Rating: 
Summary: Very good for the young ones
Review: My grandson started playing this one at about age one and still enjoys it at almost 3. He also likes Reader Rabbitt Preschool which is more challenging than Reader Rabbitt Toddler.He navigates the program by himself, moves between activities unassisted and has mastered all of the activities. A great rainy-day activity.
Rating:
Summary: Great for kids
Review: My husband and I both work on computers, so our 2 year old was fascinated. I wasn't expecting her to pick this up, so fast. Not needing to click the mouse is a huge plus and just by large motions, she can play all the games. I was very impressed and she loves to play Reader Rabbit!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent program for toddlers
Review: My review is based on the french version - 'Lapain Malin - Maternelle 1' which is slightly different (and better in my opinion) than the english version. I bought this program originally for my 1.5 year old daughter who INSTANTLY took to it. Since we used my laptop, by age 2 she was very familiar with the touchpad on the laptop to manoever the game. Now at age 4, she STILL loves playing the game along with my new 2year old son (we now play on my iMac). I can totally leave my 2 year old alone with the game and he will play with it for hours. AMAZING. They just get it and it's loads of fun. I HIGHLY recommend this title. I've tried other subsequent programs in the series with less success for some reason. But this is definately a must-have if you want to introduce your youn ones to the PC
Rating: 
Summary: Skip this one
Review: My son (now almost 4) is pretty academically bright and pretty good with a computer mouse. We bought this game for him just before he turned 3 last year. What a disappointment! Now, we are a big computer game family, and our son has played a few other titles which we have loved (Little People Discovery Airport, Ollo Saves the Fair, Putt-Putt, and a few others). We loved Reader Rabbit Toddler and Reader Rabbit Baby, which were designed very well. Unfortunately, Reader Rabbit Preschool did not stack up. As usual, the game has a creative story behind it, and there is a goal that involves collecting things. These are wonderful motivators. However, the game skill levels seem either much to easy (matching bugs) or pretty advanced (counting out just the right number of bugs to fill a rocket, including addition and subtraction as the game increases in difficulty) for a "typical" preschooler. I should add that I used to teach preschool and kindergarten, so I have an idea of what is developmentally appropriate. This game ranges from boring to frustrating with very little in between. Some activities, such as the "painting" activity at the waterfall, require very very good mouse control, as the shapes tend to be very small, and the child must click in just the right areas. I highly recommend skipping this game. Our son is now happily playing Reader Rabbit Kindergarten (the Summer Camp one)with very little trouble.
Rating:
Summary: Got my son to talk
Review: My son was 2.5 years old and hardly talked. I took this out from the library and I walked by and heard him repeating color names and shapes. The next day I heard him counting. He also learned to use the mouse and computer using this game. I then purchased it on Amazon.com and he still plays with it daily. He talks non stop now, counts to 15 and even likes me to read to him. He is talking in sentences. If you have a slow talker, get this and it will work miracles. I hope you have as much success as I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Learning can be fun
Review: My toddler loved this software. She was intially amused by the colors and the music. The more she played the more she learned. She knows all of her body parts, including the elbow, because of this software. The combination of colorful backdrops and catchy music keeps a toddlers attention. It helped that the software did not require many clicks of the mouse, simply moving it and holding it over an object changed the games.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect introduction to the computer!
