Fisher-Price Ready for School: Toddler
© 1997 Knowledge Adventure, Inc.
These ten playful activities are perfectly suited for toddlers with or without mouse skills. Kids click on one of the Fisher-Price Little People characters to try out fun games like blowing bubbles, playing hide and seek and watching an animal parade. Other activities include simple mazes, sing-a-longs, dot to dots, painting, counting, and identifying body parts. The theme of each activity is designed with toddlers in mind, and the two difficulty levels accommodate a child's developing mouse skills. For instance, with the first level of the bubble activity, you simply press any key or the mouse, or even speak into your computer's microphone, to make bubbles appear. In the second level, after making the bubbles appear, children use the mouse to pop them. The levels also keep the content interesting. In the Animals on Parade activity, for instance, children can click to see animals cross the screen (Level 1), or can match animals to their sounds (Level 2). Families who used both Reader Rabbit's Toddler and Fisher-Price Ready for School: Toddler generally agreed that Reader Rabbit's Toddler is better for children with limited mouse skills. They also noticed that the Fisher-Price program is not as responsive as Reader Rabbit. Although a minor problem, some of the narration and instructions are not interruptible. Overall, however, this program makes it easy for very young children to have a successful first computer experience. (Note: The program comes with the Fisher-Price Parenting Guide CD-ROM.)
$20, Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: mouse skills, counting, matching, cause and effect