Mother Goose Nursery ROMS: Volumes 1-4
© 2008 Reggleberry Products, Inc.
This series of four disks, sold each for $20, is designed to playfully introduce early reading skills, by letting children independently explore six classic nursery rhymes. We looked at Phonics, one of the four disks with full renditions of Jack and Jill, Mary Mary, Quite Contrary, Hush-A-Bye Baby, Little Bo-Peep, Hickory Dickory Dock and Cock-A-Doodle Doo. Each story is presented in just four or five sentences, with the key events illustrated on the same screen with animations. The best part of this program is it's simplicity. Because everything is on one screen, children get used to the format quickly, and learn that they can switch to another story if they want. At any point, a child can click on any word to hear it spelled and read aloud, or they can click on any illustration to see the associated word, again spelled out -- one letter at a time -- in a large clear font. After the word is displayed, they can click on an individual letter or group of letters (like 'ing') to hear it pronounced. For each story, there are three structured activities; Begins With, Find Me and Rhythm Time. Begins With asks "what in the room begins with C." (Answer: Clock). Other activities are equally dry. While this program is easy to use, and the menus are well designed, the frequent prompts can feel pushy. For example, if a child doesn't click an icon, the program prompts twice and then starts snoring, which could be disruptive in a classroom setting. At the very least, there should be the option to disable this feature. For a simple, no-frills language experience activity, this is a possible consideration.
$20, Windows, Mac OSX
Teaches: alphabet, word and letter sound, word/object association
CTR Rating: 78%