This excellent CD-ROM has been produced by Disney in consultation with American educational experts, to enable pre-school children to gain an insight into the learning and understanding of letters, numbers, sequencing, phonics and colour. Based on a Winnie the Pooh story of a journey through the 100-Acre wood, the object of the exercise is to find certain characters so that they can attend a surprise birthday party. There are three levels of difficulty, and these are explained in the black and white users' manual, obviously aimed at older people, as the program is for two to four-year-olds. The information contained in the pamphlet is simple and straightforward and should be read before commencing. Remember, however, that this was produced for the US market, and consequently some spellings differ. Pooh's Print and Learn facility enables players to print stickers, ID cards, bookmarks, flashcards and workbooks connected with the skills learned in the games. Help Kanga cook with the alphabet, join the Party Spot with Pooh and Friends, Dream with Pooh, paint with Piglet, tin vegetables with Rabbit, make music with Tigger, help Owl with his family tree and at the same time monitor your child's progress in a chart that is updated as your child plays the games and indicates the time taken and the difficulty level. Skills covered in the various games include letter recognition, letter order and phonics, deduction, reasoning, sequencing, thinking skills, categorisation attributes-same/different, number recognition 1-20, counting 1-20, auditory discrimination, music appreciation and creativity, colours, colour theory and listening skills. All activities have been well thought out and will provide hours of fun. -Susan Naylor.

In the Adiboo Choo Countryside Adventure CD-ROM the cheerful alien invites young children to jump aboard the Boocopter, his colourful flying house, to fly them to the countryside for interactive fun. Travel with Adiboo Choo and his friends to visit the Guessing Barn where you click on animals to hear the noises they make and guess what they are. In addition to teaching skills such as recognising sounds, Adiboo Choo Countryside Adventure also encourages children to show consideration for others. There's a game in which you help a lost little rabbit find its mother by clicking and dragging with the mouse. Huge red cartoon-like hearts appear in the sky when they are both successfully reunited. If they tire of being in the countryside, children can explore Adiboo Choo's magical house. Simple clicking triggers off all kinds of entertaining learning activities-a click on the rocking horse starts a cowboy game and you have to fetch a hat for Adiboo Choo. And when they go into the toy box in the corner of the room, children can hear well-sung nursery rhymes and learn the actions that go with them. Adiboo Choo Countryside Adventure is a well-structured and entertaining CD-ROM for children aged 2 to 4 and has been developed in collaboration with nursery school teachers to ensure basic skills are taught. Some parental supervision is required but parents are likely to enjoy themselves as well. [+]

Crafted with brilliant colours and the lazy-summer-day pace of the celebrated series, Teletubbies 2: Favourite Games delivers the goods for the toddler set. From the first scene, where the baby-face sun rises across the computer screen, kids will be entranced. Parents will like it too-mostly for the developmental skills the teletubbies teach. The CD-ROM is based around five games, including "Tuning In," "Gymnastic," and "Making Tubby Custard" (which features appropriately silly sound effects). "Hide and Peep" takes the traditional hide and seek game and adds bright red curtains. "Roly Poly" was a particular favourite; when you click on a teletubby it sends Laa-Laa, Tinky Winky, Dipsy, and Po rolling down gorgeous green hills. A very big pointer triggers the game's actions, and children should be able to use it easily in developing computer skills. These games also help children to learn how to match (from the hiding game) and create ordered sequences (in the case of the custard game). In addition, the game designers have built in considerate additions for the recommended age group, two to four years old. For example, to quit the game parents need to hit the escape key-a good choice for little fingers that might otherwise click an exit icon by mistake. [+]

Let's discover the Jungle and the Savannahintroduces young children to numbers, shape identification and creative skills in a highly imaginative way. Adiboo Choo, the friendly little alien, invites children aboard his magical house, the Boocopter, which then flies to the jungle. Among the cartoon animals, there are a whole range of educational games to play. Each step of the way Adiboo Choo and his friends explain clearly what has to be done and are generous with their praise. For one of the jungle animal games, you have to guide a python and a wildebeest over a bridge so they can find water. As the game develops children learn to identify the different types of animals. There is a general introductory discovery session for each game and then you can opt to play at different levels of difficulty. For the ant carnival game, children have to put an ant on the path and click to lead it back to its nest. As you progress through the levels, you have to count the numbers of ants and select them by their colours. There are imaginative musical activities as well where children can click with their mouse buttons to hear different African-themed instruments. [+]

Spot, Rolie Polie Olie's dog, needs a bath, but he has run off and hidden somewhere. It's your job to help Rolie find him. Disney Early Learning Rolie Polie Olie CD-ROM is based on Disney's pre-school show, and is a fun, interactive way to get two to five-year-olds comfortable with a PC. The package contains four games, each of which can be accessed by visiting a different room. The Canister Can-Can Game is probably one of the highlights of the package-eight kitchen canisters create an octave for budding musicians, while taps, kettles and even a musical toaster add variety. A playback facility also allows youngsters to record their compositions and play them back at the click of a mouse. Logically, the "Telly Game" takes place in the living room, the "Crayon Criss-Cross Game" in Rolie's bedroom and the "Can-Can Canister Game" in the kitchen. The Telly Game tests matching, as youngsters have to drag and drop items of furniture into their corresponding shapes. The colouring game promotes hand-to-eye co-ordination and cause-and-effect relationships, as players grab a passing crayon, then fill in the corresponding polka dot. Level one deals with primary colours, while levels two and three develop the idea of mixing two colours to create another-use the blue then the red crayons to colour in the purple one, and so on. [+]

