Become a Human Body Explorer is an interesting CD-ROM full of information about the human body. It's aimed at children aged 6-10 years old, but would be best suited to older end of this age range. Seemore Skinless, the helpful skeleton, guides the children through a wide range of games, quizzes and experiments. Children can play four fun interactive games, which involve, for example, collecting body parts by answering questions and learning about the body and choosing how Seemore should spend his day. There is an excellent search feature so that children can access information screens on a very wide range of topics. (Parents of younger children may want to supervise children's use of this, as there is information about reproduction and how our bodies change. ) Children also have the opportunity to create their own Secret File, which contains information about themselves and can become a scrapbook of facts. So once children have visited the information screens, played the games, answered brainteaser questions and found out amazing facts, they will have discovered all they need to know about the human body. Become a Human Body Explorer would be a good buy for parents or teachers of children aged 8-11 years old. It encourages children to explore and find out about the human body in a fun and interesting way. [+]

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. [+]

Bear and Penguin's Big Maths Adventure is a fun and easy-to-use program designed to develop young children's addition and subtraction skills. This program would be excellent to use with 5-7 year olds. There are five different games to choose from, all of them clearly explained so that children can develop their independence when using the computer. The games, which can be played at three different levels, have been carefully developed to practice the skills that children are learning as part of the numeracy hour in school. It is advised that the games are played in the numbered order so that there is a progression of skills development. The maths adventure involves, for example, filling in the missing numbers on the maths machine and painting a picture by answering addition and subtraction sums. After playing all of the games children are allowed to play the Super game which helps to consolidate the skills that they have been learning with mental arithmetic against the clock. Some more able children may find the maths a little easy, but for most children this would be an excellent way of developing and consolidating addition and subtraction to 20. There is an excellent guide for parents which discusses the skills the games focus on. A range of very good worksheets can be printed out and used with children to consolidate the maths that they have been doing. [+]

Learning Ladder Preschool is an excellent CD-ROM packed with a wide range of activities for 3-5 year olds. Woody the Pencil guides children through the different activities, which are very well explained. Children will enjoy becoming familiar with the mouse and navigating around the room making toys move and change. They will also enjoy doing the different activities such as painting the colouring book, having a go at recording their voice, listening to a story, doing puzzles and much more. By clicking on the different bears children can carry out activities related to words, numbers, time, directions/space, shapes and nature/objects. Each of these areas contains 18 different games for children to play, so there is plenty to keep them occupied. There's also a good range of activities, many of which support the Early Years Curriculum at school. For example, there are activities that work on identifying sounds in words and on ordering, counting, matching, etc. Children are rewarded with stickers when they complete an activity correctly and they will love collecting these in the sticker book. This would be an excellent buy for parents who want to introduce their child to using the computer in a fun and educational way. [+]

Learning Ladder Year 3 is another excellent product from Dorling Kindersley. This CD-ROM is packed with a good range of activities tailored to support the Year 3 school curriculum. Children can navigate their way around the playroom, looking for fun activities. These include the printing machine, which they can use to create their own labels, invitations and cards. Children can then improve their literacy, numeracy and science skills by undertaking a wide range of activities that help to consolidate Year 3 work. Children can, for example, choose correct word endings, solve addition and subtraction problems, label skeletons and identify correct habitats for animals. These are just a few of the carefully thought out and clearly explained activities here. Children should be able to use this program independently. They are rewarded with stickers for each activity they complete correctly and will enjoy collecting these and putting them in their own sticker album. Learning Ladder Year 3 would be an excellent buy for any Year 3 child. [+]

Learning Ladder Year 5 is another excellent CD-ROM from Dorling Kindersley. It's aimed at children aged 9-10 and structured so that children listen to a lesson and then carry out exercises to help consolidate the literacy and numeracy they are learning at school. Exercises can be done at five different levels of difficulty, so that children are challenged and continue to make progress. For every 400 points a child scores, they are rewarded with new pictures to use with the printing machine. As they gather more pictures they can enjoy designing their own cards, invitations and labels, which can be printed out. Children can also have lots of fun navigating around Science City and learning lots of facts along the way. For example, they can find out about the solar system, forces and reflection. The progress tracker clearly shows how each child is getting on with a system of green and red lights. This would quickly show parents where more help is needed. -Amanda York.

Bear and Penguin's Big Reading Adventure is another excellent program developed by Dorling Kindersley. It is aimed at children aged 5-7 years old and helps to develop a wide range of literacy skills through four fun games. There are very clear instructions and each game is initially demonstrated, so children will quickly be able to develop confidence and independence. The games, which can be played at three different levels, have been carefully developed to practice the skills that children are learning as part of the literacy hour in school; for example, spelling words by choosing the missing sounds and putting words in the correct order to create a sentence. There are also two storybooks that children can choose to read together or alone. If children want a break from the games there is also an excellent printing section where children can make their own stationary and create lists, cards, writing paper and signs. This is a brilliant way to encourage children to write for a range of different purposes. As children play the games they collect snowflakes and they are then rewarded with a sticker for their sticker album. When all the stickers have been collected they can print out a certificate and listen to the reward song. There is an excellent guide for parents that discusses the skills the games are developing. [+]

Armchair adventurers relax. With the Become a World Explorer CD-ROM children can obey the call of the wild and see the world without leaving the comfort of their home. Once loaded, it's possible to whizz around the world in almost 80 ways with this fun and feature-packed CD-ROM learning adventure. As soon as you've filled in the virtual passport, you're off. The first stop on any interactive globe-trotting adventure is Sam's bedroom-it's perfect for click-happy kids with animations that come to life when you hit the objects scattered around. For beginner backpackers, a talking train gives a guided tour of how to find your way around the world, and what a choice there is. You'll find video clips, an interactive index, a country finder with each nation's flag and a wide range of fun games that test skills such as general knowledge and compass directions. A ringing phone launches more adventurous travellers straight into the globetrotting game that displays the strongest aspects of the software. Clues based on geographical sights and sounds lead players on an interactive journey around the world. Along the way, the players' knowledge of capitals, continents and customs are tested in a totally involving way with three difficulty levels encouraging repeat visits. [+]