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Transport Prices
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What if my Xbox breaks
I can see that if you purchase a console from a store and one thing goes improper then you may physically take it back to the shop and hopefully get it mounted or replaced. However what number of times have you ever taken one thing back to a store only for the individual working there to inform you that your item isn’t covered or it was your fault it broke though it probably wasn’t?

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A Review of Circus!: An Interactive Cartoon on CD-ROM

William T. Yates

Everybody loves a circus and with CIRCUS!, Voyager and Matra Hachette
Multimedia has brought the circus to your kids, right on your home computer!
This is an interactive cartoon – a clever design where kids can make choices
and see those choices embodied right on the screen as part of the circus.
CIRCUS! is billed as for ages 3 and up; if your child can click a mouse,
he/she can have fun with CIRCUS! Clicking on the Ticket Booth brings Skippy
the Mouse, your host, guide, and Ringmaster who provides a thorough
explanation of what’s available and how to get to it. He’s almost always
available for help when you need him.

The program is designed to educate as well as entertain and it accomplishes
it’s goal in a subtle way. For example, one act in the show has a lion
jumping on a see-saw to propel a ball (selected by you) up and through a
hoop. In order for him to be successful, you need to adjust the height of the
platform from which he jumps onto the see-saw. This teaches a little
intuitive physics – the higher you are, the more potential energy you have
which you can convert into kinetic energy.
In another act, a magician stacks
a character inside circular colored cabinets which he then scatters on the
stage. To release the character, the cabinets must be restacked in the proper
order. This teaches careful observation and memory. For the parade, each of
the characters can be dressed by clicking on an array of brightly-colored
items from hats to shoes. And when the parade starts, each character is
wearing the chosen costume!

There is a tent of rhythm instruments which can be played at the click of the
mouse. The clown’s trailer is full of surprises: you can make up a clown face
and even play a dart game (teaching coordination and elementary ballistics!).
Most of the screens have hidden surprises which are revealed only by clicking
on different portions of the screen. A sense of fun and excitement runs
throughout the circus. The concept is intriguing, the artwork is excellent,
the animation very good, and the sound excellent. A seven-year-old girl and
her five-year-old brother in my wife’s home day care want to play it every
time they come to the house. I looked, but I couldn’t really find anything to
complain about! This is an excellent program and I recommend it highly.

School House Scorecard

Product:	Circus!: An Interactive Cartoon on CD-ROM
Company:	Voyager Matra Hachette Multimedia 1 Bridge Street Irvington, NY 10533-9919
Cost:	$39.95

System Requirements:

For Macintosh:
25-MHz 68030 or higher, System 7.0 or higher,
5 MB free RAM, double-speed CD-ROM
and 640×480+ color display.

For IBM-compatible:
486SX-33 or higher, MS-DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1 or higher,
8 MB RAM, double-speed CD-ROM, SVGA Display,
8 MB free disk space,
MPC2-compatible sound card (22 KHz, 16-bit) and
640×480 256-color display (accelerator recommended).

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 5
Learning Value 4
Entertainment Value 5
Graphics 5
Sound 5

Overall Score:

]]> http://www.worldvillage.com/circus-an-interactive-cartoon-on-cdrom/feed/ 0 http://www.worldvillage.com/kid-works-deluxe/ http://www.worldvillage.com/kid-works-deluxe/#comments Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:39:20 +0000 http://www.worldvillage.com/?p=83 Buried Treasure

A Review of Kid Works Deluxe

John Butterfield

Kid Works Deluxe is the direct descendent of Kid Works 2, that wonderful writing/drawing program for kids from Davidson and Associates. The heart of that happy program beats somewhere in this updated, Internet-aware application – but you’ll need the user’s manual, cheat sheets, practice and luck to find it.

Spend some time with the instruction book before you turn your kids loose at the keyboard. The advance effort will pay off in helping them discover all the features hidden beneath an interface that seems designed to obfuscate rather than elucidate. If you penetrate its arcane mysteries, you and your children will discover a feature-packed array of options.

