Fisher-Price Ready for School Reading

PC version requires:
Windows 3.1/95/98, 486-66 (Pentium recommended), 16 MB RAM, Cdx4

Mac version requires:
PowerPC System 7.5.1, 16 MB RAM, Cdx4

Description:

The endearing Little People characters from Fisher-Price are here to help your child learn to read! Your child can sing along with the alphabet songs, create interactive stories, play a board game, and more! The Family Resource Center includes coloring pages, dot-to-dots, and many many more pages to print out and play with away from the computer.

Features:

• 2 modes of play: free play and board game
• Play using a mouse or without a mouse (for beginners)
• 6 different activities
• Skills Chart
• 4 Alphabet songs
• Family Resource Center: Toddler through 1st Grade printouts and parent tips
• User manual

Technical Aspects:

Report and Conclusions:

I loved how Ready for School Reading taught the children how to play a board game. The child would turn over a card, the character would tell them what color was on the card and ask the child to point to a stone that was the same color. Upon selection of the correct color, the character and their pet would hop over to the correct stone. What was nice is that the designers recognized a small child's short attention span and only put 7 stones on the board between activities. The most a child would have to turn over would be 3 cards to reach the next activity. If a child is not a mouse user yet, there is an option to not use the mouse. All the child has to do is hit any key on the keyboard and the Little People character will walk them through the steps and teach them their colors.

I was very surprised at how entertaining Ready for School Reading could be. Coupled with fun activities such as the Rhyme Time on the Farm to learn how words rhyme, Letter Safari to match letters, and 4 other activities there is a lot to do. Be sure to install the optional Family Resource Center as it will greatly expand the activities! The Family Resource Center gives parent tips and children's activities from Toddlers (ages 1 1/2-3) through 1st Grade (ages 5-7)! The printable activity sheets are comparable to ones that you would buy in books, but there are no limits on how many copies you can print. This is a plus when you have two or more small children at home or at preschool when you need multiple copies. There are coloring book pages of the Little People characters, memory games, telling time, creative writing, and so much more!

I would recommend this program for children that do not even know their alphabet yet, as it has been helping my 3-year-old to recognize his letters and his colors. This would also be a great program for preschools as the activities are entertaining and the printable activity sheets would be a help to the teacher.