Reader Rabbit's Kindergarten

Reader Rabbit has been around almost since the advent of educational software. The Reader Rabbit programs have grown and developed with the ever increasing technological advance and remain best-sellers every year. The Learning Company has recently released a series of grade specific packages (who hasn't these days?) and one of the newest is Reader Rabbit's Kindergarten.

Your three to six year old will join Matilda Mouse and her "Wonder Horse" as they save the day at Camp Happy Tales. Matilda gets a call from Charlie the camp counselor with big troubles. A nasty porcupine named Spike has stolen all of the camp items needed for a campfire party to be held that night. Your child must help Mattie find all of the missing items. This is accomplished by playing each of the games included and winning the games a specified number of times. As each game progresses, Mattie will be given items which will be colored in on her "list." The atmosphere is rather low key and children who are in Kindergarten will not find this program too difficult. As a matter of fact, some will find it a bit too easy....especially the beginning levels. The program moves your child through each level automatically. There is no easy way to override the levels as a parent like there are in other Reader Rabbit programs. As a result, some children may feel the program is too easy at first. . The upper level skills are appropriate for six year olds, but many will not want to plod through the 'easy parts' first. No reading is required in this program, but your child will have subtle exposure to words throughout. This program will not teach your child to read. For that you will need to move on to other Reader Rabbit products.

Four main areas need to be visited at the camp. "Diner Lineup" is an activity which teaches sequential order, size comparison and other skills. Mattie needs to help the chef organize his kitchen as food orders arrive. Items must be placed in longest to shortest order, largest to smallest order and more. In another area of the camp your child will help Mattie uncover canoes for a canoe race. The canoes have been covered with tarps which much be removed. This is a concentration game which involves colors, numbers, items in nature etc. which must be matched. In the Number Lumber game, your kindergartner will help a Camp Happy Tales worker to cross a river in order to plant trees. Your child will choose how many rocks should be hopped across with each turn trying to find the shortest route across the river. The Get Your Bearings activity might be the most educational and helpful activity for children this age. Here Mattie and your child help a young bear cub wake his hibernating father by finding his hidden alarm clock. In order to find the clock in a wall maze, your child will be practicing instructions such as above, below, left, right and more. The concept of left and right is often a difficult one for children this age to master, especially when associated with an outside object and not their own body.

Several smaller activities are hidden throughout the program. One concentrates on telling time. Your child will decide what time of day camp activities occur. The emphasis is on general time telling. A similar activity allows your child to decorate various seasonal pictures with stamps correlating with each season of the year. There is also a simple 'coloring' activity where your child can color pictures related to camp activities.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with this program, it is also not earth-shattering. Most kids in this age range will enjoy "Reader Rabbit's Kindergarten." If your children are on the upper age range of this program they may find much of it too "babyish." They will have to work through the easy portions to find something more challenging. The music and graphics are well put together. They are interesting without wasting time or space on fancy 3D graphics which never seem to work quite right anyhow. This program would be good preparation for kindergarten, or good remediation and supplementation. Do not purchase this program as a "I want all kindergarten skills covered" program.

Grading:

Educational value- 2 1/2
Entertainment value- 3
Use of medium- 3
Age- 4-6

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