I'm Tickled, Elmo!
A Review of Elmo's Preschool
Molly Christensen
Elmo, the loveable character from Sesame Street, would love to play with your preschooler in Elmo's playground. He tells your preschooler, "Elmo knows you are Elmo's friend. Elmo is your friend too!" Chances are, your preschooler will agree and would love to play with Elmo.
The user starts out in Elmo's playground. The user can either click on
several objects that "sparkle" or click on one of five doors. If you click
on an
object that sparkles (other than a door) a fun animation occurs--very
similar to the
type you'd find on Sesame Street. Also, Sesame Street-type music is
sprinkled
throughout the program. The five doors in the playground lead to (1) the
music
room, (2) the letters room, (3) the face treehouse (4) the shapes & colors
tent and
(5) the numbers clubhouse.
Within each room, the user can freeplay with the objects (letters in the letter room, sound boxes in the music room, etc.) Or, the user can click on the moon or star to play a short game with Elmo. For example, in the "face treehouse," the user can play "How would you feel?" with Elmo. Elmo asks a hypothetical question such as "How would you feel if your sister pulled your hair? Make a face to show how you'd feel." After the user makes a face, Elmo tells the user how he would feel. If the user made a happy face, Elmo might say, "That's not how Elmo would feel. Elmo would feel mad! This is Elmo's mad face." And then Elmo would make a mad face. The child isn't criticized or punished in any way if his answer isn't quite correct, but Elmo makes sure he always shows the correct answer. One problem my son had at first in the face treehouse (but quickly overcame) was that he couldn't find any noses to select. He just thought there were plenty of colorful circles or ovals. Of course, Sesame Street character's noses are colorful circles or ovals, but my son was expecting noses that looked like noses.
One feature that makes this software unique and fun is how interactive
Elmo is with the user. Elmo doesn't just give directions on how to play
games.
He "interacts" with your child. If he "notices" the user has been playing
only with
certain objects in the room, he might suggests, "Let's play a game!" Or he
might
ask for a cupcake in the middle of the user's freeplay. My 2 and half year
old son
actually thinks he is playing with Elmo. He told me "Ma! Casey & Elmo were
playing ABC's and we made silly faces!"
The games within each room become more challenging as the user repeatedly plays them. Unfortunately, the difficulty levels are not adjustable by the child or parent and are also not saved when you exit the program. So each time the user opens the program, it's back to square one. A bookmark would have been a nice addition to this program. There is also a parent's guide section of the software. It is mostly informational, however and probably could've just been printed up as a nice booklet. There is an area where you can print out an achievement certificate for your child. The child or parent can select different borders, pictures, etc. to accent the certificate.
Probably the most irritating thing about the program is its overcautious
approach to exiting each room. When the user clicks on the exit sign in a
room,
Elmo says "If you really want to leave, click on the exit sign again." The
voice
takes about five seconds, which is actually a long time when you're trying
to exit.
The cursor doesn't return until after the voice stops talking, so you have
to wait
the full five seconds to click again. It makes sense to have an extra "are
you
sure...?" question when the user clicks on the stop sign to exit the whole
program,
but it's a bit much to have it in each room. Plus, when Elmo asks me if I
really
want to leave, even I feel like Elmo (who is our friend) doesn't trust me!
It seems
that after the first few uses of the program, there wouldn't be that many
accidental
clicks on the exit signs to warrant the extra questioning.
Yes, it's another piece of software for preschoolers, but you can never
have too many education titles, can you? As long as they're decent programs
and your kids enjoy them, I don't think so (well, to a certain point!).
Children learn
in so many different ways, you never know what learning method will work
best
with them. (The parent's information guide was actually somewhat useful--I
learned that tidbit about different learning methods there!) Elmo's
Preschool is
fun and entertaining, especially if you're an Elmo fan. My son thoroughly
enjoys it
(and he didn't even really know who Elmo was!)
School House Scorecard
| Product: |
Elmo's Preschool |
| Company: |
Creative Wonders
|
| Cost: |
$19.95 |
System Requirements:
IBM or compatible
486, 25 MHZ
4 MB RAM (8MB recommended)
2X CD-ROM Drive
MS DOS 5.0 & Windows 3.1 OR Windows 95
3 MB Hard disk space
SVGA video card with 640 X 480 resolution & 256 colors
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 4
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 4
Sound 4
Overall Score:
Copyright © 1997 InfoMedia, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.