Cheap Smart Steps: Kindergarten (Software) (Macintosh, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 95) Price

An animated pencil with an Aussie accent guides kids through a whopping 90 activities, all appropriate for kids who are just beginning school. In fact, the first place kids begin exploring here is a virtual "room" that looks just like a kindergarten classroom, from the fish tank to the toys on the floor.

Kids can explore the classroom with their mouse, prompting the fish to jump and instruments to play. Or they can buckle down to some serious learning by clicking on that chatty pencil and going to a spot with five bears, each affably offering their learning "wares": words, time, direction and space, numbers and shapes, and nature and objects. Each category has 18 different activities kids can engage in. It's a workbooklike approach that covers a lot of ground.

The drawback? Creative quality falls victim to quantity here. Each activity looks like something you'd find in a workbook. There's not a lot of movement or sound to engage the senses--indeed, if there were, it would probably take days to install this CD-ROM, since it has so many activities. The upside of this CD-ROM is that it does have a comprehensive array of tasks, they're tasks that teach, and as usual for DK Interactive Learning products, there's not a single commercial tie-in or annoyingly marketable character to be found. (Ages 5 to 6) --Anne Erickson

PLATFORM:	Macintosh, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 95
CATEGORY:	Software
MANUFACTURER:	DK Multimedia
ESRB RATING:	Everyone
FEATURES:	CD-ROM
TYPE:	Early Learning (Education, Educational), Kids (Children, Child), Computer software (programs)
MEDIA:	CD-ROM
UPC:	635517045352