Crafted with brilliant colours and the lazy-summer-day pace of the celebrated series, Teletubbies 2: Favourite Games delivers the goods for the toddler set. From the first scene, where the baby-face sun rises across the computer screen, kids will be entranced. Parents will like it too-mostly for the developmental skills the teletubbies teach. The CD-ROM is based around five games, including "Tuning In," "Gymnastic," and "Making Tubby Custard" (which features appropriately silly sound effects). "Hide and Peep" takes the traditional hide and seek game and adds bright red curtains. "Roly Poly" was a particular favourite; when you click on a teletubby it sends Laa-Laa, Tinky Winky, Dipsy, and Po rolling down gorgeous green hills. A very big pointer triggers the game's actions, and children should be able to use it easily in developing computer skills. These games also help children to learn how to match (from the hiding game) and create ordered sequences (in the case of the custard game). In addition, the game designers have built in considerate additions for the recommended age group, two to four years old. For example, to quit the game parents need to hit the escape key-a good choice for little fingers that might otherwise click an exit icon by mistake. [+]

Can We Fix It?. Of course we can, and with this BBC software package little builders will be better equipped than ever!. Featuring the chirpy Bob and his mechanical multitude of talented friends, this fun package is a mixture of educational encouragement and pure out-and-out fun. Once loaded, you are invited to move the cursor around Wendy's office to select your tasks: hover over the phone, and it rings with a plumbing job; go near the fax, and a job comes in for Roley. Keep moving around, and you will find enough jobs to keep little fingers and minds busy for hours. In "Hedgehog Rescue", the aim is firstly to help Lofty the Crane build a tunnel to save the scared hedgehogs from crossing the road. Children must match pipe shapes to tunnel shapes, and construct the route. The next, more difficult game, involves Wendy herding the hedgehogs into the tunnel-easier than it sounds, since one particularly persistent hedgehog seems unwilling to go. In "Travis' Race Day", choose between Scoop or Dizzy to a head-to-head around an obstacle-strewn track. Guide your challenger by mouse or arrow keys-again, not as easy as it sounds, and a great developmental aid for hand-to-eye co-ordination. [+]

Winnie the Pooh and the other denizens of the 100 Acre Wood are ideal companions for guiding your baby through his or her first software experience. Their gentle silliness and not particularly linear behavior provide a perfect match for the vagaries of baby reasoning. Babies can help Pooh pull everything from bubbles to birds out of his honey pots. Use spoons to bang out rhythms on pans with Baby Roo. Point to body parts with Piglet. Paint with Eeyore, who glumly uses his tail as a brush ("Green. Like the grass. Except when it's brown. Sigh. "). [+]

What's the story in Balamory? Invite your kids to join Miss Hooly, Pocket & Sweet, PC Plum, Archie, Spencer and Edie Mcredie in virtual Balamory and they will learn as they play. Based on the popular BBC TV children's programme, the BBC Balamory CD-ROM opens with the colourful introductory song viewers know so well. Children are then presented with a variety of games to test basic pre-school and early years skills. For younger children (3-4 years) the favourite will no doubt be Josie Jump's Hide and Seek game, where they must find Josie in a field of people, then click on her to make her jump. Equally rewarding for the smallest players is Spencer's Colour Challenge, where youngsters use basic mouse skills and number recognition to match colours with areas of the drawing-a kind of virtual colour by numbers. All players will love Edie's Delivery Dilemma, which involves Pac-Man-like gameplay as youngsters work against the clock, using the arrow keys to direct Edie's bus around the town and picking up fruit dropped by the delivery van so that Pocket & Sweet can sell it in their shop. PC Plum Investigates asks children to sort through the evidence that is all mixed up on the policeman's desk, so he can sort out his cases-tasks such as "click on the things that are the same colour as the sea" make this game accessible to most players. Slightly older children, (4-6 years) might like to try Archie's Word Wonder, where they must fill in the missing letters on words so that Archie's Word Machine can produce words for Miss Hooly's stories. The only criticism here is that words are sounded out by name only, and not phonetically, but otherwise this is a fun, testing game. Children of school age will also enjoy Pocket & Sweet's Shopping Spree-a fun shopping game that involves helping Penny and Susie put together all their orders, then adding up the cost at the end. [+]

There are high-pitched voices galore exclaiming "Yoho" "Ahoy" in various combinations on this delightful CD-ROM. Aboard the pirate ship Rubber Duck, the seven seafaring friends have seven games to play and young fans won't be disappointed as the activities are stimulating and the characters are all adorable. Choose from the seven different games on offer, each takes only a couple of seconds to load and are more about enjoyment than competitive scoring. The Help screens are very useful and include the option to make each of the games hard or easy so that the challenge can be kept fresh as children get better at the game. The simple games and puzzles include "Toot with Swab" where players can make harmonious noises and direct the characters to blow over the top of bottles to play scales or form a tune. Another favourite is "Mop with Poop" where the player can direct Poop to clean up the dirty water Cat has spilt before Bilge makes his deck inspection. "Chairs with Grog" is a virtual game of musical chairs and is great fun. Swab will play some music. When Grog clangs his pot, the music stops and you have to dash to a chair! To do so click repeatedly as fast as you can on the nearest chair. The quality of the graphics here is very high, the animation looks absolutely charming and the faces of the characters when they lose at musical chairs are especially heartbreaking! (Ages 2-6) -Rachel Ediss.

