Description:
Build pinwheels, growth charts, birthday-party decorations, or just doodle with this program designed to placate the budding Picasso--or Martha Stewart--in your child. Pajama Sam's One-Stop Fun Shop is an arts-and-crafts CD-ROM that offers far more than point-and-click paintbrushes. Kids can mix their own colors; choose from a huge array of backgrounds, predrawn artwork, and stamps; or work freehand to make their own creations. Then, with the help of printed instructions, they can transform their artwork into envelopes, party hats, finger puppets, or anything else that can be crafted from printed-on sheets of 8.5 by 11 computer paper. Parents, are you shuddering right now? Are you envisioning reams of paper with odd little projects on them flying from the printer? Hundreds of dollars for printer ink flying from your wallet? Humongous Entertainment knew you'd be concerned. They've put a control on this program, so you can dictate how much (or little) paper gets used. There's also an option that eliminates background printing to save ink. One caveat: you must get to this area, called Parent's Printer Saver, before your computer savvy six-year-old does. A kid who's a good navigator could conceivably lock you out of this spot. If controlling how much your child prints is important to you, be sure to access the printer-saver function when it's time to print the first project, and set your controls and password. When we didn't use the option on the first printing, it didn't come up for us on subsequent printings ... so bully your way into the Fun Shop and make sure you're at the controls for that first project. Pajama Sam fans will love this CD-ROM, as they make P.S. paper airplanes, letterheads, place mats, etc., etc. There's enough non-Pajama Sam artwork to keep purists happy as well. You'll need more than a computer and a printer to finish some of these items. Plan on using up some glue, pushpins, tape, and dowels to bring these items to full-blown "matches the picture on the box" glory. (Ages 3 to 8) --Anne Erickson
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