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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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Clifford the
Big Red Dog does everything in a big way, but the understatement
in his latest software title, Clifford Phonics, is what
makes it one of the best Clifford games yet. Clifford Phonics is
uncommonly age-appropriate—just right for emergent readers. It
effectively drills simple phonics a little bit at a time. As kids
play the game, they work with basic letter sounds, very simple
sight words, word-object association, basic word families, and
more.
Each main
activity focuses on a basic concept in phonics and early reading.
One involves reconnecting hoses on a balloon-blowing machine by
matching words and pictures. The activity gradually advances as
children achieve—at first, kids match words and pictures with
the same words and pictures; next, players match words with their
pictures; and finally, kids match words with words. Red herrings
are added for extra challenge, and children must discern subtle
differences between words like pen and pan. Note
that none of these levels is too challenging for very beginners.
find objects
that start with given letters (pictured at right), and as kids advance in the
activity, more choices are thrown into the mix and letter blends
are added. Again, nothing is too challenging for children just
learning to sound out small words.
Although the
game is at times wordy, no pun intended, kids can certainly skip
through chatter by pressing the spacebar. All around, the design
of the program is superb, and the parade sequence at the end of
the game (the piece de resistance) is far from disappointing.
Children can decorate the float (see picture at left) bit by bit
at any point in the game using the reward decorations they earn by
playing the main activities.
