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Jump Ahead Starting School (DVD Case)

Focus Multimedia Ltd

Starting School, aimed at children of four to five years old, is another first-class CD-ROM in Focus Multimedia's "Children" series, a range of fun and educational titles to entertain and encourage your children to develop important skills through play.
The whole program exploits a child's curiosity by getting Hopsalot the Rabbit and his friends to take part in all sorts of activities using fun, music and games. These all teach essential skills for starting school, and this version (the original having been an award winner) features new graphics, extra phonics and the technology to assess skills.
Children are encouraged to learn the alphabet, phonics, rhymes, word pairs, sentences, visual discrimination, numbers and counting, ordering and sequencing, shapes and colours, time concepts and listening skills. Throughout there are songs to learn and sing, as well as opportunities to earn gold stars as a reward and swap them for a trip to the Zoo. Progress can be monitored and a workbook can be printed out if desired. There is also a pamphlet that has basic technical and installation information, and this should be read before beginning. Obviously help will be needed as the program is aimed at four to five-year-olds, but it is well worth the effort as the rewards are significant. --Susan Naylor
Jump Ahead French (PC)

Focus Multimedia Ltd

Jump Ahead® Join Mr. Hopsalot on a fun-filled exploration of the French language offering a simple age-appropriate introduction to French vocabulary, culture and music in a friendly atmosphere that relates to everyday surroundings. What's Cooking? Learn the French words for everyday household items by playing hide-and-seek with the mice. Colours Identify colours in French by helping to paint 15 pictures, and then print out your finished works of art! Numbers Un, Deux, Trois. Count fun items into a magic hat. Clothing Learn French terms for clothing while helping to dress the bears, then print out your silly clothes combinations! PC Windows® ME/2000/XP/Vista. Ages 5 to 8.
Learning Ladder: Pre-School

Dorling Kindersley

Learning Ladder Preschool is an excellent CD-ROM packed with a wide range of activities for 3-5 year olds. Woody the Pencil guides children through the different activities, which are very well explained.
Children will enjoy becoming familiar with the mouse and navigating around the room making toys move and change. They will also enjoy doing the different activities such as painting the colouring book, having a go at recording their voice, listening to a story, doing puzzles and much more.
By clicking on the different bears children can carry out activities related to words, numbers, time, directions/space, shapes and nature/objects. Each of these areas contains 18 different games for children to play, so there is plenty to keep them occupied. There's also a good range of activities, many of which support the Early Years Curriculum at school. For example, there are activities that work on identifying sounds in words and on ordering, counting, matching, etc.
Children are rewarded with stickers when they complete an activity correctly and they will love collecting these in the sticker book. This would be an excellent buy for parents who want to introduce their child to using the computer in a fun and educational way. --Amanda York
Rainbow Fish Interactive Storybook

Dorling Kindersley

Bring the underwater adventures of Rainbow Fish to life on your PC with this wonderful interactive children's CD-ROM. With an assortment of charming characters and a huge variety of games, musical fun and activities children aged 3 to 7 years will be instantly spellbound.
Poor Rainbow Fish has had his scales stolen and only you can help. Solve the puzzles and complete the challenges to find the thieves and make him beautiful again. You'll meet friends along the way such as Head and Toe (the twin fish) and there are numerous games and activities to keep young minds entertained while teaching valuable skills such as recognition, problem solving, experimentation, logical thinking and creativity. A print shop lets you colour pictures on screen or print for later, and two difficulty levels make sure that younger children are able to join in the fun.
Easily installed, the simple interface ensures that navigation is a breeze (vital for younger PC users) and the help menu is available at all times. Use of the mouse and cursor will help develop computer skills and hand-eye coordination, and the print applications available will provide additional PC skills. With the educational benefits you would expect from Dorling Kindersley, Rainbow Fish will surely become a child's favourite. --Amber Harbour
My First CD-Rom: Dictionary

Dorling Kindersley
My First CD-Rom: Starting To Read

Dorling Kindersley
Big Cook Little Cook : Feast of Fun (PC)

Avanquest Software
Speaking for Myself PLUS - HOME EDITION

Topologika Software Ltd
Let's Discover the Countryside

Knowledge Adventure

In the Adiboo Choo Countryside Adventure CD-ROM the cheerful alien invites young children to jump aboard the Boocopter, his colourful flying house, to fly them to the countryside for interactive fun.
Travel with Adiboo Choo and his friends to visit the Guessing Barn where you click on animals to hear the noises they make and guess what they are. In addition to teaching skills such as recognising sounds, Adiboo Choo Countryside Adventure also encourages children to show consideration for others. There's a game in which you help a lost little rabbit find its mother by clicking and dragging with the mouse. Huge red cartoon-like hearts appear in the sky when they are both successfully reunited.
If they tire of being in the countryside, children can explore Adiboo Choo's magical house. Simple clicking triggers off all kinds of entertaining learning activities--a click on the rocking horse starts a cowboy game and you have to fetch a hat for Adiboo Choo. And when they go into the toy box in the corner of the room, children can hear well-sung nursery rhymes and learn the actions that go with them.
Adiboo Choo Countryside Adventure is a well-structured and entertaining CD-ROM for children aged 2 to 4 and has been developed in collaboration with nursery school teachers to ensure basic skills are taught. Some parental supervision is required but parents are likely to enjoy themselves as well. Also available: Adiboo Choo Seaside Adventure. --Justin Hunt
My First CD-Rom: Number

