Amazon.com Review

Discovering the alphabet is one charming accident after another with Curious George as your guide. The tiny brown monkey with the wide smile sneaks onto a skywriting plane, upsets the post card stand at the zoo, and topples a boy's toys into the lake, but the always-resourceful Man in the Yellow Hat turns each mishap into an alphabet adventure. The prevailing plucky optimism of the Curious George books reigns supreme here.

In a light blue and bright yellow world that's stylistically true to the Curious George books, kids can visit four different spots for five activities that will eventually have them deftly negotiating their ABC's. The most engaging place to visit is the zoo, which is packed with everything from alligators to zebras. Kids must lead George and the Man in the Yellow Hat down a labyrinth of paths to find the proper animals or things to put in the alphabetized Zoo Picture Book. The spot has so much going on that it took us a good four minutes to "find something that begins with the letter J." Wandering the zoo's paths as monkeys hoot and elephants trumpet in the background will keep young letter seekers interested in the hunt for quite some time.

Skills such as hand/eye coordination come into play as kids help Curious George recover the alphabet blocks he accidentally dumped in the lake. Memory is honed as George messes with bread dough, falls in a heap on the floor, and discovers a letter-matching game in the bakery. Kids don't just learn the alphabet here; they learn that honest mistakes aren't that bad. This CD-ROM is at its best whenever Curious George sticks his finger in his mouth, considers the possibilities, then wanders off to live up to his name. (Ages 3 to 6) --Anne Erickson ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Very Dissapointing
This is one of the few CDs that I have bought that I wish I had not spent my money on. Very dissapointing.

There are basically four games on the cd. I found the games to be slow in loading and the graphics to be cheap looking many times. The games are not very fun.

One is fishing- you have to fish for the letters, but you have to have everything just right to get the letters. Hard. Another one is sky writing, my son loved this game but I don't know how much he really 'got it'. The third one is at the zoo and you have to find things that begin with letters that are given to you- however, you have to go through several screens to find the correct letter and with the loading time being longer than ever, by the time you get to the thing you are looking for, you forgot what you were looking for. Not Fun. The Match game is fun but you can get this on other CDs.

I'd give this one a skip. Stick with Reader Rabbit, Jump Start and others like that. One we got a lot of use out of while learning the letters (not the sounds) was the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom CD. That one was well worth the money.

More about hand/eye coordination than learning ABCs
I bought this program based largely on the editorial review. My 2 year old knows his ABCs and I bought the program thinking it would focus on letter sounds. The four games that are included in the package are 1) an airplane skywriting letter match which quickly advances to identifying the first letter of a object and then selecting that letter from four choices. This sounded good, but in practice is not working out -- when the selection is incorrect the airplane very cutely writes a frowny face in the sky. It is difficult to get my airplane-loving son to understand that the frowny face is not a "prize." 2) The second game is set in a zoo where George is to find an object that begins with a particular letter dictated by the Man in the Yellow Hat. Sounds like a good game, except that you have to use multiple screens in order to find the object. By the time one gets to multiple screens one has completely forgotten what letter was requested or what screens have already been viewed. The objects are animated and are cute, making the game fun, but again, the learning factor is lost in the details of the exercise. 3) The third game features a lake in which George is required to fish for ABC blocks. Sounds like it might be fun and educational -- except that the task of positioning the boat above the requested letter, then timing the click of the mouse just right in order to "catch" the block can be frustrating. The exercise of letter identification is not the point of the game -- it is a hand-eye coordination exercise and that is all. 4) The fourth game is a memory match game, which is the only one that my son truly understands and achieves the desired lesson. However, many of the preschool software packages contain memory match exercises which are more interesting and more educational.

All in all, I am disappointed in this software. I have not yet found the right package for my child's skill and learning level. He has long tired of Reader Rabbit Toddler, is playing RR Preschool (but I have some complaints there as well), LOVES Dr. Seuss's ABC program which I also think is well written, LOVES Miss Spider's Tea Party which is especially good for developing listening to directions skills but is lacking on the ABC skills, and we are awaiting Richard Scarry software in hopes that it will fit the bill.

