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Software and Games : GSP : Education
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Avanquest Software
Explore the ancient civilisations of Greece, Atlantis, Egypt and the Aztecs, all while building and reinforcing essential maths skills through fun and challenging games in I Love Maths!. A couple of kids named Gretchen and Wilbur have travelled back in time and are causing trouble. By using their knowledge of maths, kids can reinforce what they've learned in school and foil the dastardly duo's plot to terrorise the ancient world.Players can choose from three games: "Save the World", "Free Travel" and "Challenge". In "Save the World", kids visit each civilisation while bending their brains with multilevel, mind-boggling maths games. In Greece, they can free the country's greatest athletes by playing the Measurement Olympics; although tricky at first, this activity is a great way to learn to recognise types of measurements. Players take the Time Machine to Atlantis to help Ratty the plumber fix broken water pipes (and restore the city) by practising fractions. There is even trouble with paradise--birds of paradise, that is. The Aztecs need kids' geometry skills to free their beautiful birds of paradise that are locked inside the temple.
The "Free Travel" mode allows players to explore the civilisation of their choice for unstructured play, and the Challenge area includes a multitude of multilevel maths practice questions that test a child's understanding of angles, area, length, money, perimeter, quadrilaterals, symmetry and more.
I Love Maths! covers more than 250 maths topics and contains 3,000 maths problems and 2 million arithmetic questions. Do the maths and you will discover that this software is a great value. It also scores high on the replay factor, so you are sure to get your money's worth. And the more than 6,000 helpful pop-ups make this program excellent for independent play. Parents and teachers can easily track a child's progress, making this software ideal for use at home, in-home schooling or in schools. An "intelligent tracking system" self-adjusts to individual maths abilities by topic, although the levels on any of the games can be changed manually. (Ages 7 to 11) --Tina Velgos
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Avanquest Software
DK Interactive's I Love Spelling is a souped-up spelling lesson loaded with characters, humour and more than 5,000 words ranging in difficulty from "here" to "Kalahari". A game-show host with a skewed toupee leads kids to one of four planets: On "Aquatica", intrepid spellers hear a word, then chase and burst bubbles containing the letters that spell the word, all while a gangster fish named the Codfather eggs them on; "Amphibia" is a pond-like planet where kids guess the mystery word by choosing the correct letters with the help of a bluesy frog--picture a game of Hangman with swampy ambience. On "Anagrama" kids turn scrambled letters into words by dropping placard-bearing bunnies down the correct hole, while planet "Arachnia" hosts a spidery spelling bee in which kids hear a word, then spell it out.Two more games help kids recognise misspelled words and choose the correct spelling. In "Word Attack", players must quickly click on the correctly spelled word from misspellings that hurtle toward them onscreen. Kids can easily ace the activity by clicking frantically until they randomly land on the correct spelling, so don't be too impressed if your child is a high scorer here.
Three levels, customisable word lists and places to peek at scores and misspelled words make this program parent friendly; a two-player function is another nice feature. Our biggest complaint: that this program lacks "the big goal"--the only rewards here are points, a weak "bonus round" and the ubiquitous printable certificate. A final compliment: puns and word play in the script reinforce the potential for fun in words and letters. (Ages 7-11) --Anne Erickson
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
Dorling Kindersley has produced yet another outstanding and completely new interactive learning system-- My First CD-ROM: Getting Ready For School--to help children develop key pre-school skills while providing parents with advice and information on child development. It has been written in consultation with Sue Robson, a renowned early years' teacher, educational consultant and author, who is a senior lecturer at the Roehampton Institute.Meet Zack, a Jack-in-the-box and friendly on-screen guide whose aim is to make learning fun. Hear his clear explanations and animated instructions on how to play the six easy games. Each one can be adapted to suit your child's level of understanding and their fine motor skills. For example, choices can be made between using the mouse or the keyboard, or selecting different speeds or levels of difficulty, choosing between hearing letters as phonetic sounds or as names, and so on. This flexibility enables games to be adapted over and over again as your child's skills develop, so building and developing a child's confidence.