KDW strives to be the integrated application of the playground set. You’ve got a word processor that prints out your story in a variety of fonts. You’ve got an art program with which to create paintings, stickers and animation. You can combine them into a multimedia storybook with sounds, character voices and animation. And you can launch them into the Internet, e-mailing them to friends while you download their creations. So what’s not to like?

Quite a bit, actually. In its bid to gussy update Kid Works 2, which was showing its age (but retaining its intuitive ease of use), Davidson has taken a terrific tool and turned it into a toy.

Running Kid Works Deluxe on a CD-ROM (Kid Works 2 came on a CD-ROM, but was installed and run off a hard drive) gives Davidson the ability to pack more options into the program.
That’s good for spurring children’s imagination. But in order to reach the options, one must penetrate a confusing, cartoonish interface.

Once you’re in the clubhouse (I think the only kids’ clubhouses actually in use these days are on CD-ROMs), a variety of clickable hot spots lead you into the program.

OK, let’s try to start, shall we? Hmm, a book on a stump, labeled " new book. " So we click that to begin.
Well, yes – if you’re starting a story from scratch. But if you want to open a story you created previously, where to go?
The easel labeled " Setup, " perhaps? No, that’s the parent’s-only way to set up the Internet email connection your kids require if they’re to send their opus through the ether.
So let’s try for information. Just click on the …. on the what? The telephone hanging from the ceiling? No, that’s to dial up your Internet service provider (see " Setup, above. ").
The TV? No, that’s credits for the creators. The boombox? No, that’s another parental control device, to toggle the sound on and off.
Oh yeah, that’s right – the cellular phone on the floor! It launches mini-movies of an annoying actor dressed like a Saturday Night Live Killer Bee.

Yes, it’s all right there in the cheery manual, which walks you through creation of new this and new that.
But to me, one of the hallmarks of quality educational programming is that it encourages exploration. It rewards the search for information. Kid Works Deluxe seems determined to complicate the search. Moving from writing to drawing to recording to e-mailing requires memorization of a roadmap.
And then Kid Works Deluxe compliates matters by making the landmarks look alike.
The navigating is a little better once you’re actually inside the writing and art programs. Kids will find a book in which they can write their stories and illustrate them. They can work from scratch on both words and pictures, or utilize more than 100 " story starter ideas" (themed starting points such as poetry, greeting cards, letters, etc.), over 100 animations, a variety of painting tools, more than 450 stickers, 140 illustration starters, and more than 100 sound effects.

Lots of possibilities here. Write your own stories, make your own illustrations, use the art and ideas as a starting point or take off into the imagination stratosphere. Record your own narration, design your own stickers, put it all together ….

Wait a minute. Better make that " Write your own short stories. " Or rather, short chapters.
The reason: Kid Works Deluxe won’t " wrap" its stories from the end of one page to the beginning of the next.
This means, of course, that your kids had better be able to express their thoughts in bites the size of one small page of large type.
As an example, I was able to type the sentence, " Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their countrymen " 2 1/2 times on a page before it bounced against the one-page barrier.
This, of course, is just fine if your talking about a kids’ story book. But it knocks Kid Works Deluxe right out of the box as something that can grow with a child.

I know – you shouldn’t knock a program for not being what it’s not designed to be. Kid Works Deluxe is billed as a " multimedia creativity kit for children ages four to nine that builds writing, reading and creativity skills, and offers the excitement of Internet communications. "

So: You’ve got a program aimed straight at the younger set, but with an interface that requires a book and a parent along for the ride in order to understand.
You’ve got a writing tool that builds writing, reading and creativity skills – as long as they don’t build into ideas that don’t need to be expressed on more than one page. And you’ve got Internet access – but only if you already have a direct Internet connection, which is a finicky beast for adults to tame, let alone kids firing their creations off into the ozone.

It’s too bad, because, as with Kid Works 2, the graphics portion of the program is great fun: cool tools, bright and cheery colors, fun stickers and coloring-book pages.
It’s so good, in fact, that one might consider buying Kid Works Deluxe strictly as a kid-friendly draw-and-paint program, and find it a bargain at $35.

