123 With Hickory and Me

$19.95, Windows, Mac

Teaches: counting from 1-10, numerical order, math facts

CTR Review

Hickory, a talking mouse, is the guide in this affordable, relatively easy to use counting program. Starting with the main screen, children can explore "hot spots," two of which lead to activities. Our testers accidentally started the activities as they were exploring, which caused some confusion. Once they learned how to use the program, this was less of a problem. In The Lesson Screen, children practice counting a set of critters that crawl onto the screen. There are two ways to count� either by clicking on a number line ("how many snakes can you see?"), or by matching sets of food to the appropriate set of critters ("Which set of food matches the set of snakes?") There are two difficulty levels of counting (from 1 to 5 or 6 to 10), which can be toggled from a simple control panel. The wait time was very long between screens for both test computers (a Mac IIci and a Performa 600), and Hickory restated the instructions with each set, which grew tiring. However, the animations are clever, and help is provided for incorrect answers. In The Game Screen, children drive a boat around a lily pond (using the arrow keys or mouse) to collect all of one number (e.g. find all of the "4"s) or to fill in an incomplete number line. Children earn cheese for correct answers. At a harder level, you can turn a frog loose who will spin your boat. Our testers found the frog somewhat threatening, but some children may enjoy the extra challenge. In all, this is an affordable but limited program. For $19.95, it is worth considering, but it is not as strong in depth or learning value as other counting titles.