All reviews at Edutaining Kids are
independent, impartial reviews. Children's software reviews are
designed to help parents and caregivers decide which software games
are best for their kids, and are evaluated based on a number of
factors, including educational and entertainment value, originality,
dynamic content, and quality of learning.
The Land
Before Time Kindergarten Adventure is an older children's computer
game that is now re-packaged along with a Bonus Activities CD and
a set of printed cards for playing a card game away from the computer.
"Extras" are always a good thing, but they don't take
away from the fact that the feature CD-ROM is not very inspired.
Kindergarten-age children will not learn very much from the
program's set of activities.
Littlefoot
and pals greet children and invite them to click on any of eight
rocks that lead to games and activities. Most of the games are
either arcade-style or the kind of "creativity"
activities that we see all too often in software for young
children (uninspired paint and stamp as well as musical
activities). The arcade-style games, including one that involves
leading dinosaurs over rivers by hopping onto logs and the like,
might entertain children for a time, but they are not engaging
enough to motivate children to return to them more than once. The
pinball activity is fun, although a little challenging. Our
tester's ball got "stuck" and he had to exit and then
return to the activity in order to remedy the problem--and of
course start over again. The "Adventure Stories"
activity allows kids to "read" and "write"
stories, but the narration of the stories went too fast for young
would-be readers to follow, and the words were not highlighted as
they were read aloud.
We liked the second part of the
"musical shapes" activity (the first part was far too
easy for the suggested age group). Here, kids had to match sounds
to objects, and they had great fun in so doing.
The
Bonus Activities CD-ROM looked promising at first. As you can see
in the screenshot at right, the graphics are bright, and some
learning activities are offered. However, these activities are
endless and repetitious. There is no variation, no tracking of
progress, and no goal. The result? No interest. It is unlikely
that children will want to return to the program after the first
try.
The printed card game included
with the set is probably the only truly engaging part of the
package. (The card game plays like Go Fish, with LBT colorful
images and word labels). However, it is a bonus, and
parents will be buying the package largely for the software
program that only served to disappoint our testers.
Rating:
C
[For more information, user
reviews, or to buy:
Land Before Time: Kindergarten
at Amazon.com]
Land Before Time: Kindergarten
For Win 95/98/2000/XP; Mac |
By: Brighter Child Interactive |
Ages 4-6? |
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