Rating: 
Summary: Great Software for Toddlers
Review: We bought this software for our 2 1/2 yr. old and one year old. Our 2 1/2 yr old loved it. She mastered all the games in a few days. It's great because the child just moves the mouse, there is no clicking involved. Now she is wanting more challenging games, so we are getting the Preschool software.
Rating: 
Summary: My 22-month-old plays it by herself and loves it.
Review: We have a different version, I think, but the point is the same: it's great. This game taught my daughter how to use the mouse (without clicking) at 21 months of age. At first she cried to play it all the time and that was difficult, but as soon as I realized she could do it by herself it has been fantastic. The fact that it doesn't require mouse clicks is crucial. We limit the amount of time she plays it each day so she doesn't become a computer junkie, but at least it is educational. (Tip: set your screen resolution to 800x600 or 640x480 and turn your mouse speed way down using the control panel. The slower the mouse, the less control they need.)
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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