Review: Our 2-year old daughter was fascinated by the computer, but all the age-appropriate software we had was either much to simplistic (actions required only banging on the keyboard to produce a result), or required a considerable amount of help from an adult due to the need to point and click. She was very interested in the mouse, but could never quite get the concept of pointing and clicking, which was always very frustrating for her. My favorite thing about Reader Rabbit Toddler is the method it uses for teaching little ones how to use the mouse. Making selections requires only moving the very large mouse pointer to an object on the screen, then holding it in place for about 5 seconds. A series of dots lights up, one at a time, with a pinging sound, to indicate that the object is going to be selected. This reduces accidental selections, and allows plenty of time to change your mind and move the pointer to a different object. (Clicking to select the object will also work, which our daughter caught on to very easily once she mastered the "pointing" part.) Within about 3 days, she was able to use the mouse to select and play the different games with very little help. After about a week, she could play completely unassisted, and had completely mastered pointing and clicking a short time later. The software provides a wide variety of activities, all of which are launched from the same "home" location, which is very easy to return to when finished with an activity. The activities are cute, colorful, and very fun for this age group. Activities including a coloring book, which requires only rapid movement of the mouse to fill in the pictures; a music activity, in which Reader Rabbit does finger plays for various familiar songs; some simple games involving letters and numbers; and some animal matching games. (There are some others, but I can't recall them off the top of my head.) It seems to me that the primary focus of the software is to be cute and entertaining enough to keep a child's attention while helping them to learn fundamental computer skills necessary for using any software. It has been about 3 months since our daughter first started using the software, and she has already moved on to other, more complex software (her current favorite is Jump Start Pre-K -- much better than Reader Rabbit Preschool.) I suppose that my only complaint about the software is that it didn't really "grow" with her ability, which would have made it last longer. Although, we probably would have gotten much more use out of it had we started using it when she was younger. (The box says ages 1-3, and I wouldn't hesitate to try it out with a 1-year old on my lap. I think a 3-year old would master it very quickly.) I would highly recommend this software to anyone who wants to introduce their toddler to the computer.
Rating:
Summary: Have to Pull Her Away from the Computer
Review: Purchased this software for my soon to be 4-year-old. After a small bit of trouble getting the hang of what the program was asking her to do, off she went. Now I have to fight to get her off of the computer. She sometimes spends up to 2 hours on it, not once getting bored. Sometimes she leaves crying, because she wants to continue on. I think I need to buy another computer just for her or continue to get the guilt trip. Some of the lessons are repeative, but the key concepts continue to get harder and harder, challenging the child. Even after completing all three levels in a core concept, the program keeps changing itself. I don't know if this is by design or not. All I do know is that my child is doing things that are not expected of a 4-year-old. She is starting to read and sound out words on her own. She is only about half way through the entire lesson plan, but at this rate she will be on to the 1st grade program before she turns 5. Great program, I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: OK for the younger set
Review: Reader Rabbit Preschool has 5 games and one additional game that you earn. Although there is a game that focuses on letters and sounds and one on numbers and counting, the other three are all color and shape (with patterns in the bugs game). The games allow your child to practice skills they have, but doesn't do as much to help them learn as it could. If they don't know the skill, they might get frustrated with a game. It does increase difficulty with success (more colors, patterns,...) and tracks progress. From a programming stand point, the game functioned well on my PC with Windows ME. In Bug matching, baby bugs are dragged up to their matching parent. The bugs are irregular shapes with colors and/or patterns. The baby bug won't release unless you have it with the right parent, but it doesn't appear that the number or choices is reduced. In Rainbow Falls the child is ask to fill a particular shape (and later a particular sized shape) with the color. If the child picks the wrong color or shape, they are told what color or shape they picked, but the program never resorts to actually showing the child what shape or color they need to pick. The third color/shape game has the child picking matching gems in the Mining game. If they pick the wrong one, they get a horn, but no further help. In the number game they are shown a rocket with the number and number of dots equal to the number of "sparklenauts" needed in the space ship. The child is told he has too many or too few but isn't actually told to add or remove "X" number of "sparklenauts". Every successful launch fixes a cloud, but there are way too many clouds, so this game tends to drag. In Rushing river, an object floats down in a raft and waits for the child to choose the matching letter from the 3 choices above and shake glitter over the item. The beginning letter and object is named if you click on the object. The letter choices above are not named. If you choose the wrong letter, it will tell you that, but it never reduces your choices or gives hints. The bonus game is has the child string movements together to create a dance. There isn't enough variety or difficulty for my son that just turned 5. My son that just turned 3 is challenged by the letter and numbers section, but not the 3 color/shape sections. I would recommend JumpStart Advance Preschool for more variety and challenge.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful program...if it would actutally work
Review: The games are wonderful. My son loved them all and it kept his attention (which is not easy). After he had played it a few times, it began freezing up or the picture would only be partially displayed and he'd get very frustrated. I tried totally rebuilding the computer in the event it was a problem with the computer rather than the game but the same problem happened over and over. He also plays the "JumpStart" games on the same computer and we never have any problems with those games. They are just as good or better than Reader Rabbit.
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