Fisher-Price Ready for School - Kindergarten (1998)
by admin on Feb.27, 2010, under Contact, News & reviews
Although this software may not “prepare” your child for kindergarten, it will give your kid plenty of fun-filled learning activities to help develop important early-learning skills.
This new version is vastly different than the older Davidson 2 CD-ROM set by the same name. It’s less expensive and packs a powerful punch!
You’ll find 20 activities which can help children develop skills in early math, early reading, safety, manners, time concepts, charting, sorting, measuring, listening, music and creativity.
Kids can explore Kinderville and visit the Clock Shop, a nicely animated activity where they learn to identify numbers and explore sequencing in Level 1 and learn to set the clock to the correct hour and learn how to tell time in Level 2.
The School House is a virtual letter machine which helps kindergarteners identify letters and spell and read three letter words to make rhymes and build simple sentences.
A trip to the Grocery Store involves helping Sara do her shopping by listening to directions, recognizing patterns and solving simple addition and subtraction problems.
That’s not all! Visit the Ice Cream Shop where kids go to work serving up soft-serve ice cream and following directions by counting the correct number of items to be served. When you visit the Post Office, you won’t go postal! Here, kids are asked to sort boxes by recognizing shapes, colors and sizes and measure heights and sort them based on height and quantity–just like they do in real post offices!
If you’re ready for a break, head over to the Cocoa Cafe, but get set to make and read 4 and 5-column pictograph charts. Don’t tell kids by playing this activity they’re actually practicing basic math and logic skills! Just match the pictures to make colorful sticker charts and relax!
Max the Fireman is waiting for kids at the Firehouse to help teach them about safety, health or manners by playing a fun-filled matching game. Find all the pairs and you’ll reveal a background poster, complete with a sing-along song about good manners and safety!
Just when you thought it was over, there’s a Toy Shop to visit. It’s actually a hide and seek game where a boy named Trevor hides a toy on the shelf behind another toy and wants your kids to find it. It’s also probably the most difficult game for young learners as they have to search using directional arrows which flash up, down, left or right. In Level 2, it’s even harder as it’s up to your child to hide the toy and guide Trevor to it by clicking on the arrow buttons to tell him which way to look. This is a good activity for parents to get involved with on the computer and away from the computer. It might be a fun activity to buy a small compass and show your child the compass directions (north, south, east and west) and help him or her compare them to directional signs (up, down, right and left).
You’ll find gobs of original music on this CD-ROM–including a Music Player which treats kids to 10 lively (and edutaining) tunes. There’s also a printable calendar which kids can decorate with stickers and a pencil case which shows them the school supplies they’ve collected through the game as rewards.
Parents can view a skills matrix, which lets them observe (report-card style) which activities their children have explored and completed. A new feature available with this software is “The Family Resource Center”–just click on the icon on the desktop to access parent tips and printable children’s activity sheets (which include age-appropriate activities, games and puzzles, and ideas for away from the computer fun).