Curious George Pre-Kindergarten ABCs

Rating:
Summary: More about hand/eye coordination than learning ABCs
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: More about hand/eye coordination than learning ABCs
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: My Two-Year old LOVES this cd-rom!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: My Two-Year old LOVES this cd-rom!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Limited value in this product
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Limited value in this product
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Very Dissapointing
Review: 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.