Calendar Creator Plus, Gold Edition

Calendar Creator Plus, Gold Edition Review

Calendar Creator Plus, Gold Edition Feature

• Gold Edition

Includes CD and book:

Reader Rabbit Playtime for Baby and Toddler

Reader Rabbit Playtime for Baby and Toddler Review

Reader Rabbit Playtime for Baby and Toddler Feature

• Matching and Differences
• Emotions,Early Vocabulary and more
• Movement and Coordination Letters and Numbers

It had to happen: software is now being bundled for your little bundle of joy. Reader Rabbit Playtime for Baby & Toddler will never be a substitute for the tactile joys of real life, but this software does manage to capture infants' and toddlers' attention with bright, happy images and a format that responds well to chubby, not-so-coordinated hands.

In Playtime for Baby, a game of tag between Reader Rabbit and Mat the Mouse ends with Mat hiding in a toy box. With Mat's help, each of the 10 toys in the box leads the baby into a new experience: singing, manipulating shapes, playing hide-and-seek, discovering body parts, reading storybooks, and (oh joy!) rummaging in drawers to make music. Your baby controls the action by hitting any key on the keyboard (or just hitting the keyboard, as they are wont to do) or simply moving the mouse. No clicks are required. The cursor is a big fat star that leaves a trail of twinkles. Brushing it against an object onscreen will elicit anything from a childlike giggle to a kerplunk to the appropriate animal noise.

The only critique of this CD is that the artwork is simplistic. It would be nice to see more depth and smoother movement, if only to make the program more enjoyable for the adults who must guide their babies through it. Other than that, by developing cupboards with no locks, personalized storybooks with pages that don't rip, and farm animals willing to engage in endless games of hide-and-seek, the creators of Playtime for Baby have managed to tap into a baby's wildest dreams.

Playtime for Toddler has a lusher look than Playtime for Baby. Again, mouse movements or keyboard pokes inspire action in nine activities that include things that send most toddlers into fits of joy. One of the better games is Bubble Castle, where your toddler "pops" bubbles with animals in them, and the freed creatures gallop into a castle and peep from the windows. This simple payoff engaged one 2-year-old tester for many minutes, shouting "Bye-bye, animal!" each time she liberated a critter. Pop and Play Place teaches matching and music as toddlers activate three jack-in-the-boxes until whatever pops out matches, upon which they are rewarded with a song ("We are mice, we are nice. We say please when we want cheese!"). In Follow Me Theater, Reader Rabbit acts out hand-motion hits like "Eensy Weensy Spider" and "I'm a Little Teapot." Other activities include a puzzle and color tutorial called Sky Shapes; Peekaboo Jungle, where kids investigate animal noises with a flashlight cursor; a Musical Meadow; an ABC Train that teaches letters with the help of slick animation and audio; and Baby Basket Bingo, a cute bit of business that requires toddlers to reunite baby animals with their parents based on the tiny roar or peep that comes from the creature hidden in the basket. Rainbow Rock is the only loser in the bunch, a coloring program that doesn't even attempt to teach colors.

One of the best features of Playtime for Toddler is that younger babies can bang on the keyboard and automatically get "correct" results, while older ones can use the mouse to drag the cursor in a mode that involves more trial and error. Both options are available at once; no settings need to be changed. Clicking does nothing here, which may puzzle some tykes who have already discovered that clicking gets results in grownup programs. Overall, this is a decent bundle for babies, with Playtime for Toddler being the stronger, more realistic offering of the two. (Ages 1 to 3) --Anne Erickson Two programs in one! Includes: Reader Rabbit Playtime for Baby - a stimulating and playful environment filled with toys and much more! Plus, with Reader Rabbit's Toddler kids can travel to a fantastic world!

Zoombinis Logical Journey

Zoombinis Logical Journey Review

Zoombinis Logical Journey Feature

• Designed for Windows XP

"Not too long ago, Zoombinis enjoyed the good life. Though they all looked slightly different--different eyes, noses, hair, feet--such differences meant nothing to the Zoombinis. And so they lived happily on Zoombini Isle, making small, useful products, which were prized the world over." So begins an unsuspectingly addictive CD-ROM, featuring uncommonly fun reasoning games that require serious problem solving and math-thinking work. Yet the perils that face this cheerful society are not as fearsome as the amount of time you'll potentially spend on this pursuit. Beware the chubby, chattering Zoombinis if you don't want to get hooked to your computer for at least 90 minutes a session!

Adored by educators and parents alike, Zoombinis Logical Journey challenges children to employ such basic fundamentals of mathematical thinking as organizing information, reasoning of evidence, finding and making patterns, and systematic testing of hypotheses. The journey follows four puzzle-filled trails, each exploring related mathematical ideas. The fundamental data and variables for all this work are the variations in the Zoombinis' features. Their "feet," for example, can be shoes, skates, whirligigs, or coiled springs (the sound effects for these items are particularly great), while their "eyes" may be heavily lidded, enhanced by eyeglasses, blocked by dark shades, or limited to just a single eyeball. Sorting and arranging these variables in order to solve puzzles requires concentrated effort from the players, and the game rewards them well with inventive scenarios that evolve in fabulously curious ways as skills are gained. This may not sound like much, but when Arno the Pizza-Eating Tree Troll, who has been yammering for the perfectly topped pizza his entire lifetime, suddenly demands a perfectly topped ice cream sundae, too, it is a staggering, giddy surprise.

The product is full of so many little joys, it's hard to demand improvements. Still, it'd be a great thing if version 2 would feature something other than the monotonous, ping-ping-ping soundtrack that's featured here. But that's minor. In the end, the creators' promise that this CD-ROM will "encourage kids to develop a lifetime habit of associating fun with learning" is dead-on. (Ages 9 and older) --Jean Lenihan Learn important life skills and more as you lead the Zoombinis to freedomProduct InformationTravel to a remarkable new world and treat your brain to an outlandishly fun and challenging adventure. Diabolical Bloats have seized Zoombini Isle and it will take a clever mind to help the Zoombinis navigate their way to safety. Standing between you and your destination are twelve perilous puzzles with four levels of difficulty each.  But beware this is no ordinary challenge.  Zoombinis’ captivating gameplay features math without numbers. Solving Zoombinis puzzles uses the process of mathematical thinking.  This process includes organizing information reasoning with evidence and testing systematically.Dive into the exciting and wacky world of the Zoombinis and develop information-age logic skills used in writing computer programs organizing spreadsheet data and searching for information on computer networks.A journey into a mind-bending puzzle-packed epic adventure! Skills LearnedAlgebraic Thinking Data Analysis Graphing and Mapping Logical Reasoning Pattern Finding Problem Solving Statistical Thinking Theory Formulation and Testing Product FeaturesPrintable activities. Sharpen your skills even when you’re away from the computer. 12 perilous puzzles with 4 levels of difficulty each. Play again and again! With puzzle reformulation it’s a new game each adventure! Helpful puzzle clues and a handy practice mode build confidence every step of the way. A detailed Parent’s Guide explains the innovative educational approach behind each puzzle. Logical Journey supports the math standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Windows System Requirements Windows 98 Me 2000 XP Vista Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) Pentium 200 MHz or faster processor 32 MB of RAM 40 MB free hard disk space (an additional 7 MB of disk space may be required to install Adobe Acrobat