A brilliant and fun package! April 21, 2001
119 out of 120 found this review helpful
As a primary teacher and a parent, I felt I had to write a review for this package.
As with all Dorling Kindersley products it is exceptionally well presented. The sound effects and animations on the program help to make the learning process fun and help maintain the user's interest.
Pupils find the software easy to access and are able to navigate around the programme successfully with little teacher/parental guidance. Only limited IT skills are required.
The software makes use of a number of important literacy and numeracy skills and is aimed at children aged 5 - 7(Key Stage 1) although parts of the software can easily be used in the top year of Early Years (Reception). The material is grouped into eight categories, as laid out in the opening screen: Counting Calculating Reading Spelling Thinking Memorising Matching Creating
The choice of categories is well thought out and highly appropriate to the children in the age group for which the software has been written.
Each category branches out into 3 different activities. The content and difficulty of the questions depends upon the level which is selected.
At any stage of the programme, the user may pass onto the next window or return to the previous window by using the bicycles, cars or aeroplanes in the bottom right and left hand corners of the screen.
The software stimulates counting and simple calculations, reading and writing, memory recognition, logical and lateral thinking and creativity. From experience, some of the reading and spelling activities are quite advanced - but I use this package very successfully with children in Reception and Key Stage 1. Younger children are able to access the number, logic and creativity topics on the CD at an earlier stage in their development than the literacy categories.
The main disadvantages of the software are the inability for the teacher/parent to view the success rate of a child when using the program because correct answers are not recorded. Teachers/parents are also unable to view the categories which a child has visited in a session.
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