Can We Fix It?. Of course we can, and with this BBC software package little builders will be better equipped than ever!. Featuring the chirpy Bob and his mechanical multitude of talented friends, this fun package is a mixture of educational encouragement and pure out-and-out fun. Once loaded, you are invited to move the cursor around Wendy's office to select your tasks: hover over the phone, and it rings with a plumbing job; go near the fax, and a job comes in for Roley. Keep moving around, and you will find enough jobs to keep little fingers and minds busy for hours. In "Hedgehog Rescue", the aim is firstly to help Lofty the Crane build a tunnel to save the scared hedgehogs from crossing the road. Children must match pipe shapes to tunnel shapes, and construct the route. The next, more difficult game, involves Wendy herding the hedgehogs into the tunnel-easier than it sounds, since one particularly persistent hedgehog seems unwilling to go. In "Travis' Race Day", choose between Scoop or Dizzy to a head-to-head around an obstacle-strewn track. Guide your challenger by mouse or arrow keys-again, not as easy as it sounds, and a great developmental aid for hand-to-eye co-ordination. [+]

Every child is naturally curious and we all know that children like to play. The Jump Ahead Toddlers (ages one-and-a-half to three) CD-ROM has been specifically designed and produced to capture a child's imagination and to engage their attention by providing fun activities that will stimulate their young minds, making them want to play them again and again. Throughout, children are encouraged to learn letters and numbers, shapes and colours, learn about animals, to discover music and musical instruments, basic vocabulary, listening skills, mouse control, songs and rhymes, IT skills, hand-to-eye co-ordination and many more useful life skills. The music is bright and lively, the graphics are colourful and the whole is explicit, clear and easy to understand. The CD-ROM is easy to load and particularly helpful is a special mode to keep children from accidentally exiting the program. Help will obviously have to be given to the very young, as the program is aimed at children from 18 months to three years old, but before long, the child will want to do the activities by themselves. There is also a pamphlet that has basic information regarding installation and other technical hints and tips, which should be read before beginning. This is one of a range entitled "Children", a range of "educational entertainment that not only keeps the little ones quiet, but teaches them essential core skills and tentatively introduces them into the realms of computing. " -Susan Naylor.

If your child is getting that Fimbling Feeling, try Fimbles Fimbling Fun, one of an excellent range of CD-ROMs and console games produced by the BBC. It includes lots of songs, stories and video clips from the popular TV programme. Let your child join the Fimbles and their friends for fun and enjoyment in a world of make believe. There are lots of learning situations, all designed with fun in mind. Objects must be found: a suitcase, a pebble, a feather, a shimmy shaker, and blue footprint, all of which lead to various activities, including a music game, a maze game, a collage, a suitcase game, stories, tickling games, songs and discovery sequence videos. All these wonderfully exciting activities will lead children to meet Florrie, Pebble, Ribble, Rockit, Roly Mo, and Baby Pom, and if any help is needed, Bessie is always on hand to tell children what everything on the screen does. Also included are activities designed specifically for adults to play and do with children, so that the learning and fun can be developed after the CD-ROM has been switched off. These include printing out and colouring in, finding games, and more. All of the games can be played at different levels of skill and difficulty to cater for a range of abilities. The BBC has developed this CD-ROM in line with the national curriculum at the foundation stage, and recommends that it is suitable for children aged 2 years and above. [+]

Every child is naturally curious and we all know that children like to play. The Jump Ahead Toddlers (ages one-and-a-half to three) CD-ROM has been specifically designed and produced to capture a child's imagination and to engage their attention by providing fun activities that will stimulate their young minds, making them want to play them again and again. Throughout, children are encouraged to learn letters and numbers, shapes and colours, learn about animals, to discover music and musical instruments, basic vocabulary, listening skills, mouse control, songs and rhymes, IT skills, hand-to-eye co-ordination and many more useful life skills. The music is bright and lively, the graphics are colourful and the whole is explicit, clear and easy to understand. The CD-ROM is easy to load and particularly helpful is a special mode to keep children from accidentally exiting the program. Help will obviously have to be given to the very young, as the program is aimed at children from 18 months to three years old, but before long, the child will want to do the activities by themselves. There is also a pamphlet that has basic information regarding installation and other technical hints and tips, which should be read before beginning. This is one of a range entitled "Children", a range of "educational entertainment that not only keeps the little ones quiet, but teaches them essential core skills and tentatively introduces them into the realms of computing. " -Susan Naylor.