This is a fabulous, well written, entertaining, educational stroke of genius. We've had it for months and we still haven't seen everything it has to offer. The packaging doesn't have an age range. Kenneth started using it after Christmas, at 16 months or so. At first I sat with him, he'd tell me, "do the big A." and I'd roll the ball and he'd click the button. Now, at 22 months, he operates this entirely independently and he loves it. I have no doubt that he is learning a lot from it because it associates the initial letters with particular sounds in a very fun way. It offers exposure to the idea that written words are associated with spoken words because each word is individually highlighted on the screen as it is spoken aloud. It never gets boring because absolutely everything you can possibly consider clicking on results in a response of some kind, and even some things you wouldn't think to click on elicit a response. This is really an amazing piece of software. I think of it more as a toy than a game because there is no right or wrong answer, there is no particular goal in mind. Yet, it's still providing a wealth of information. It's brilliant. It's the best title we own.

We haven't had Green Eggs and Ham as long as we have had ABC. We started buying up more titles once Kenneth mastered the mouse, and this was an easy choice since we liked ABC so much. I don't think it has quite the educational value as ABC because it doesn't provide the obvious connection between a given letter and a particular sound. However, that is just the nature of the content and not a fault of the software. It follows the tradition of ABC in that there is nothing you can't click on. I especially like the matching game that is built into the story. I think Kenneth has picked up on the idea of memory matching from playing with the software. I've been working with him on playing memory matching with a card game, and he hasn't gotten it figured out yet, but he can easily play it with the computer. I'm sure the concept will click faster because he's got experience with it. One criticism, which again, is really more of a criticism of the original material; The attitude of the cranky guy bothers me a little. Kenneth has said, "I do not like it," more often since he started using this software. That's not the end of the world though. Overall, I recommend this one. He loves it, and it beats watching TV!

I have mixed feelings about this title. It's theoretically a good idea. I'm just not sure it's entertaining enough. After playing with the Dr. Seuss titles, Kenneth wants to click on every object available and with this format there are a lot of items in every screen that look interesting. The object of the game is to search and find particular objects in a complex photograph. A short rhyme is read mentioning several different items and once you click on those, short animation segments play. On the one hand, it's good because it doesn't reward a wrong answer, on the other hand, it's not very open ended and is looking for a right answer or it does nothing. I see Kenneth futily clicking away on objects that aren't responding, so he spends a lot of time with nothing happening. Granted, he may catch on after a few tries. The Dr. Seuss titles, in contrast, operate more like a toy, but still manage to be educational. I think this one will improve some once he gets the idea that there is only one right answer. However, I'm not entirely sure that's a lesson I'm ready for him to learn.

Well, let's just say I'm not overwhelmed. Again, the criticism here is that there is just not enough to click on. There's not enough motion and animation to keep Kenneth interested. Well, that's not exactly true. He is interested, and he wants to keep playing, in fact he'd just about do it all day if I'd let him, but he fusses and gets frustrated while he's playing this title because he keeps clicking on stuff that doesn't do anything. I was pretty happy with the shape sorting activity, but catching the balls in the wagon felt a little stilted. I don't think this is worth it when there are other programs out there that are better.

We bought this one as an experiment to see if Kenneth was ready for it. I ended up uninstalling because all but one of the activities (memory matching) were beyond him. A criticism I have, at least for Kenneth at this stage, is that there is very engaging animation as you transition between activities. Once Kenneth caught on to that, he'd just quit and restart, quit and restart, and move around from one activity to another without doing anything just so he could watch the animation. Not exactly the learning experience I was looking for. I think we'll have to grow into this one. To be fair, the packaging does say ages 3 to 6.