But as they say, review what’s offered, not what’s not – and what’s offered is a confusing interface masking a powerful program with several crippling flaws.

School House Scorecard

Product:	Kid Works Deluxe
Company:	Davidson and Associates P.O. Box 2961 Torrance, CA 90509 E-MAIL: sales - sales@davd.com; technical support – support@davd.com Internet: www.davd.com AOL KEYWORD: Davidson
Cost:	$35.00

System Requirements:

Macintosh:
LC, II, Performa, Centris, Quadra, Powerbook, or Power Mac;
256-color graphics with 14-inch monitor;
double-speed CD-ROM or faster; 8 MB of RAM (4.6 MB free);
hard disk; System 7.0 or better;
microphone and printer highly recommended.

PC:
33 MHz 486 (or faster) computer, 256-color SVGA graphics;
double-speed (or faster) CD-ROM;
sound card (Windows compatible); hard disk; 8 MB of RAM;
Windows 3.1 or higher; mouse;
microphone and printer highly recommended.

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 1
Learning Value 3
Entertainment Value 3
Graphics 4
Sound 4

Overall Score:

]]> http://www.worldvillage.com/kid-works-deluxe/feed/ 0 http://www.worldvillage.com/math-munchers-deluxe/ http://www.worldvillage.com/math-munchers-deluxe/#comments Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:39:20 +0000 http://www.worldvillage.com/?p=188 Your Kids Will Eat Up Math Munchers

A Review of Math Munchers Deluxe

Tina Velgos

Visit any elementary school computer lab and you’ll find that one of
the most popular titles among kids ages 8 – 12 is MECC’s Muncher series.
Math Munchers Deluxe, hands down, is the most entertaining and motivating
kids’ math title yet!

Meet the zany green Munchers as they dance their way around a boffo 3-D
game board. Look out for the terrible Troggles, like Doggle, Slimey and the
crazy Crumbley sisters, though. They’ll eat the green Munchers, if you’re
not quick enough! Of course, if you want to seriously concentrate on the
math, you can choose an option to play Troggle-free! The sound effects are
hilarious, so get ready for some rip-roaring fun!

Kids also polish their math problem solving skills, as the Munchers rely on
kids’ math skills to help them trounce the Troggles. A great interactive
way for kids to build confidence in mathematics.

Math Munchers Deluxe lets kids select multi-level play capabilities for
grades 3 through 6. Although disguised as a zany game, this hot software
really tackles a wide area of mathematics. Kids will be exposed to
expressions, multiples, factors, primes, equivalents, mixed numbers and
simple geometry. This software allows kids to review familiar math
concepts they’ve learned in school and either practice at a comfortable
level or challenge their abilities as they race around the board, helping
their Munchers conquer the troublesome Troggles. Talk about Muncher mayhem!

Stefanie, a fifth grader, fell in love with Math Munchers Deluxe in less
than five minutes flat. She liked experimenting with the different levels
and agreed that the sixth grade level was a challenge. Math Munchers Deluxe
kept her at the edge of her seat for hours. Stefanie told me she liked the
hip audio and hot animation, while she thought that adding her name to the
Munchers Hall of Fame screen was “really awesome”.

Another interesting feature for kids was the ability to play the CD-ROM’s
audio track off a regular CD player (Track 2 only). Make sure you buy your
kids a good set of headphones unless you don’t mind hearing the song over
and over again!

Even though the battle between the Munchers and the Troggles is going
strong in our house, the real winner is Math Munchers Deluxe for proving
that math can be a blast!

School House Scorecard

Product:	Math Munchers Deluxe
Company:	MECC 6160 Summit Drive North Minneapolis, MN 55430-4003 Phone: 1-800-215-0368, ext. 348 or Phone: 1-800-685-MECC (6322), ext. 529 Phone In Canada: 1-800-663-7731 Internet: www.mecc.com/
Cost:	$29.95

System Requirements:

Windows:
IBM PC or compatible, 486/50 MHz processor or greater,
4 MB RAM, 8 MB RAM recommended,
(8 MB RAM required for Windows 95), SVGA color monitor,
256 colors, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher,
MS-DOS 5.0 or later, Hard-disk space,
Mouse or other Windows-compatible pointing device,
Double speed or faster CD-ROM drive
and a Windows-compatible sound card.

