System Requirements

Product Support

Yes, it's yet another multisubject, pre-kindergarten software program, and yes, the market is saturated with programs in this genre. Some are well-conceived, and interesting, while others are "cookie cutter" clones, indistinguishable from the pack. Franklin the Turtle belongs in the first of these categories.

Kids are invited to attend school with Franklin and his friends, characters from the award winning television series. Here they can join in a variety of activities in the schoolhouse, the playground and the theater. Each of the 8 featured activities can be played at 3 difficulty levels.

Educational Value

Franklin the Turtle Goes to School offers activities that focus on strengthening the following early learning skills: letter recognition, letter sounds, alphabetic order, beginning and ending word sounds, beginning reading and spelling, rhyming, counting, addition, subtraction, patterns and sorting by attributes. Additional activities encourage creativity and discovery, and the program's theme nourishes community awareness and good citizenship.

Kids can access a variety of away-from-the-computer activities by double clicking on the 'school bag' icon. A second disc offers four printable activity books.

Kid Appeal

Despite its similarities to other early learning programs, Franklin the Turtle Goes to School succeeds where others sometimes fail. Perhaps this is simply a product of the characters, who fill the screen both physically and with their charm. How can one dislike spending an afternoon with these lovable friends?

And there's more to like about this program. The activities are clever and fun. Users can measure and apply silly costumes to Franklin's stick puppets, play "I Spot" with a trio of mice, sort colorful bugs, and follow along with Franklin, Bear, Beaver and Snail as they read their compositions aloud, and more.

Ease of Use / Install

Franklin the Turtle Goes to School installs without a hitch. Users must also have QuickTime 4.1 installed on their computers, and can install it from the Franklin CD. A skimpy User's Manual is included in the CD case, but is really not needed as program navigation is simple and intuitive.

Best for... / Bottom-Line

This is one of the better early learning programs we've encountered of late. The characters are likable, the activities novel and program installation and navigation is simple enough for a preschooler to handle without assistance. What more can a parent want?

See SuperKids' comparisons with other kindergarten software titles, and the Buyers Guide for current market prices of the PC and Mac versions.

PC: Windows 95/98, 133 MHz MMX Pentium or faster cpu, 50 MB hard drive space, 32 MB RAM, 16-bit color display, 12X or faster CD-ROM, Windows compatible sound card.

Mac: System 8.1 or higher, Power PC (120 MHz or higher), 50 MB hard drive space, 12 MB RAM, color monitor, 4x or faster CD-ROM.

Reviewed on:

Pentium 450 with 128MB and 24xCD

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