Description:
Winnie the Pooh and the other denizens of the 100 Acre Wood are ideal companions for guiding your baby through his or her first software experience. Their gentle silliness and not particularly linear behavior provide a perfect match for the vagaries of baby reasoning. Babies can help Pooh pull everything from bubbles to birds out of his honey pots. Use spoons to bang out rhythms on pans with Baby Roo. Point to body parts with Piglet. Paint with Eeyore, who glumly uses his tail as a brush. ("Green. Like the grass. Except when it's brown. Sigh.") Or play a bouncy game of hide and seek with Tigger. With all five of these elements, your baby can initiate action by simply mashing a key (or five) on the keyboard. Music, colors, opposites, and counting are just a few of the many concepts these activities explore. A couple of smart touches are buttons a parent can click to control the play. A Good Job button causes the character to give positive feedback to your baby. The Do It Again button is for that thing near and dear to all babies' hearts: repetition. It exists so parents can make balloons float out of Pooh's honey pot ad infinitum, which is just how babies likes it. Don't expect to park your baby alone with this CD-ROM. It works best when parents participate, using the mouse to move between activities and control the play. Fortunately, little surprises, flawless animation, and well-developed characters make this an easy one for parents to enjoy. Watching Piglet's fidgety hands and hearing Eeyore sigh as a rain cloud drenches his masterpiece is like being with old friends. Designers used a quilt motif as the central visual element of this program, and it's an appropriate choice. Winnie the Pooh Baby is as comfy as a well-worn baby blanket. (Ages 9 to 24 months) --Anne Erickson
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