Cheap Curious George Pre-Kindergarten ABCs (Software) (Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 95, Macintosh) Price
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In a light blue and bright yellow world that's stylistically true to the Curious George books, kids can visit four different spots for five activities that will eventually have them deftly negotiating their ABC's. The most engaging place to visit is the zoo, which is packed with everything from alligators to zebras. Kids must lead George and the Man in the Yellow Hat down a labyrinth of paths to find the proper animals or things to put in the alphabetized Zoo Picture Book. The spot has so much going on that it took us a good four minutes to "find something that begins with the letter J." Wandering the zoo's paths as monkeys hoot and elephants trumpet in the background will keep young letter seekers interested in the hunt for quite some time.
Skills such as hand/eye coordination come into play as kids help Curious George recover the alphabet blocks he accidentally dumped in the lake. Memory is honed as George messes with bread dough, falls in a heap on the floor, and discovers a letter-matching game in the bakery. Kids don't just learn the alphabet here; they learn that honest mistakes aren't that bad. This CD-ROM is at its best whenever Curious George sticks his finger in his mouth, considers the possibilities, then wanders off to live up to his name. (Ages 3 to 6) --Anne Erickson
| PLATFORM: | Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 95, Macintosh |
| CATEGORY: | Software |
| MANUFACTURER: | Pearson Software |
| TYPE: | Computer software (programs), Kids (Children), Mac Macintosh Machintosh Apple, Education (Educational), Reference, Secondary Education (High School) |
| MEDIA: | CD-ROM |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 076714503823 |
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Customer Reviews of Curious George Pre-Kindergarten ABCs
Very Dissapointing This is one of the few CDs that I have bought that I wish I had not spent my money on. Very dissapointing.
There are basically four games on the cd. I found the games to be slow in loading and the graphics to be cheap looking many times. The games are not very fun.
One is fishing- you have to fish for the letters, but you have to have everything just right to get the letters. Hard. Another one is sky writing, my son loved this game but I don't know how much he really 'got it'. The third one is at the zoo and you have to find things that begin with letters that are given to you- however, you have to go through several screens to find the correct letter and with the loading time being longer than ever, by the time you get to the thing you are looking for, you forgot what you were looking for. Not Fun. The Match game is fun but you can get this on other CDs.
I'd give this one a skip. Stick with Reader Rabbit, Jump Start and others like that. One we got a lot of use out of while learning the letters (not the sounds) was the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom CD. That one was well worth the money.
More about hand/eye coordination than learning ABCs
I bought this program based largely on the editorial review. My 2 year old knows his ABCs and I bought the program thinking it would focus on letter sounds. The four games that are included in the package are 1) an airplane skywriting letter match which quickly advances to identifying the first letter of a object and then selecting that letter from four choices. This sounded good, but in practice is not working out -- when the selection is incorrect the airplane very cutely writes a frowny face in the sky. It is difficult to get my airplane-loving son to understand that the frowny face is not a "prize." 2) The second game is set in a zoo where George is to find an object that begins with a particular letter dictated by the Man in the Yellow Hat. Sounds like a good game, except that you have to use multiple screens in order to find the object. By the time one gets to multiple screens one has completely forgotten what letter was requested or what screens have already been viewed. The objects are animated and are cute, making the game fun, but again, the learning factor is lost in the details of the exercise. 3) The third game features a lake in which George is required to fish for ABC blocks. Sounds like it might be fun and educational -- except that the task of positioning the boat above the requested letter, then timing the click of the mouse just right in order to "catch" the block can be frustrating. The exercise of letter identification is not the point of the game -- it is a hand-eye coordination exercise and that is all. 4) The fourth game is a memory match game, which is the only one that my son truly understands and achieves the desired lesson. However, many of the preschool software packages contain memory match exercises which are more interesting and more educational.
All in all, I am disappointed in this software. I have not yet found the right package for my child's skill and learning level. He has long tired of Reader Rabbit Toddler, is playing RR Preschool (but I have some complaints there as well), LOVES Dr. Seuss's ABC program which I also think is well written, LOVES Miss Spider's Tea Party which is especially good for developing listening to directions skills but is lacking on the ABC skills, and we are awaiting Richard Scarry software in hopes that it will fit the bill.
Limited value in this product
My 3 1/2 yr old is recognizing many of her letters and the sounds they make, I thought this program would help reinforce. Some of the activities are more hand-eye coordination than recognizing letters and matching them with their sounds. Some games use sound recognition, but don't match the sound with what the letter looks like, which is too difficult for young learners.
Some of the activities are more valuable than others, and she enjoys some of them, but they are limited in what they are going to teach her.