Dorling Kindersley

Dorling Kindersley has produced an excellent series of interactive parent-assisted learning packages designed for young children, of which My First Number is one. The CD-ROM is aimed at children aged 3-5 years and is especially useful for pre-school children or those needing more practice in early learning number skills.
The package has been specifically designed to give youngsters an introduction to counting and sorting, and to help them gain confidence in using a computer. The games have been developed to allow children to play them on their own, but help may be needed initially, until youngsters get used the format. Make the sessions happy and relaxed, helping your child to learn with lots of fun. When playing alone, the fun will continue as they make decisions for themselves, and so their learning carries on without them even knowing. Game speeds and levels of difficulty can be altered, progress can be tracked and measured and help is automatically adjusted according to a child's responses.
There are five easy games to play and they have been designed to be played in order. Meet Little Penguin and White Bear, appealing and humorous characters who use lots of songs, rhymes and animations to give practice in counting, number recognition, colour, and recognition of 2-D shapes, ordering numbers to create correct counting sequences, and practice in developing problem-solving skills.
The CD-ROM is easy to install (instructions are on the disc, and there are comprehensive support notes for parents with full explanations about the games and activities that are accessed from the parent icon on the tool bar). This is a valuable introduction to key mathematical concepts capitalising on the natural eagerness young children have to learn. --Susan Naylor
Tizzy's Toybox (Home User)

Sherston
Living Books Triple Pack - Tortoise & Hare, Harry & The Haunted House, Little Monster

Mindscape

The race between the slow but steady tortoise and the fast know-it-all hare has been repeated countless times over the generations. But this CD-ROM version from Living Books succeeds in giving the classic fable plenty of new comic twists.
The fable is entertainingly introduced by an animated tortoise who is abruptly interrupted by the hare who skids up to him and then races away leaving a trail of smoke. The illustrations are good throughout and the sound effects are impressive. While the story is told, words are highlighted so young children can easily follow them. The best part are the in-story games which help bring the fable to life. When you click on the tortoise's post box, for example, it starts to snore loudly, and the hare's post box immediately shouts at it and throws a letter to wake it up.
The Tortoise and the Hare is one of the titles in this triple-CD-ROM pack which also includes Little Monster at School andHarry and the Haunted House. Young readers can step into the little monster's world and click on drawings in his room to watch them dance, or click on individual words to have them read out aloud. Trouble starts in Harry and the Haunted House when Harry D Rabbit hits the ball into a spooky building. When you click on the house scary-looking clouds appear as an omen of things to come.
All these titles are aimed at children aged three and above. Any one of them is likely to keep youngsters fully occupied for hours. --Justin Hunt
Izzy's Island (Home User)

Sherston
Learning Ladder Pack: Preschool to Year 2 (Learning Ladder Pre-School, Learning Ladder Years 1&2)

Dorling Kindersley
My First CD-Rom: Getting Ready For School

Dorling Kindersley
Reader Rabbit's Preschool

Mindscape
Let's Discover the Jungle & the Sav

Knowledge Adventure

Let's discover the Jungle and the Savannahintroduces young children to numbers, shape identification and creative skills in a highly imaginative way.
Adiboo Choo, the friendly little alien, invites children aboard his magical house, the Boocopter, which then flies to the jungle. Among the cartoon animals, there are a whole range of educational games to play.
Each step of the way Adiboo Choo and his friends explain clearly what has to be done and are generous with their praise. For one of the jungle animal games, you have to guide a python and a wildebeest over a bridge so they can find water. As the game develops children learn to identify the different types of animals.
There is a general introductory discovery session for each game and then you can opt to play at different levels of difficulty. For the ant carnival game, children have to put an ant on the path and click to lead it back to its nest. As you progress through the levels, you have to count the numbers of ants and select them by their colours.
There are imaginative musical activities as well where children can click with their mouse buttons to hear different African-themed instruments.
To start with, it's probably best for parents to set children up with one game to concentrate on. They can then progress at their own speed to different activities. The title is easy to install and in this bright and colourful environment your children are bound to enjoy all the interactive educational activities. --Justin Hunt
Let's Discover the Seaside

Knowledge Adventure

It's summer holiday time and the Adiboo Choo Seaside Adventure CD-ROM invites young children to join Adiboo Choo and his friends in travelling to the seaside for adventure and learning games on the beach.
On the golden sands, with a colourful boat moored in the sea, children are encouraged to play and learn with crabs, fish, buckets and spades, and shells. All learning games have seaside themes and are clearly introduced and explained by Adiboo Choo's two fun friends, Pompom and Chipin. To start a game, children simply click on one of the main objects on the beach. When they've clicked on a seashell, children can start to create a simple necklace of attractive shells by dragging and clicking with their mouse buttons. Adding to the realism, these actions will even create small imprints in the sand as they do it, and traditional seaside sounds such as seagulls and waves add to the experience.
All the activities in Adiboo Choo Seaside Adventure are clearly introduced and it is easy to leave a game if you've had enough. Children are encouraged and praised throughout--when fishing you have to put a number of fish in a net and happy smiling fish appear when a task has been successfully completed. Shape and colour recognition and counting skills are taught in a fun way, and a detailed accompanying booklet for parents means they can be assured that basic skills are being taught. Also available: Adiboo Choo Countryside Adventure. --Justin Hunt
Reading Made easy

Dorling Kindersley Ltd
Noddy - Let's Get Ready for School (PC)

BBC Multimedia