Macintosh:
Apple Macintosh 68030 required (LC III or greater),
68040 required (LC, Performa 575 or greater), System 7.1 or later,
5 MB RAM required, 8 MB RAM recommended,
13″ or larger monitor, 256 colors at 640 x 480 resolution or higher,
Hard-disk space and a double-speed or faster CD-ROM drive.

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 5
Entertainment Value 5
Graphics 4
Sound 4

Overall Score:

]]> http://www.worldvillage.com/math-munchers-deluxe/feed/ 0 http://www.worldvillage.com/pantsylvania-the-kingdom-of-the-fancy-pants/ http://www.worldvillage.com/pantsylvania-the-kingdom-of-the-fancy-pants/#comments Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:39:20 +0000 http://www.worldvillage.com/?p=41 Pantsylvania — Curiously Amazing!

A Review of Pantsylvania, the Kingdom of the Fancy Pants

Jackie and Kristina Wheeler

Welcome to Pantsylvania! The Gigglebone gang will introduce kids to a kooky kingdom of 10 locations and activities including songs, fancy facts, furry tales, poke ‘n prod, and seek ‘n find. Children can visit the Fancy Pants Factory, Pocket Park, Hub of Pantsportation, Chez Cheese, House of Beauty, Kingamajig’s Castle, Pantsylburbia, Symfunny Hall, Kid U, and my daughter’s favorite (to my dismay) Rotten Wrench’s Swamphouse.

In each location, Kingamajig loves to sing songs, like We make the pants, the Whirliest, Curliest Hair, and the King of Yuck. Clyde the Parrot will help kids find numbers, pets, shapes, toys, letters and so on. Monkie-Sue will start a furry tale when children go to a location and select the purple beast. Clicking on characters and objects bring them to life and Monkie-Sue is there to help with hints if needed. Velma, a black-haired, red-lipped pig explores facts about the location. Kristina liked Velma and Bunji the frog best.

Here’s what happened when Kristina visited Chez Cheese. There was a lady sitting at a table ordering food such as bananas. The waiter brought her different things. She didn’t want anything except a banana. Then a caterpillar showed up (Freddy) and sat on her table. He ate a bunch of spaghetti that the waiter brought and the lady didn’t want. And then he got sick after eating the spaghetti. Rotten wrench came in and turned the corn on the cob into corn with huge ears. My question is — What’s the point? Where’s the learning value? And do I really want my child exposed to gross behavior such as spitting chewed up bubblegum into a huge pile?

The same kind of thing happened with House of Beauty. There was a weird chair with hair and a beautician with green hair. Rotten wrench came in and messed up the chair’s hair. There’s no interaction with some of these activities. The child just sits there and watches — it’s almost as bad as bad TV…

When we first started this game, I didn’t like the style of graphics. It’s not your typical computer game for 4-8 year olds. The style of graphics is something similar to Beatle Juice cartoons. But something intrigued Kristina and she starting playing this game.
Over and over and over. She’ll spend hours on it — and I can’t understand why. There’s not a lot of concrete learning going on, but kids do get to explore lots of different activities in the different locations. The animation is slow and jerky so much so that Kristina pounded on the keyboard hoping to make things happen more quickly. There’s a fun variety of voices and accents with the different characters in the Gigglebone gang. And there are some interesting lessons from Velma. Kristina learned about making steel drums and creating music from glasses. But there’s no discovery on the child’s part. No problem-solving or reasoning required. The facts are simply fed to the children and there’s no interaction required for reinforcement of the facts. I found they usually went in one ear and out the other…

Seek ‘n Find helps develop perceptual skills by having children find hidden objects in pictures. Other than the Fancy Facts and Seek ‘n Find I couldn’t find any other educational value in this product. Kristina and I are split on this one — 1 “thumbs up” and 1 “thumbs down.”

