My First CD-ROM, Preschool
DK Interactive Learning	Ages 3 to 5

Rating Scale 5 = great,    1 = poor

Educational Value 4.0

Kid Appeal 3.0

Ease of Use 5.0

System Requirements

PC / Mac Price Survey

Product Support

This simple, preschool program features six activities that introduce basic school skills to young learners. Kids are joined by friendly jack-in-the-box host, Zack, who presents the activities and encourages kids to participate. He also acquaints users with Twinkle, a friendly star who performs a brief dance of sorts when its five points are lit by five correctly completed activity trials.

Educational Value

My First CD-ROM, Preschool not only offers preschoolers activities to drill their developing skills, it also provides clear explanations and simple instruction in each of the covered areas. Concepts addressed in the program include letter recognition, letter sounds and letter formation, patterns, number recognition and counting, spatial awareness, and beginning computer skills.

An included parents section provides insight into the learning experiences taking place in each activity, and encourages parents to enjoy the program with their children. Additional, away-from-the-computer worksheets are also available in this section.

Kid Appeal

This program is the "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" of CD-ROM titles. Unlike many currently popular titles that feature fast-paced animation and detailed graphics, this title is slow and methodical in its presentation. Graphics and animation are attractive, but simple, as are the included characters.

In the course of our testing, we found that those preschoolers who are used to high energy, action-packed television shows and software programs quickly lost interest in this program. This dilemma was moderately mitigated, however, when users were joined by their parents or caregivers.

Ease of Use / Install

My First CD-ROM, Preschool installs without difficulty. The program is extremely easy to use and offers excellent explanations and demonstrations for each activity.

Best for... / Bottom-Line

This preschool program provides basic early-learning drills in an easy-to-use format. Because of its somewhat tedious presentation, however, it is not recommended for children who are easily distractible or have short attention spans.

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

PC: Windows 95/98, Pentium 75 MHz or faster cpu, 10 MB hard drive space, 12 MB RAM for Windows 95, 16 MB RAM for Windows 98, 640x480 pixels, 256 color display, Quad-speed (4X) or faster CD-ROM, 8-bit sound card.

Mac: System 7.5.3 or higher, Power PC 100 MHz or faster cpu, 10 MB hard drive space, 16 MB RAM, 640x480 pixels, 256 color display, Quad-speed (4X) or faster CD-ROM, 8 bit audio.

Reviewed on:

PowerMac 6400/200 with 32MB and 8XCD

Pentium266 with 64MB and 12XCD

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