Reader Rabbit's Kindergarten (bundle)
© 2000 The Learning Company
This new package contains the original Reader Rabbit's Kindergarten and four additional, open-ended art and music activities. While it may not be the best of the Reader Rabbit programs, the set of activities offers a great deal of content in an enjoyable context. Kids help Maddie the mouse get ready for campers who are on their way to summer camp. Maddie has to visit five areas of the camp and collect a total of 65 items. In Canoe Match, she plays concentration to gather gear such as a rope, bug spray, a sleeping bag and a pillow. In Diner Lineup, she sequences containers and plates of food according to instructions. The new open-ended drawing, music and calendar sections are a real plus, but testers had trouble finding them again after they went to the main activities. Children also inadvertently found themselves watching previews of other programs or going to readerrabbit.com, as the large icons used at the opening screen overemphasize these secondary components. Children must complete all four levels of the game to see the final outcome, and the instructions are not always interruptible. This was a significant problem for some of the testers who had to repeatedly play a game to get all of the camping items. Less persistent kids found this process very tedious and some never did get to the end.
$19.99, Win, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: reading, math, logic, numbers, letters, shapes, music, art