School House Scorecard

Product:	Pantsylvania, the Kingdom of the Fancy Pants
Company:	Headbone Interactive, Inc. 1520 Bellevue Avenue Seattle, WA 98122 E-Mail: info@headbone.com Internet: http://headbone.com
Cost:	$39.00

System Requirements:

Macintosh:
68040 processor or better, System 6.0.7 or higher,
8MB RAM, 640×480, 256 color monitor,
double-speed CD-ROM drive.

Windows:
386 processor or better, MS Windows 3.1 or higher,
8MB RAM, 640×480, 256 color monitor,
double-speed CD-ROM drive,
windows compatible sound card and speakers, mouse.

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 1
Entertainment Value 3
Graphics 3
Sound 4

Overall Score:

]]> http://www.worldvillage.com/pantsylvania-the-kingdom-of-the-fancy-pants/feed/ 1 http://www.worldvillage.com/a-to-zap/ http://www.worldvillage.com/a-to-zap/#comments Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:39:20 +0000 http://www.worldvillage.com/?p=73 You Won’t Take A Nap In “A To Zap!”

A Review of A to Zap!

Tina Velgos

"A to Zap! " is not just another alphabet software program for kids.
There are 26 different and highly creative learning activities for
preschool kids (ages 3-6) to play with. Exciting new concepts are just a
mouse-click away in this magical world of alphabet blocks and the
"Sunbuddies", a bunch of zany cartoon characters.

This CD-ROM (Win/Mac) runs so smoothly that even young children can operate
it independently, without the help of an adult. It’s obvious that Sunburst
Communications is no newcomer to the K-12 educational software world
(they’ve been involved in educational software since 1982), although this
is their debut product in the home market.

An outstanding mix of audio adds to the crisp, letter-perfect narration by
kids. Click a letter of the alphabet for precise pronounciation and
spelling of preschool words. In the Alphabet Room, click on a letter, and a
word starting with that letter is spelled, letter by letter, on a toybox. A
toy will pop out of the toybox and by clicking the toy, it opens up a
fascinating activity for that letter.

Click on the broom, and kids can clean up the screen. When clicking the
camera, kids can take a picture of the screen and save and open pictures in
other applications. There are other options to change the letters to
uppercase or lowercase, hide the camera, add more spelling words, and
adjusting the volume.

A comprehensive Parents Guide accompanies "A to Zap! " which provides lots
of suggestions for parents to further stimulate their kids. Each letter
activity comes with challenging questions for kids to answer. This is what
interactive learning is all about!

My favorite activity was the M for Music section. Turn on the colorful
jukebox and play six different songs: ABC, classical, country, rock,
nursery rhyme and march. There are a variety of instruments kids can
experiment with (piano, harmonica, guitar, trumpet, and violin, to name a
few), or they can hear songs played by a bird, car or dog. Each letter in
the alphabet also has a note tool, which will sing the melody using the
letter name in place of words. A boffo feature was the ability to change
instruments in the middle of a song.

Timmy, age 4, and I enjoyed the P for Paint activity as we swirled our
virtual paintbrushes in buckets of marvelously brilliant paint cans. As we
picked a color by
clicking the brush on a can of paint, the paint name is pronounced and the
paint on the brush shows the new color. We painted each letter by clicking
the letter with the brush. One of the benefits of virtual painting is
there’s nothing to clean up afterwards.

The V for Vacuum activity was hilarious. We could remove letters from the
alphabet board by vacuuming them up. The letter appears under the blocks
and when you move the cursor over the letter, the letter cries out, "Help!
Put me back! " Of course, we moved the letter back to its home by clicking
on it and dragging it to its original position. It was also loads of fun
for Tim to click the vacuum cleaner on and off. If he would only vacuum
the floors in our house!

Don’t miss the A is for Airplane activity where you can watch virtual
planes zoom above an alphabet. By clicking any letter, the planes write
the letters in the sky. First, a large airplane draws the letter in
uppercase, then a smaller plane draws the lowercase letter.

