of the fun. (The changes are what caused me to give it three stars instead of five.)

In short, a wonderful game, but if you're a loyal agent of ACME, this is somewhat depressing.

Muti-player!
I thought the game for one person was pretty boring easy to solve for me. But when you get together with a max of 4 people it's awesome! Racing to hit the buzzer and get the most points, even trying to get the least amount of wrong questions, made the game pretty exciting. I recomend this game highly as a muti-player game.

Good, but not as good as the old ones
Ok, I love Carmen Sandiego. I know many others do as well. So *why* did you change her! Whats with the cat-suit? Gimme back my normal Carmen!

Oh well. If your a loyal Carmen fan, then this game may take some getting use too. Its an awesome game, but the older ones (Before The Learning Company bought out) were better. :) ... Read more

Features

• Kids must retrieve the stolen Mega-Bolt by completing games and distributing prizes
• 8 interactive activities and puzzles
• Features the popular characters from the award-winning television series
• Teaches planning, spatial reasoning, deductive reasoning, and other problem-solving techniques
• For kids ages 8-11

Reviews (1)

Cyberchase Carnival Chaos
As an avid fan of the show, I HAD to have this game, and now that I have it, I'm not sure what I think of it. It's kind of hard (I can only do two games on it), but, on the other hand, it's a lot of fun to see the charaters from my favorite show on here. (Especially Buzz and Delete- I really like them.) So, I think a die-hard fan should look into it, but be prepared: it's not as easy as it looks. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Thinkin' Things: Toony the Loon's Lagoon is filled with dozens of characters and activities that help kids learn how to be better thinkers. Toony, Oranga, and other jungle friends guide children toward success in six unique locations. Follow Toony's lead or create your own melodies on the xylophones. Investigate 3-D illusions by tossing colorful spheres that grow and shrink as they react to a variety of backgrounds. Create your own moving art by applying creativity to scientific exploration as you plan, predict behavior, and put shapes into flight. This adventure safari is loaded with colors, patterns, puzzles, and games designed to build creativity, imagination, and problem-solving skills that will last a lifetime. ... Read more

Features

• Based on standard curriculum used by school across the country, they'll be introduced to every important subject they'll face in school
• The combination of 3D images, animation and lessons will help any child learn about important subjects
• Thousands of great lessons help children identify their strongest subjects and adjust for subjects they're less familiar
• Cover ten core subjects -Spelling, Reading, Writing, Math, Fractions, Geography, Social Studies, Typing and Spanish

Features

• Boost creativity and imagination through Reading and Writing exercises
• Challenge their minds with Critical Thinking activities in simulations of real-world problems
• Travel around the world for Social Studies - learn all about some of man's greatest achievements
• Build essential math skills, from adding 7 subtracting to multiplying to dividing; From square roots to fractions
• Help kids become spelling masters with entertaining games and puzzles - develop word recognition, association & accuracy skills