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Edutaining Kids
.COM
Parents' Guide to Children's Products for Fun & Learning
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Edutaining Kids
.COM
Parents' Guide to Children's Products for Fun & Learning
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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. 
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.