Reader Rabbit Preschool Mac
GIVE YOUR CHILD A HEAD START. PLAY & LEARN WITH READER RABBIT! Join Reader Rabbit and Sam the Lion on their sparkly adventure! The land of Sparkalot has lost its shine and needs your help to put the sparkle back into everything, from the stars to the flowers. By playing activities in phonics, counting, matching, and more – you could save the day and the night!
Hop down the road to school success in Reader Rabbit's colorful, stimulating world. Twelve multilevel games and activities cover more than 40 essential preschool skills, including early math, reading, and problem solving. From exploring numbers with Tally the Counting Cat to feasting on alphabet knowledge at the ABC Diner, every activity comes bursting with the charm, wit, and whimsy kids crave. An exciting new Learning Creations approach extends the fun and discovery even more, with creative ac. Cons: Not a big deal but I wish I could get tickets faster Nowadays there is a lot of software out there for small children starting as young as 9 months you can get your baby on the computer. A lot of the software take characters your children might be familiar with from their favorite television show or book and creates games around them.
The one that stands out in my mind as being first and foremost a software program is Reader Rabbit. Reader Rabbit is published by Broderbund Software for The Learning Company. They have been around for years and I remember using the programs with my older son who is now 12. They have a variety of programs for children from babies through second grade. You can get programs that are based on your childs age, or if you want specific help in a certain subject they have software geared specifically towards math or phonics. One of the nicest things about the software is that your child can get familiar with Reader Rabbit, Sam the Lion, Mat the Mouse and the rest of their friends and look forward to growing with them and going on more adventures with them.
Reader Rabbit's Preschool (PC and Mac, CD-ROM) Learning Company - 1997 USA, Canada Release (OEM). Reader rabbit preschool free download - Rabbit Preschool Games, Rabbit Ears: Ruckus Reader, Reader Rabbit Smart & Jump, and many more programs.
Because the folks that make Reader Rabbit have software as their first priority, in my mind their programs are head and shoulders above the rest. The games are more exciting. The programs are more educational. The software has more on them so children want to play with them longer.
I always feel good about buying a Reader Rabbit product. So when I saw Reader Rabbits Personalized Preschool as part of a gift set of 4 pre-school programs, it was a huge selling point for me. The box made its way into my cart and was a great Chanukah gift for my daughter who had just turned 3. What do I need to get the Program going? The software can run on a Windows or Mac machine that meets the following requirements: Windows: 95/98, Pentium level CPU, 16 MB RAM, 15 MB free hard disk space, 2x CD-ROM, 256-color SVGA display, sound card and mouse. Macintosh: PowerPC, 16 MB RAM, 15 MB free hard disk space, 2x CD-ROM, 256-color SVGA display (13' or larger), System 7.1, mouse.
I run the program on Windows XP and havent really had any problems. I did have to set the programs properties to run at 640 x 480 screen resolution and 256 colors, as that is not my computers normal setting. (Just right click on the program icon and select Properties Compatibility, then select what you need to do to get it to run).
The program does have an auto install feature so it installed automatically the first time I inserted the CD. Installation took less than a minute.
After it installed, the program asked me to register, but for some unknown reason it has never let me do so. The program runs fine without registering, so I am not going to worry about it. How do you play the game? The Reader Rabbit Gang visits an old abandoned amusement park and wants to fix it up.
But they need your help! Each of the 5 amusement park rides has a game area to go with it.
If you get 4 tickets from the corresponding game area you have fixed the ride and you are free to ride on it as much as you like! So there are 5 rides making 5 main game areas. Sam the Lion is at each ride to tell you a little bit about how fun the ride is and a funny story about what happened to him when he rode it. You are able to click on almost any item on the page and the object will do a little animation. Each ride area also has 2 games one in which you earn tickets, and another game just for fun. You need to play the game eight times to earn each ticket, so for 4 tickets you need to play each game at 32 times!
The games do get harder as you play them (more on that below under ADAPT Learning System). As you play each game a ticket in the lower left hand corner of the screen monitors your progress. The game areas are: Bumper Cars: To get the bumper cars going you need to earn 8 tickets at the Counting Club. This game teaches numbers as well as basic addition and subtraction.
The Hide and Seek Gallery is also in this area. There are five pictures to choose from in the gallery and after you choose one you need to find where Reader Rabbit is hiding in the picture kind of like a Wheres Waldo. Trust me it is hard to find that bunny! Ferris Wheel: You need to get 4 tickets from the Shape Shack to get the Ferris wheel going. In the Shape shack you are asked to sort objects by shape, color, sound, as well as more advanced groups like farm animals, for instance. The Ferris Wheel is also where you find the game Body Builders where you need to find 6 body parts to create one of the Reader Rabbit characters. Carousel: To get the carousel working again you need to play the game Mouse Match This game is played just like the game memory.
You turn over cards 2 at a time until you find a match. The object of the game is to clear the board of all the cards. Each game has 10 cards in it and starts out with simple shapes (square, circle, triangle, etc ) to matching both a letter and a shape (the letter B and a square would be on one card for example and you need to find a card that has both those things). The other game you would find here is coloring clowns.