I kept hearing a high-pitched voice cry, "Mommy, mommy" and thought I was
hearing things. If you’re a mom, you’ve certainly had the experience when a
kid cries "Mommy", that you instantly think its your child. Well, I had to
try out this activity. Five mother birds are nesting in a tree. When you
click a bird, she flies off her egg. Click the egg to watch a chick hatch
and cry out for its mommy!!! I was a little relieved! Then, you try to
match the chick with its mother. When you click from a chick to the right
mommy, the mother flies back to the nest.

Timmy enjoyed the race track game in the C is for Car activity. Cars race
along four roadways. The fun part for the kids is moving four track pieces
by clicking and dragging the mouse: a U-turn, a loop-the-loop, a jump ramp
and a color-changing tunnel. Clicking on the traffic light to make traffic
stop and go was a thumbs up adventure for Timmy.

Don’t forget the N is for Numbers activity. Kids can play with a screen
full of numbers, chalk boards and a play area. This is a virtual preschool
with fun zapping sounds and zany animated characters like dogs, elephants,
rabbits and turtles.

Of course, we liked the matching game called Y is for Yummy. The object of
the game is to match identical letters with treats. After all treats are
matched, wacky green monsters try to eat them. We used the wild lightning
bolts to zap the monsters and Tim giggled throught the whole zapping
adventure.

There are a gazillion reasons to like "A to Zap! ". Two thumbs up for
interactive software like this one, which is loaded with activities to make
learning letters, numbers and words a fun-filled adventure for preschool
kids.

School House Scorecard

Product:	A to Zap!
Company:	Sunburst Communications 101 Castleton Street Pleasantville, NY 10570 Phone: 800-321-7511 www.nysunburst.com/
Cost:	$49.95

System Requirements:

Macintosh:
Apple Macintosh 68040, System 7.0 or later,
4 MB RAM required (System 7.0 or 7.1), 5 MB RAM required (System 7.5),
13″ or larger monitor, 256 colors at 640 x 480 resolution or higher,
Double-speed or faster CD-ROM drive.

IBM:
IBM PC or compatible, 486/33 MHz processor, 8 MB RAM,
Windows 3.1 or higher, SVGA color monitor,
256 colors at 640 x 480 resolution,
Mouse or other Windows-compatible pointing device,
PC-compatible double speed or faster CD-ROM drive
and a PC Sound card.

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 5
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 4
Sound 5

Overall Score:

]]> http://www.worldvillage.com/a-to-zap/feed/ 0 http://www.worldvillage.com/madelines-european-adventures/ http://www.worldvillage.com/madelines-european-adventures/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2005 16:35:22 +0000 http://www.worldvillage.com/?p=32 Have Fun Traveling with Madeline in Europe

A Review of Madeline’s European Adventures

Jackie and Kristina Wheeler

Madeline’s European Adventure is another in the series of programs based on the popular Madeline character in books, videos, games, and cartoon series, “Adventures of Madeline.” I liked this program better than Madeline and the Magnificent Puppet Show because it had more activities and learning opportunities and it wasn’t quite as obscure with hidden objects.
This game begins by telling a story to set the stage for Madeline’s adventure in Europe. On her way to the Paris train station with Miss Clavel and the other girls from school, Madeline spots a thief making off with a magic lamp. Instead of going to summer camp, Madeline and her trusty dog Genevieve, go in search of the lamp. The story introduces the characters and tells everything that children need to find. It gives a few hints on where to find things — a VERY FEW! The goal of this game is to find everything needed in order to catch the thief and regain the magic lamp. Kids must pick flowers to earn money and get their passport before they can take the train to catch the thief. The items are located around the neighborhood, the city, and the park. Finding these items was fun, but some are hidden very cleverly!

There are activities that are contained within the adventure, such as picture sequencing, rug matching, and the music box game. Check it out! And, there are also activities such as painting, word games, and countries that make the adventure even more fun.

• Painting lets kids pick from Egyptian Sphinx, Windmills of Holland, Taj Mahal and others to paint. They can mix their own colors which is really great and they can paint with a bucket or paint brush.

