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Rating: 
Summary: Cat in the Hat
Review: Have used Dr Suess books, especially Cat in the Hat, to teach English to young learners. With the animation and learning support offered by this excellent CD-rom, language development is readily stimulated. The children beg for it day after day!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect Introduction to Computers for Young Children!
Review: I bought this CD-Rom a year ago, in preparation for my young son's inevitable interest in computers. I had no idea what it did, what games it had, etc. When my 4-year old son put it in the computer for the first time, I was blown away. It is so much more than the review indicates. This core of the disc is the Cat In The Hat story, but the level of interaction is awesome. On each page, you first hear/see the story. When the narrator is finished reading (or the characters are finished talking) on that page, you get to play. You can click on every single image on the page and it does something creative and entertaining. And not just the characters. I'm talking the floor, the doors, the window shades...even the stairs. Long after my son and I had started playing and I'd been through each page dozens (maybe hundreds) of times, he discovered new things to click on that were even more enteratining than those I'd shown him. For example, in the page showing Thing 1 and Thing 2 flying their kites in the hall, if you click on the stairs it starts moving like an escalator, mall "muzac" starts playing, and Thing 1 and Thing 2 appear on the escalator as shoppers, saying, respectively, "I've sure got a lot of things to return," and "I've sure got a lot of things to destroy." This program is absolutely darling, and you grown-ups won't mind being called over to the computer repeatedly when your little one announces, "Mom, look what happens when I click on the Cat's hat!" In terms of age-range, it's perfect for a first-time exposure to computers, yet I believe it would appeal to older children as well. My son, who just turned 4, had never used a computer before, and yet in no time he was navigtating by himself and clicking on everything in sight. He even found out how to shut the program down before it ends, whereas I had been using control-alt-delete! At the same time, my boyfriend's 10-year old and his friends can't keep from looking over my son's shoulder and excitedly telling him to "click on the fish! click on the bed!" Graphically, I don't have a lot of experience with this type of software, but the program is completely animated. It's not just static pictures of the story-book pages. The animation is along the lines of the 1971 Cat In The Hat Original TV Series DVD (which tells a different story, but is another must-have!). Educationally, I can't give an opinion because my son hasn't started to read yet and isn't too interested in the words yet. But I do know that it seems to have the same abilities and features as Leap Pad books: it shows the written storybook as it narrates the animation, highlighting each word as it is read, and it repeats the words if your child clicks on them (with some funny variations). All in all, a wonderful, entertaining program for both children and their parents who will endure its endless repetitions!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect Introduction to Computers for Young Children!
Review: I bought this CD-Rom a year ago, in preparation for my young son's inevitable interest in computers. I had no idea what it did, what games it had, etc. When my 4-year old son put it in the computer for the first time, I was blown away. It is so much more than the review indicates. This core of the disc is the Cat In The Hat story, but the level of interaction is awesome. On each page, you first hear/see the story. When the narrator is finished reading (or the characters are finished talking) on that page, you get to play. You can click on every single image on the page and it does something creative and entertaining. And not just the characters. I'm talking the floor, the doors, the window shades...even the stairs. Long after my son and I had started playing and I'd been through each page dozens (maybe hundreds) of times, he discovered new things to click on that were even more enteratining than those I'd shown him. For example, in the page showing Thing 1 and Thing 2 flying their kites in the hall, if you click on the stairs it starts moving like an escalator, mall "muzac" starts playing, and Thing 1 and Thing 2 appear on the escalator as shoppers, saying, respectively, "I've sure got a lot of things to return," and "I've sure got a lot of things to destroy." This program is absolutely darling, and you grown-ups won't mind being called over to the computer repeatedly when your little one announces, "Mom, look what happens when I click on the Cat's hat!" In terms of age-range, it's perfect for a first-time exposure to computers, yet I believe it would appeal to older children as well. My son, who just turned 4, had never used a computer before, and yet in no time he was navigtating by himself and clicking on everything in sight. He even found out how to shut the program down before it ends, whereas I had been using control-alt-delete! At the same time, my boyfriend's 10-year old and his friends can't keep from looking over my son's shoulder and excitedly telling him to "click on the fish! click on the bed!" Graphically, I don't have a lot of experience with this type of software, but the program is completely animated. It's not just static pictures of the story-book pages. The animation is along the lines of the 1971 Cat In The Hat Original TV Series DVD (which tells a different story, but is another must-have!). Educationally, I can't give an opinion because my son hasn't started to read yet and isn't too interested in the words yet. But I do know that it seems to have the same abilities and features as Leap Pad books: it shows the written storybook as it narrates the animation, highlighting each word as it is read, and it repeats the words if your child clicks on them (with some funny variations). All in all, a wonderful, entertaining program for both children and their parents who will endure its endless repetitions!
Rating: 
Summary: Really good buy
Review: I first saw this software in my local library and immediately decided to get one for my 3 year old. The program is as good as I expected. It installs very easily, runs well, has some animation while reading with different voices for the characters. It is a fine job overall, and my son loves it. The whole story lasts 15 minutes, and so far he has spent an hour or two a day watching it without me prompting him. There is also a part of the program where one can click the items on the screen and make it do something, but my son doesn't know how to manipulate the mouse yet. I suspect he will enjoy it later. Considering the fact that the book itself costs around $7, 10 bucks for a whole CD doesn't seem out of line at all. There is one small drawback: there is no direct way to quit the program in the middle of the book -- no "Esc" or "F1" key can bail you out of there. I got out once by pressing the windows key and then close it in windows, which is not the proper way to close a program and I felt guilty doing it. They should have designed a way to quit at any time gracefully, I think, but this is not a big problem. Overall, I am very happy I bought it.
Rating:
Summary: Really good buy
Review: I first saw this software in my local library and immediately decided to get one for my 3 year old. The program is as good as I expected. It installs very easily, runs well, has some animation while reading with different voices for the characters. It is a fine job overall, and my son loves it. The whole story lasts 15 minutes, and so far he has spent an hour or two a day watching it without me prompting him. There is also a part of the program where one can click the items on the screen and make it do something, but my son doesn't know how to manipulate the mouse yet. I suspect he will enjoy it later. Considering the fact that the book itself costs around $7, 10 bucks for a whole CD doesn't seem out of line at all. There is one small drawback: there is no direct way to quit the program in the middle of the book -- no "Esc" or "F1" key can bail you out of there. I got out once by pressing the windows key and then close it in windows, which is not the proper way to close a program and I felt guilty doing it. They should have designed a way to quit at any time gracefully, I think, but this is not a big problem. Overall, I am very happy I bought it.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Value. Young kids love it.
Review: I've spent a lot more on kids software that got a lot less use. My 3yo loves it and plays with it over and over again. He loves to show it to his friends, who are all extremely engaged. Terrific value.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice but boring
Review: My 3 year old is a big fan of The Cat in The Hat so I was thrilled to find this software. While it's amusing both he and I were very quickly bored. The book is "read" to you and then you get to interact with the images on the page, but there are very few actual "games" and even those are uninteresting. Objects and characters move, speak or do silly things when you click on them but nothing is challenging or requires any thought. There are a few exceptions (on one page you can rearange a portrait on the wall, on another make the cat balance more items...) but it's just nothing interesting and there's not enough...
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