I Spy CD-ROM
© 1997 Scholastic, Inc.
Note: this title has been discontinued as of 1999. See I Spy School Days for the updated version. Chances are, if you've got a preschool- or early elementary-aged child in the house, you know about Jean Marzallo's I Spy books. They're a favorite pastime– kids will spend hours pouring over the photo collages in search of each requested object. All in all, the translation of this activity to CD-ROM is a nice one. Here, children have seven types of puzzles to solve containing more than 1300 object and word searches. Just like the book searches, some ask kids to find the objects in a riddle, for instance "I spy a roller skate, a piece of white chalk, a wrench, a sailboat, a sign for a clock...." and each riddle is read aloud. The graphics are very well done, and search pages are plentiful and visually rich. Children can play other types of puzzles such as a Balloon Popper game in which they find the missing piece that sets a "Rube Goldberg" type contraption in motion. One puzzle has kids sorting objects into Venn diagrams and another has them finding pictures to break secret codes. One of our favorite areas is the "Make-Your-Own" I Spy activity. Here, players create a collage of objects and then write their own I Spy riddle for their friends to solve. These can be saved, or printed for use away from the computer. While this may sound like just a lot of fun and games, there are many opportunities for learning. Vocabulary is reinforced and there are several chances for children to use listening and problem solving skills. Most of our testers thoroughly enjoyed the program, with parents and teachers commenting positively on its educational value. It was especially well liked in a 1st grade classroom. One family found the narration excessive and preferred the books. Overall, though, this CD has kids thinking and having fun at the same time. See also I Spy Jr., and I Spy Spooky Mansion.
$19, Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: logic, classification, visual memory, matching