Let's Pretend is Loads of Fun!
A Review of Let's Pretend
Jackie and Kristina Wheeler
Follow along with Flash, a cute firefly that helps children find their way through lots of adventures starting with an old attic, full of fun objects to explore. Kids will play here in the attic for a long time with some many things to try. From bicycles to hats, guitars to an Elvis painting, this attic has it all! Most have sound and animation attached, but some are special objects that take them away to 3 different adventure worlds: An ocean, the desert, or a tropical rain forest. Have your kids turn off the attic light and watchthe firefly glow! Kristina loved discovering this all by herself!
From the attic, we went to the beach and then to a pyramid for some fanstastic exploration! There was also a busy Moroccan bazaar with fish, fruits, baskets and pottery of all colors. Clicking on objects here brings up a little notepad and spells the word in big readable letters. A child's voice spells out the word and pronounces it clearly. Tarantulas and dune buggies can be found, but who ever heard of an ice skating penguin in the desert?! It's all fun!
The rainforest puts kids right in the middle of the tropics with a bird's eye view of the forest and all kinds of fun actions. The sounds are so realistic, you may forget you're at your computer and not in the middle of the forest! Let your children drift down the river with Flash for more adventures. Kristina's favorite of all was the piranha fish that dines on noisy animal crackers.
Exploring the ocean let's kids take a submarine to the murky depths and also let's them explore a tropical island. It's the brightest, most colorful ocean floor I've ever seen with crabs, coral, a sting ray, and a school bus for the schools of fish?!
Let's Pretend also lets children color 2 ways -- When you buy it, you get an old fashioned coloring book with big pictures to color, each one with the name of the object spelled out and a short description of it. You also get to color online! Let's Paint allows kids to color pictures on the computer using 16 colors and four different brushes. My only beef here is that they don't get to mix colors together. That's always a nice feature for coloring programs.
I thought the animation and sound in this educational product were superb. Slight delays occurred when moving between scenes, but that always bothers me more than Kristina. This product is designed for ages 3 and up, but even at age 6, Kristina loves exploring with this game. I think it works well for the younger set, and the spelling words chosen make it work well for older kids too. Kristina considers this one of her most favorite games and we give it 2 thumbs up!
School House Scorecard
| Product: |
Let's Pretend |
| Company: |
Mind Magic Productions
|
| Cost: |
Not Available |
System Requirements:
MACINTOSH: LCIII or higher, CD-ROM drive (double speed preferred), System 7.0 or higher, 256 color monitor, 8 MB RAM
WINDOWS: 486/33 or higher, 8MB RAM, CD ROM drive (double speed preferred), 256 SVGA card, mouse, Sound Blaster or 100% compatible sound card.
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 4
Entertainment Value 5
Graphics 4
Sound 5
Overall Score:
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