Limited value in this product
My 3 1/2 yr old is recognizing many of her letters and the sounds they make, I thought this program would help reinforce. Some of the activities are more hand-eye coordination than recognizing letters and matching them with their sounds. Some games use sound recognition, but don't match the sound with what the letter looks like, which is too difficult for young learners.
Some of the activities are more valuable than others, and she enjoys some of them, but they are limited in what they are going to teach her.

My Two-Year old LOVES this cd-rom!
I've given this game 4 stars simply because my daughter is a year younger than the lowest recommended age. I'm sure I would give it 5 if she was three. We bought it anyway, as she LOVES letters, and thought we'd have fun with it. As it is, she really enjoys the various scenarios. She adores the animals in the zoo, and there is certainly a lot to look at. At the air field, she is able to choose the correct letter for the pilot to write in the sky, and is really proud that she can accomplish this. While we help with with the retrieval of the blocks at the lake (a little tricky to manipulate the timing and positioning for a 2 year) she enjoys sitting on my lap and pointing at the proper block to pick up. The scenario at the the bakery is again, a little beyond her abilities at this point, but she loves to watch me play it. Despite the fact that some of the game is a little advanced, we have lots of fun with it. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

This affordable multiple-CD set from Topics Entertainmentstrikes a wonderful balance between education and entertainment,pulling together four already proven titles that cover everything frommath and problem-solving skills to art and reading.

Edmark's Mighty Math Zoo Zillions lets kids practice countingand number grouping in a colorful animated zoo, while Eurotalk'sSpanish Vocabulary Builder offers simple illustrated games thatreinforce basic Español. Simon & Schuster's CuriousGeorge Paint & Print Studio is a freeform art program that letskids decorate monkey-related scenes with thousands of stamps anddrawing tools. Finally, School Zone's Beginning Reading 1-2offers two interactive books, plus an audio dictionary and aCreate-a-Story program.

All four use intuitive visual interfaces that kids shouldn't have anytrouble tackling, and all provide at least some open-endedinteractivity. Beginning Reading lets you explore all thedifferent items on each storybook page, for example, and ZooZillions lets you fiddle with math problems as you go. Some of thisis a little complicated--Zoo Zillions lets you flip-flop quicklybetween structured questions and unstructured play--but adults willlikely find themselves more confused than kids. Also, most of theprograms feature vocal help in the form of purring tigers orhead-nodding Curious Georges.

A nice bonus: all of the programs except Beginning Reading runright off the CD, so no installation is required. And even if you'renot interested in all four titles, the price is hard to beat. --PaulHughes ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Buyer Beware - Very Poor Quality Software
The software included in this set is of very poor quality. They will change your screen colors since they need to be run in 256 color mode. The games themselves are flawed with bugs. The answers to some of the questions were incorrect. I have an advanced degree in medicine, but even that did not help to address these shortcomings. I have also purchased the middle and High school math and Middle school math excelerator software and all of them are from the same company - TOPICS ENTERTAINMENT. I would recommend not to purchase ANY of the Excelerator titles, for not only are they a waste of your time and money, but they include two programs that are the same in both the Middle School and Middle School Math, which are the Pre-Algebra and Algebra programs. You would be better off buying another title from a different company....Buyer Beware!!!

speed up my 1st to a 2nd grader
This software was pretty good the zoo zollions I think was the best my daugther enjoyed the changellen, the print shop curious george was good also, the spanish was very good and to my surprise it was easy to change to a different language. But when it came to the reading part of it. it was borning and not that much changellen only in the creating your own story the dictonary was good. Only 3 stars because I wanted something more out of it for my 7 year old going into the 2nd grade. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Hit the beat with cuddly canine Blue and fill the empty newsstand withissues of your own paper. While Steve minds the store for Cash Register, you andBlue travel through a series of five learning activities designed to strengthenlistening comprehension and writing skills, as well as word and letterrecognition. Each activity becomes a hot news story for the Big News Gazette, but it's up to you to decide if a story makes it into thepaper, or where in the paper it will appear.

Blue's pursuit for all that's fitto print takes kids through the library, where they meet up with lots of Blue'spals. Help Green Kitten and other feline friends write and illustrate stories,jump into a dictionary and match missing words to their definitions, or playWord Match with Magenta, Mrs. Salt, and Mr. Pepper. Create your own stories withFan, or choose from words and pictures to help Blue find missing items. As kidsparticipate in each activity, they earn stories to fill the paper and thenewsstand.