• Word game lets children pick from French, English, or Spanish and they spell words printed on the chalkboard using a keyboard on screen or their real computer keyboard.
• Countries provides a quick lesson in European geography by matching flags, capitals, country names to the countries on a map — from Finland to Greece, Portugal to Turkey!

My main problem with these Madeline adventure programs is that they don’t provide different playing levels, additional items to find in different places, or even different places to visit. Once the game is over, that’s it. You can play it again, but everything is the same as the first time you played it. There’s no more challenge. This doesn’t bother Kristina as much as me, so that’s why she still enjoys and plays this game. There’s lots of cute graphics, music, voices and sound effects, but nothing much out of the ordinary.
The creators offer an Answer key in the documentation in case you need help finding an item or two, which you probably will! A better way to offer this information would have been to include online clues and hints. This is done a little, but not enough, we found.

Minor annoyances include very slow transitions between graphics and pictures, taking over my cursor and not letting me control when to move on, and sound that has lots of static in it. Kristina likes this game, and she has played it a lot since we got it, but once she learns where everything is, part of the fun is gone. One “thumbs up” on this one…

School House Scorecard

Product:	Madeline’s European Adventures
Company:	Creative Wonders P.O. Box 9017 Redwood City, CA 9463-9017 Internet: www.cwonders.com
Cost:	$40.00

System Requirements:

486, 8MB RAM, 4MB hard disk space for hard drive installation.
Double-speed CD ROM drive, 256 color monitor, Windows-compatible sound card.
Windows 3.1 or higher with MS-DOS 5.0. Windows ’95.

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 3
Learning Value 3
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 4
Sound 2

Overall Score:

]]> http://www.worldvillage.com/madelines-european-adventures/feed/ 0 http://www.worldvillage.com/barbie-print-n-play/ http://www.worldvillage.com/barbie-print-n-play/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2005 16:35:22 +0000 http://www.worldvillage.com/?p=50 Create Print Projects With Barbie

A Review of Barbie Print ‘n Play

Judy Pozar

Barbie Print ‘n Play provides an easy way to create and print lots ofpersonalized projects: beautiful greeting cards and party invitations,posters and banners, stationery and coloring books, calendars andstickers. Lots of projects for all occasions are included, to beprinted “as is” or with your child’s personal touches.

Most instructions are spoken, so it easy for children as young as fouror five to jump right in with minimal guidance. The product will appealto older children as well, particularly Barbie fans.

A project usually consists of a picture area and a text area. Separateeditors are used for each. With the Picture Editor, children can add aborder, change from color to black and white (for subsequent coloringwith crayons or markers), draw and paint their own picture, and selectfrom a variety of stamps. An entire picture can be moved around on apage. However, once a stamp is placed in the picture, it can not bemoved. This is a big flaw for a creativity program.

The Text Editor provides a wide selection of fonts and sizes. Textblocks can be resized, aligned to the left, right or center, italicized,and so on. You can even change the shape of the text block, into acurve, for instance.

Up to five names (besides “Barbie”) may be entered on the main screen. These are used to personalize projects (e.g., if you choose the nameJudy, “Judy’s calendar” will appear on a calendar page). All projectscan be saved, but they are not saved under a particular user’s name. When you want to load a particular birthday card, you will see picturesof all the cards which have been saved by anyone. The load screen justdisplays small pictures of the projects, with no text, so it issometimes difficult to determine which is the one you want until youactually load it.

According to the README file, the program does not work with networkprinters. This, plus the limited number of names allowed, mean thatthis is not a good choice for a school. It is aimed for home use, bychildren ages 5 and up.

Parents beware: because so many appealing projects are included, somekids will go crazy just printing them, using very little creativity. Youcould go broke if you don’t limit the amount of ink and paper you’llallow your kids to use. Even with its flaws, Barbie Print ‘n Play willbe enthusiastically welcomed by the legions of Barbie fans.

School House Scorecard

Product:	Barbie Print ‘n Play
Company:	Mattel Media Phone: 888-628-8359 Internet: www.mattelmedia.com/barbie/printplay
Cost:	$29.95

System Requirements:

Multimedia Computer PC (486/33MHz or faster),
Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, 8 MB RAM,
Double Speed CD-ROM drive, 256 VGA monitor,
mouse, printer.

