Busy Town Best Reading Program Ever

Reviewed by Cynthia A. Sorrels
Published by Simon & Schuster

Age Group: Age 2 to 5, Age 4 to 8
Type: Language Arts
Price: $34.95

PC version requires:
486-33, 8M RAM, CDx2

Mac version requires:
68040/33, System 7.1, 8M RAM, CDx2

Description:

Busytown's Best Reading Program Ever has it all - stories, games, phonics, progress reports and more. Kids ages 3-6 and those having difficulty reading will have fun fishing with Huckle and Lowly, Camping with Hilda, flying kites and much more.

Features:

  • 5 locations.
  • 15 animated on-screen stories
  • Kids learn reading readiness skills.
  • Accommodates multiple users.
  • Kids can write/print their own stories.

Technical Aspects:

This program works with AutoPlay, installed quickly and posed no problems. The video and audio were smooth - and the speech is clear.

Report and Conclusions:

While the front of the box states that the program focuses on Reading, Writing and Phonics, there is also "sight word development," which I take to mean "Whole Language." Yes, the debate between the two methods is still going, and this title seems to have found a way to intertwine the two. While my personal bias is pro-phonics, the "sight word development" included here does not overwhelm the stories - it is subtle.

This program will keep kids busy for some time to come, and may also be used to help older kids master skills they haven't yet picked up. One thing we noticed is that much of this title is like classroom worksheets, but the animation makes them considerably more interesting.





Warning: main(kidsdomain.inc) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /data/sites/network/public_html/omniture/omnitureTag.inc on line 20

Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'kidsdomain.inc' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php:/www/sites/kaboose/php:/www/sites/kaboose/php/include') in /data/sites/network/public_html/omniture/omnitureTag.inc on line 20