The quality of the learning activities is excellent, a smoothintroduction to a concept that can often be overwhelming. In addition to readingskills, kids sharpen their memories, vocabularies--even their decision-makingskills, by selecting which stories to feature and how the articles should belaid out. The characters are charming, the graphics are sharp and brightlycolored to hold kids' attention, and the light dose of humor and bluesy music woven throughout make this program a delight--even for thoseunfamiliar with the television show that made Blue a star.

There are someextra-nice touches: word cards that sound themselves out when clicked on appearthroughout the game, and unlike some children's programs that can leave kidslost with a lack of direction, here kids are prompted with instructions fromparticipating characters if they wait too long to take action. The program evenincludes a copy of Blue's ABCTime Activities for kids to further hone their language skills. (Ages 3to 6) --Leah Ball ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Excellent game, lots to interest a 3 yr old
This is my daughter's favorite CD, she can spend hours playing the different games. Very good for teaching the use of the mouse (make sure you slow the movement down first!)

Some of the games took a while to find so make sure you explore the library well.

Excellent for teaching reading
I used to rate this as four stars but today I had to upgrade it to five. It says it is for children aged three to six but when my daughter was three she didnft enjoy this game nearly as much as the other Blues titles. Of course, she could handle the difficulty level when she was three. She made her own newspapers and won the game when she was three. But now that she is four she just loves it. Her reading skills are much higher and she gets addicted to playing with words. I highly recommend this game for children who are currently interested in simple reading. All the Blues PC titles are worth buying.

Grows with your kids!
In this game, your child and Blue work together to build a newspaper to hang for sale at Steve's newstand. To do this, you must collect six articles, which you do by completing various tasks of widely different skill levels. When we first purchased this game my kids enjoyed the "play" aspects of a few of the challenges. Now that they are older (and learning to read), they can play and understand much more of the game, and are learning as well. The graphics are simple but entirely consistent with the minimalist TV show. The kids loved this game when we first got it and love it now--a span of over 18 months. Astonishing now that I think about it. Highly recommended.

Well-made, FUN learning for kids
Like all the "Blue's Clues" software products, this is a beautifully made, thoughtful program that teaches kids the fundamentals of learning. The best thing about this program is that it presents information in a way that younger kids understand and can enjoy, so that they don't get frustrated by their lack of success or progress. I've seen a lot of kids' CD-ROMs, and this is one of the best I've come across recently. You won't be disappointed; Blue is so adorable! The only bad thing is that you can't click out of Steve's song at the end.... You get pretty sick of hearing it if you play the game enough. But that's my only complaint. Great product. ... Read more

Product Description

The Pre-K Day by Day CD is perfect for parents, daycare providers, teachers, babysitters, homeschoolers, and anyone who is looking for preschool age ideas and activities. Introducing the very first software program of its kind! Featuring 12 months of daily activities that have been perfectly organized, making it possible for even the busiest parent to spend quality, educational time with their child! Pre-K Day by Day is revolutionary with its simple and easy to use interface, the ability to print as many worksheets as you need, and the fantastic daily activities all on one disc made just for the parent or care-giver of a preschool age child. Over the course of a year with the Pre-K Day by Day program, you and your child will learn together by engaging in songs, crafts, original printables, experiments, projects, and much more while covering over 100 preschool curriculum themes! Not only does this CD deal with the more familiar preschool themes like space and pets, but it also contains activities for values such as honesty and compassion at a level that younger children can comprehend. This CD is not like anything youve ever seen before. It was made by the parents of preschoolers, and the activities have all been kid approved! ... Read more

Features

• Printable and hands-on activities for quality parent/child time.
• A whole year of activities to enjoy with your preschooler.
• Helps you prepare your child for kindergarten success.
• Save time with detailed and organized materials lists.
• Organized by month, week, and day views.