These are just pictures of clowns for you to paint using the paint pots on the side of the screen. Tea Cup Ride: You need to get 4 tickets from the Pattern Parade to get this ride working again. This game teaches patterning as you try to line up the characters in order for a parade following a specific pattern. The pattern is not always obvious, and there are more characters than you need so you need to be sure to choose the correct ones. The game crazy costumes is also located in the area.
In this game, random parts of a costume come up and you need to put them on a character to get them into costume everything from a caveman to an astronaut. Moose Coaster This is a Roller coaster shaped like Moose antlers. To get it running again you need to earn 4 tickets from the ABC Diner. At the ABC Diner, the object is to find the food ingredients that begin with a specified letter. At first they do tell you what the letter is, but as you advance they will just say find the food that begins with the letter J for example. So it moves from basic letter recognition to early phonics. In this area you can also play Zany Zoom In where you see a forest scene and you are given a magnifying glass, which allows you to see the forest animals doing all kinds of weird things (like a bird playing a violin).
Is there anything else to do in this game? Well, there is also the boom box. If your kids need a break and want to stretch their legs, you just click on the boom box. Mat the Mouse comes on and sings songs and gets the kids moving. The activities are designed to help their gross motor skills things like balance, coordination and body control. The music is fun and upbeat and really gets the kids moving.
How is this game personalized? As you may have noticed, the title for this game is Personalized Preschool. Reader Rabbit has developed the A.D.A.P.T. Learning Technology to be used in the Reader Rabbit and Clue Finders Software (Clue Finders is for older kids, Reader Rabbit is up through 2nd grade).
ADAPT is an acronym for: Assess Abilities Develop Skills Adjust Levels Provide Help Track Progress What does that mean? It means that your child will always be working on a level they can handle. As your child proves they can handle a lower level, they are automatically moved up to the next one. As the parent you also have the option of setting your child to whatever level you would like them to work. There are 4 levels for each game, and each games level is set independently of the other ones.
When you first start the game, you enter the childs name (you can enter more than one player to keep track of more than one child). You then have the option of doing an assessment test. The assessment test is like a car ride where you are driving down the road and are given a question to answer. When you drive past the correct answer you honk the horn by clicking on it. The assessment was pretty fast paced, and my daughter honked the horn too late a number of times, even when I know she knew the answers. You can skip the assessment. If you do, you child will automatically start each game at Level 1.
If you do the assessment, the game will figure out what level your child is at in each subjects, and start him/her at that level. How do parents track a childs progress? The main screen is set up to be very child friendly. It is sort of an intersection where they can choose a path to go to any of the rides/game areas. Below the intersection is a map, which if your child clicks on it will show them their progress in each of the area (i.e. How many tickets they have for each of the rides). Below that are the Boom Box, a Parent Control Panel, and a Stop Sign (to exit the program).
The Parent Control Panel can really only be accessed by an adult. To open it you need to press Ctrl-P. Just clicking on it will get you a message saying that it is for adults only.
Since most preschoolers, wont understand the concept of Ctrl-P it is pretty secure. The control panel has lots of option. You can see what level your child is working on in all the games, as well as resetting the levels. You can see the percentage of right answers he/she has gotten in each game at each level. You can also set a few other options as well. There is also lots of generic information in there as well. There is a skill chart that lists the 32 skills this game teaches and which games teach each one.
There is information on how the boom box activities benefit your child as well as the games. There is also more information about the A.D.A.P.T. System and its benefits. In general it includes a lot of valuable information.
What do I like about this Program? Well, if I havent been clear enough already I really love this program and everything about it. I like that it is a comprehensive program that really covers an entire typical preschool curriculum including gross motor activities. I like that it adapts to my daughters knowledge and abilities so that she wont get bored as quickly. The other thing that I really like about this program is that there is a LOT to it. My daughters wont have solved the whole game in a few weeks and then never want to play with it again. It is going to take them months to get all the rides up and going, and there is still a lot to do beyond on all that.
So you are getting a lot of bang for the buck with this program. Is there anything I dont like? If I had to find something not to like, I would say that it takes to long to get a ticket.
Reader Rabbit Games Online
You need to play each game 8 times to get one ticket. My daughter (who just turned 3) doesnt really have the attention span to stay at a game that long. I would much rather see them have to get 8 tickets but only have to play the game 4 times to get a ticket. However, I dont consider that to be a major complaint because the game does remember where you are.
Reader Rabbit Reading
If you only played the game 5 times, next time you go back it will have remembered and you only need to play 3 more times to get your ticket. A Warning about Computer Games and Children: I know many people do not like children using computer games. However, I believe that like everything else, with moderation they do have their place. Our children are being raised in the computer age. The younger they are exposed to them the more comfortable they will be around them as they get older.
Would I let me daughter play this game for hours on end? Definitely not. Would I use the game as a babysitter and let her play on the computer alone? Again, definitely not. I sit with her and we play the game together. I also have a time limit of 30 minutes of computer time a day.
The computer is definitely a tool and serves a useful purpose. I teach my daughter in a very multisensory way. So, I teach her the concepts through workbooks, games, crafts, stories and the computer. I would highly recommend that you dont use any software program as your sole method of instruction. When used responsibly a computer is a very valuable asset that makes learning fun. Final recommendation: I highly recommend this software as an educational, but fun program for all preschoolers. Just use it responsibly.