KaleidoPix
© 2006 Protozone, Inc.
This powerful, visual creativity experience lets you mix-and-match imported images with stock drawings, leaves, doodles and snow flakes. Like the way a folded page of paper can be turned into a snowflake with a few select cuts, this program makes it easy to see how small changes to a "seed" shape can make a big difference in a panel. Watching a symmetrical design unfold on the computer was very rewarding for our five-year-old tester, although he needed adult help for an introduction. He had a great time creating pictures and then watching them played back using the program's movie feature. He was also able to navigate through the software with ease to create designs of his own. While you can import your own photos, it is not obvious how to export work in a format that can be read by other graphics programs. The program loaded and ran easily on both Macintosh and Windows computers.
$25, Mac OSX, Windows XP
Teaches: creativity, geometry, patterns
CTR Rating: 86%