Product Description

PEDIATRICIAN RECOMMENDED! The Pre-K Alphabet Play CD is perfect for parents, daycare providers, teachers, babysitters, homeschoolers, and anyone who is looking for preschool age ideas and activities. Introducing the very first software program of its kind! Featuring a full alphabet of activities that have been perfectly organized, making it possible for even the busiest parent to spend quality, educational time with their child! Alphabet Play is revolutionary with its simple and easy to use interface, the ability to print as many worksheets as you need, and the fantastic alphabet activities all on one disc made just for the parent or care-giver of a preschool age child. With the Pre-K Alphabet Play program, you and your child will learn together by engaging in song s, crafts, original printables, experiments, projects, and much more while thoroughly covering each letter of the alphabet in an age appropriate way! This CD is not like anything youve ever seen before. It was made by the parents of preschoolers, and the activities have all been kid approved! ... Read more

Features

• Printable and hands-on activities for quality parent/child time.
• Animal Puppets / Snacks / Coloring Pages
• Dot to Dots / Handwriting Practice Pages / Crafts
• Letter Posters / Songs / Folder Games / Finger Plays
• Now you can print in COLOR or B&W Outline!

Product Description

Students read, write and spell words with consonant blends. They make the connection between sound blends and their corresponding letter patterns. ... Read more

Features

• For academic purchase only

Amazon.com Product Description

Learn to read, spell, and sound out words. Jump into reading play land, where early spelling is F-U-N, and phonics makes the S - UN shine brightly all day. Come inside--Millie and her friends are ready to play.Build vocabulary skills, associate letter names with letter sounds, match pictures with printed words, spell and sound out words, and discover rhyming patterns. Reading Roller Coaster was originally published as part of Bailey's Book House, winner of multiple awards for quality in educational software. (Ages 4-7) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Basic product that teaches a basic skill
I like this game and think that it does a good job of teaching symbols that relate to sounds heard in words, rhyming and spelling three letter words. It is pretty basic and only covers rhyming and spelling. All the child needs to know how to do is point and click to play the game. Also, it usually does not take a child long to complete the entire game. I would recommend it for an average PreK-K and for students that are having problems with rhyming three letter words and spelling three letter words. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Big Thesaurus is Not for Kids
If you are a writer or ever just need to grasp a new or different word, Big Thes 2.1 is for you. It's an interactive thesaurus and a great writing tool. It is set up as a Mac 9.X system extension and is always available onscreen, via a small menu drop-down at the top of the screen.

To use, you highlight a word in ANY program - Word, Office, Pagemaker, Quark - it doesn't matter. Then reach up and click on the Big Thes drop down menu, highlight "lookup selection" and bam -- you get nouns, verbs, adjectives and everything else.

It has 1.4 million combinations, organized by meanings, and up to 40 different definitions per word.

When you find the one you want, you hit "replace" and keep on writing.

It's nifty.

I gave it only 4 because they have not upgraded it to system 10 for the Mac. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Grammarian is the best tool you can buy to improve your writing skills. Fast, easy, and reliable, Grammarian helps you do a more professional job, and saves time with one-step proofreading. Grammarian can interactively check your grammar while you type. It can also batch-check and perform statistical analyses in a single pass. You don't waste time running separate procedures to count words, sentences, and syllables per word, or check punctuation, style, grammar, and mechanics.

Grammarian adapts to your writing style. It compares your writing against its extensive library of over 140 rules to identify errors in your manuscript. Grammarian can ensure that your document is punctuated correctly. It has advanced features that include checking for proper noun/verb, article/noun, and verb/modifier agreements, and many more. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

ReadingMaze introduces essential reading skills through mazes where students learn by solving picture, letter, word, and sentence problems. It includes more than 350 levels of learning that introduce more than 300 beginning vocabulary words. Parents and teachers can customize activities, adjust difficulty levels, and track statistics for each student. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Teacher & parent rewiews Reading Maze
As a early childhood educator & special ed. teacher for more than 15 years, I find that children, especially those with reading problems, like the computer. It offers a patient, fun approach to difficult tasks.
I have used Reading Maze for several years and the children really like it. Given an extensive software library to choose from, it is a frequent selection.
The game play is easy to master and the levels increase in difficulty slowly enough to foster good feelings and quickly enough to allow a challenge.
I recommend this title for ages 3-7 or 8 depending on ability.
I use it with my own kids at home aged 2 and 4... ... Read more