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: GREAT program
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.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: This software arrived yesterday. My son, Zachary, has a cold, and we've been stuck inside recovering. He used it yesterday for two hours straight, and was completely involved and excited the entire time. He probably would have gone another hour if I had let him. It was difficult for me to resist "showing" my almost 2 1/2 year old son how to use the program, but I forced myself to sit back and just let him figure it out.
At first, it seemed like he was just randomly moving the mouse around, but it wasn't long before it became clear that he was sorting things out. Along with other reviewers, I saw the "problem" of having the exit located in the natural resting spot for the mouse (lower right hand corner). My first thought was "Oh, no, he's going to end up going in circles and get frustrated." But it wasn't long until he figured out that the lower right hand corner was the way to go "back" to new adventures. And this makes me think that perhaps the designer intended it this way. That is, the designer may have intentionally placed the "return" mouseover area where it is so the child would stumble upon it repeatedly and eventually make sense of how to navigate. In any case, this is how it worked for Zachary. He went in circles for a while and he gradually realized that he could avoid going in circles if he stayed off the lower right hand corner. I'm sure it would have taken longer if I had intruded to offer advice. The mouse character leads the child with just the right amount of encouragement and direction, and without any assistance from me, Zachary can now navigate through the program with confidence. Prior to this he had no experience with the computer other than sitting in my lap to watch a short video I might find on-line. He has, however, been dying to play with the computer himself for some time.
Zachary happens to be in an "I can't do it" phase, so he regularly sets up too difficult tasks for himself and then gets frustrated. I saw nothing even remotely like this happen while he was using this program. In fact, when he accomplishes a task and gets the visual/auditory reward, he will exclaim, "Yay for Zachary!"
Highly recommended. I got my copy used for half the retail price.
Update (Dec 4, 2004): After about a week, Zachary was completely bored with this software. I would still recommend, though, if the goal is to introduce the mouse without having to do any "demonstrating."
Rating:
Summary: great for toddlers
Review: We bought this for our 2 year old and she loves it. In a short period of time she has learned to use it on her on ( with our supervision). She can change games and play on her on.
Rating:
Summary: Too easy!
Review: We bought this game for our 2-1/2 yr old last week and found that the games are too simple, the long instructions are annoying and can't be turned off, and you can't operate it without the CD. All the games are very easy, more geared towards 1-1/2 to 2 yr olds. Activities include matching letters, popping bubbles, matching animals. Although they are good for teaching mouse control, they are not intellectually challenging and our daughter is already bored with them.
Rating:
Summary: Too easy!
Review: We bought this game for our 2-1/2 yr old last week and found that the games are too simple, the long instructions are annoying and can't be turned off, and you can't operate it without the CD. All the games are very easy, more geared towards 1-1/2 to 2 yr olds. Activities include matching letters, popping bubbles, matching animals. Although they are good for teaching mouse control, they are not intellectually challenging and our daughter is already bored with them.
Rating: 
Summary: Best toddler software I've found
Review: We've tried Pooh Toddler, Little Bear, JumpStart and a handful of other toddler geared software and Reader Rabbit has been the favorite of both myself and my son. It's easy to skip the intros (which are short anyway) and get straight to the game; it works for a wide range of toddler skills; and it has activities appropriate to a toddler's attention span, namely short and colorful without being overly abrasive. Some of the games have more of a point than others ("can you find three matching animals?" vs. "pick a song!") but they can all be triggered by 1) point and click 2) mouse over or 3) random key pounding. This has been great for my son (who didn't get the whole mouse thing until he was 2 1/2) and means that no game is too advanced to key pound your way through. There are about eight different games on the main disc; you can pick a song to sing, match animal babies to their parents, place shapes to complete a picture, and match letter sounds to pictures -- among other things. I really like that a lot of the short tasks are rewarded with a *short* song and animation piece -- not great art, but not annoying, either. And my son loves them. I will warn that the alphabet and the shape game can be frustrating if they accidently pick up a letter/shape on mouse over because it then has to be placed with the mouse -- random key pounding won't unstick it. Also, my son was prone to accidently bringing up the menu through key pounding and I'd have to come and fix it. Finally, I've had the old and new versions of RR Toddler; the new one has a second disc which my son had zero interest in. On the main disc there are a few asthetic changes and a dreamship game in a completely different section, which my son loves but which has no real education value and is a little harder to access. On the good side, the new Reader Rabbit *seems* to run just fine on Mac OS X so I don't have to run 9 to get it to work. Hooray! (BTW, Little Bear Toddler has the same point and click/mouse over/random keys function, but I don't think it's as fun. The games that *require* mouse skills in toddlers have gotten shoved in the closet.)
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