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 3
Learning Value 2
Entertainment Value 3
Graphics 4
Sound 4

Overall Score:

]]> http://www.worldvillage.com/barbie-print-n-play/feed/ 0 http://www.worldvillage.com/adis-4th-5th-grade-mathematics/ http://www.worldvillage.com/adis-4th-5th-grade-mathematics/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2005 16:35:21 +0000 http://www.worldvillage.com/?p=151 Adi: The Ideal Math Tutor

A Review of Adi’s 4th & 5th Grade Mathematics

Judy Pozar

If you would like to supplement your child’s 4th or 5th grade math education, you need look no further than Adi’s 4th and 5th Grade Mathematics from Sierra. This multimedia product covers two full years of math curriculum in an orderly and engaging manner. In addition to the learning sections, in which children solve problems, this program contains video clips, creativity tools and games. All of this combines to form a comprehensive system suitable for average and gifted students, as well as those having difficulty with math. It is an excellent example of how good multimedia software can be when used for tutoring.

Adi, a goofy-looking alien, is your child’s onscreen animated tutor. He’s friendly and helpful (and much cheaper than a human tutor or educational consultant). Adi tracks your child’s progress and offers hints and encouragement appropriately.

The most important aspect of educational software is the content, and here there are two distinct modules, one for each grade. Each covers many mathematical concepts in depth. The Numbers and Calculation sections include fractions, decimals, reciprocals, estimation, factors and more. Many types of measurement are covered: length, volume, mass, time, temperature, perimeter, area, etc. Children learn about patterns and relationships, ratio, percent, exponents, logic, geometry, data analysis, and other subjects too numerous to list.

If a child has difficulty with a section, he or she can click on the Help button. The information you’ll see on the Help screen is related to the specific exercise you are in. There will be a text explanation, most likely some pictures, and perhaps an “Edumation” (an animated lesson). Possibly these will get the child on the right track, but if he or she is still having difficulty, an adult may need to step in and explain the concept.

Sierra wanted to create a comprehensive learning system with Adi. Therefore, the package contains more than the math exercises and help screens. The Creativity Toolbox contains a notebook, diary, calculator, paintbox and animation tools. For the most part, these are not related to the math curriculum, and Adi would still be an excellent program without them. Some children will enjoy using them, particularly if they do not have other software with which to write stories or create artwork.

In the Theater Lab, children view full-motion video clips and animated tutorials that relate to the lessons they’re studying.Finally, there is the Games Gallery. Children are rewarded for completing lessons in the Lesson Lab by earning points. After amassing 900 points, they earn the opportunity to play a new game. This takes a long time, since each set of exercises nets the child just 20 points.

Adi’s 4th and 5th Grade Mathematics is part of Sierra’s Comprehensive Learning System, which also includes English and Science at two grade levels (2nd/3rd and 4th/5th). The extensive user manual discusses the lofty goals of the system. I found the self-congratulatory tone a bit off-putting, but I have to admit that they did an admirable job, and none of the stuffiness of the handbook is evident in the program. It is an excellent way of keeping your child’s mind limber. I would especially recommend it for use over long summer vacations and as a useful tool for home-schooled children.

School House Scorecard

Product:	Adi’s 4th & 5th Grade Mathematics
Company:	Sierra On-Line, Inc. 3380 146th Place SE Suite 300 Bellevue, WA 98007 Phone: 800-757-7707
Cost:	$42.95

System Requirements:

486/33MHz or faster personal computer; 8MB of RAM; 2 MB available hard disk space; MS-DOS version 5.0 or higher and Windows 3.1x or Windows 95; double-speed CD-ROM drive; VGA display and video board, capable of displaying 256 colors at 640 x 480 resolution, Microsoft mouse or compatible; Microsoft Windows 3.1 or compatible sound board with DAC and audio speakers or headphones; printer (optional).

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 5
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 5
Sound 5

Overall Score:

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