Fisher-Price Great Adventures - Wild Western Town from Davidson, Fairy Tale: A True Story Activity Center and JumpStart Spanish from Knowledge Adventure
Fisher-Price Great Adventures - Wild Western Town from Davidson & Associates
Howdy partners! Are you ready for some rootin' tootin' educational adventuring? If so, then listen up while I tell you a story about Bandit Bob and his getaway with some gold bars from the town bank. If you're up to it, you can help Sheriff Sassafras and Deputy P.D. recover the 9 gold bars and put that crafty Bandit Bob in jail. This is a wild wild west educational adventure with lots of fun and learning for kids ages 3 to 7.
After signing your name to the Official Deputy Enrollment Book, you'll begin exploring the activities and your search for the gold, starting at the Options Screen. The activities include Wacky Wanted Poster, Deputy Designer, Emma's Dilemma, The Barrel Boot, Wild West Sing-Alongs, Town Cannon and Guess Guess. Make up and print your wanted posters and badges, help Miss Emma Jean find items customers have ordered, shoot a barrel around town, sing with the gang in Pepe's Piano Room, load and shoot a real live cartoon cannon, and finally, help the hotel desk clerk match items for laughs and learning.
This software will keep your kids couched at the computer for hours offering great graphics and sound effects, lots of music and laughs plus a learning environment in an adventure game format. You may even catch yourself trying some of the activities after watching the kids have their fun. I've been known to spend time shooting chickens out of the Town Cannon. Sarah, my 6-year-old, says her favorite activities are Emma's Dilemma, Wacky Wanted Posters and badge building.
Fisher-Price Great Adventures - Wild Western Town is available for $29.95. It will run on any 486/66 MHz or faster IBM compatible multimedia computer (Windows 3.1 or Windows 95) with 8 megabytes of RAM and Apple Macintosh with a 68040 processor or faster, multimedia computer with 4 megabytes of RAM. Both computers require double-speed CD-ROM drives.
For more information call Davidson & Associates at 1-800-545-7677.
Fairy Tale: A True Story Activity Center from Knowledge Adventure
Do you believe in Fairies? You may have been convinced after seeing the movie Fairy Tale: A True Story by Paramount Pictures. It is an enchanting story about two young girls who claim, to the world of the 1920's, to have real photographs of little flying people living in the glen behind their British country home. Two well known people of the time, a great writer, Arthur Conan Doyle (known for his Sherlock Holmes stories) and a great magician, Harry Houdini, investigated these claims that rocked the world.
Whether you saw the movie, believe or not believe in fairies, you can relive this tale with Fairy Tale: A True Story Activity Center from Knowledge Adventure for kids ages 7 to 11. With this interactive CD, you enter into the enchanted world of fairies with all the impact of the movie: scenery, sounds and music, plus much more. You may even start to believe, but read on.
I recently saw the movie with my daughters Sarah and Becky and the software really captures the mood. Your kids can explore inside the house and outside looking for fairy magical mischief. The activities include taking pictures of the fairies in the Beck and then developing the photos in the darkroom, exploring the house for books, puzzles and games and keeping a journal with fairy photos and stories you write. In the attic you'll find the concentration game and a jigsaw puzzle, in Joseph's room you can read the Fairy Fact Book, Joseph's Folio, the Fairy Dictionary, play Find the Word Game and paint your favorite fairy picture. When you and your kids are full of fairy fun, you can sit back and take a break to enjoy some video clips from the movie.
Now, if you were starting to believe in fairies, either from having experienced the movie or by spending some time using the software, well, I have news for you. The two girls who make claims to authenticity of the photos and made Arthur Conan Doyle a true believer in fairies (Houdini was not a believer), confessed years later that it was all a hoax.
Fairy Tale: A True Story Activity Center will enhance your child's creativity and stimulate the imagination. It's available for $29.95 and will run on any Pentium 90 MHz or faster IBM compatible multimedia computer in Windows 95 with 16 megabytes of RAM and Power Macintosh multimedia computer with 16 megabytes of RAM. Both computers require double-speed CD-ROM drives.
For more information, contact Knowledge Adventure at 1-800-542-4240.
JumpStart Spanish from Knowledge Adventure
If you'd like to start your kids on a second language then you should consider JumpStart Spanish from Knowledge Adventure. Kids ages 3 to 6 will be uno dos-ing in no time after spending time at the computer with this CD. And they'll also get introduced to the Spanish culture and music while exploring the Spanish language with the rabbit, Mr. Hopsalot. Experts say it's easy for kids to learn another language when starting early, and I say it's even easier with the help of JumpStart Spanish.
After signing in, you climb a tree and enter into the Clubhouse and the Main Menu. Here, several activities are available to get you into the Spanish mood. Learning begins when you move the mouse pointer over an object. You'll hear the Spanish word with its English meaning and have access to ten activities. They include Sketch Pad for learning numbers from uno to diez (1 to 10), the Palette allows coloring and Wall Poster for learning the names of body parts. There's the Doll House with four rooms for learning the names of household objects and food, at the Closet you'll learn the name of cloths and at Toy Town you'll roam the neighborhood for may other Spanish to English meanings. The Game Box allows reviewing all words presented in other activities, the Calendar is for learning the days of the week and months, the Television is for playing videos and finally The Boom Box is used to hear traditional Spanish folk songs.
With JumpStart Spanish you can't help but learn the language. It offers great graphics, sound effects, video and traditional Spanish music to entertain you on the way. You may think your computer went on vacation to Mexico and returned speaking another language. Okay, it never left home; but with this CD it's like taking your kids on a short trip to a cartoon version of Mexico.
JumpStart Spanish is available for $39.95. It will run on any 486/66 MHz or faster IBM compatible multimedia computer (Windows 3.1 or Windows 95) with 8 megabytes of RAM and Apple Macintosh with a 68040 processor or faster, multimedia computer with 4 megabytes of RAM. Both computers require double-speed CD-ROM drives.
For more information, contact Knowledge Adventure at 1-800-542-4240.
Howard Berenbon