The package is designed for 3-5 year-olds, under parental supervision, or for slightly older children to use on their own. Progress can be monitored and difficulty levels can be adjusted according to age and ability. The games aim to acquaint and help children with the key topics covered in the first year at school, and include number recognition, logic, counting, mathematical language, shapes and sizes, spatial awareness, speaking and listening, letter recognition and letter sounds. Work sheets can be printed out which can extend learning beyond the PC. Buy this package for your youngster, and lay firm foundations with its highly effective approach to parent-assisted learning. --Susan Naylor
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
Dorling Kindersley has produced an excellent series of interactive parent-assisted learning packages designed for young children, of which My First Number is one. The CD-ROM is aimed at children aged 3-5 years and is especially useful for pre-school children or those needing more practice in early learning number skills.The package has been specifically designed to give youngsters an introduction to counting and sorting, and to help them gain confidence in using a computer. The games have been developed to allow children to play them on their own, but help may be needed initially, until youngsters get used the format. Make the sessions happy and relaxed, helping your child to learn with lots of fun. When playing alone, the fun will continue as they make decisions for themselves, and so their learning carries on without them even knowing. Game speeds and levels of difficulty can be altered, progress can be tracked and measured and help is automatically adjusted according to a child's responses.
There are five easy games to play and they have been designed to be played in order. Meet Little Penguin and White Bear, appealing and humorous characters who use lots of songs, rhymes and animations to give practice in counting, number recognition, colour, and recognition of 2-D shapes, ordering numbers to create correct counting sequences, and practice in developing problem-solving skills.
The CD-ROM is easy to install (instructions are on the disc, and there are comprehensive support notes for parents with full explanations about the games and activities that are accessed from the parent icon on the tool bar). This is a valuable introduction to key mathematical concepts capitalising on the natural eagerness young children have to learn. --Susan Naylor
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
Starting to Read is another excellent package in the "My First" series of CD-ROMs (and books) from the ever-popular publisher Dorling Kindersley--just the thing if you're looking to support your child's education at home.Meet White Bear and Little Penguin as they invite readers to take part in four easy-to-play, interactive games: "Rhyme Time", "Odd One Out", "Alphabet Scramble" and "Master Lunch", all of which use catchy songs and rhymes, clear and simple instructions, and appealing animations. Rewards are earned in the form of stickers and celebratory songs, and speed and difficulty can be adjusted.
On-screen help will adjust automatically, also according to the responses given by the user. All these situations have been designed to help children develop key reading concepts: letter sounds and phonics, upper and lower case letters, alphabetical order, rhyming words and spelling patterns. The package will also help extend and develop their vocabulary and vocabulary skills. Listening skills and PC skills, both so important in the information world, can also be practiced and broadened. The package is not accompanied by an instruction pamphlet, but simple instructions for installation are displayed on the CD-ROM itself and excellent, extensive support notes for parents on every aspect of the package can be accessed via the "Parents" icon on the tool bar. It is also possible to print out various items, such as name tags, invitations, birthday cards and writing paper.
My First Starting to Read provides learning experiences as games and activities that are exciting, lively, imaginative and fun, and will extend knowledge, confidence and skill, often without children realising. The package is aimed at 3-5 year olds who are starting to read, but it can also be used with older children requiring extra practice. --Susan Naylor
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
The superb, interactive My First Dictionary from Dorling Kindersley has been purposely designed so that very young children can use it to learn along with their parents, or alternatively, older children can use it alone. The age range therefore is quite broad, but it is aimed primarily at 3-7 year olds. Older children can use it to great benefit to practice specific areas which may need extra work.It's been proven that a child's learning becomes fun when it is presented in an entertaining, instructive and structured way (so they often learn without them even realising). My First Dictionary CD-ROM follow these rules. The easy-to-use games and activities, with more than 1,000 word definitions, are accompanied and supported by brightly coloured and appealing animations and narrations that will engage and interest children who are just learning to read, as well as those who have more advanced reading skills. Using this CD-ROM will help your child to learn the meaning of words, to practice spelling, to develop an awareness of relationships between words, to build vocabulary, to learn and extend PC skills (particularly mouse control), to acquire knowledge and practice alphabetical order, to recognise phonetic sounds, and to gain good, solid foundations in reading and spelling.
There are four easy-to-use word and sound games: "Spell It", "Alphabet Scramble", "Guess What?" and "What's That Noise?", all accessible via the menu. Particularly entertaining is the "Surprise Me!" game, accessible via the tool bar. In addition, dictionaries can be personalised, entries can be copied and printed, stars can be earned as rewards, stickers can be collected, and the spelling activities have three levels of difficulty. The package is not accompanied by an instruction pamphlet, but simple instructions for installation are displayed on the CD-ROM itself and excellent help for parents on every aspect of the package can be accessed via the tool bar. Explanations and animations can be switched off for older children. --Susan Naylor
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
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. The child profile shows parents how many times children have played each game and at what level and also suggests follow-on worksheets that can be printed out and used with children.
Bear and Penguin's Big Reading Adventure would be an excellent buy for parents or teachers to use with children aged 5-7 years. --Amanda York
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Avanquest Software
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Avanquest Software
