PsL Monthly 1993 November

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ED-08: Pre-School --------------- 0076 Pre-School Small Programs Disk --------------- Counting Shapes 1.0 (CSHAPES) Sunbeams and Rainbows $10 teaches very young children to count. It displays random shapes on the screen. The child must press the number key that matches the number of shapes displayed. Each set allows three tries with the third and last try assisting the child. Runaway Natural Software ASP $0 is supposed to be a keyboard training tool for ages three to eight. It must be CPU speed dependent, since on a 386, it could be a bit of a challenge for even a touch typist. It has good graphics and sounds that can be turned off. Sarah 1.0 Noah, Meg $15 is a program for entertaining toddlers. You can select colors and designs which fill the screen in an animated way. Infants as young as three months will become fascinated by the quickly changing bright pictures and will learn to press the keys to change the design. By five months, two fisted banging begins - but can be controlled by parents encouragement. By nine months the baby will have learned that certain function keys play music and have favorite letter keys. Sequence (SEQUENC) is a child's game for pre-readers that requires parents to be present. It mainly deals with figuring the next number in a sequence. Sesame is the theme song from the Sesame Street TV show. ShowKeys (SHOWKY) Natural Software ASP $0 is for children (ages one to four) who like to play on the computer keyboard. The letter of each key pressed will appear on the screen in attractive graphics accompanied by a musical tone. You could even play simple tunes for the kids. StoryDisk 2.0 (STORY) Shepard, Aaron $0 is an electronic storybook, with eight original, entertaining stories for children. Aaron Shepard's work has sold to the prestigious Cricket Magazine, among others. Telltime teaches kids to tell time. Requires BASIC. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #0076 -------------------------------- ------------------ 2846 Pre-School #2 Small Programs Disk ------------------ Draw-it-Up! 1.2 (DRWITUP) Thomas, A. $0 is an simple EGA drawing program geared toward younger children. It uses ASCII characters to draw shapes on the screen. The color palette has 15 different colors to choose from. Pictures can be saved. A mouse is recommended, but cursor keys can be used. On-line help lists all available commands. EGA Word Eater 1.1 (EGAWORD) Aretz, Anthony J. $15 is a game that test a child's ability to tell which words sound alike, such as sit and hit. It is recommended for children who are beginning to read. Not much action, but a fairly good teaching tool. Requires EGA or VGA. Ian's Game (IANGAME) Smith, Mark $10 produces bright colors, shapes, and sounds in response to a toddler's key presses. A color display is required. Katie's Clock 2.1s (KATIE) TZK Publications $10-$20 is a tool to help parents teach their children how to tell time. Color video is required. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #2846 -------------------------------- ------------------ 3875 Pre-School #3 Small Programs Disk ------------------ ABC'S 2.00E (ABCS) Beard, Wayne $5 uses colorful graphics to teach children the alphabet. The child must match upper and lower case letters and letters and objects. The program also displays objects on screen in response to keyboard input. BabyKeys 1.2.1 (BABYKEY) Multi Computing $13 provides interesting shapes and sounds for 6 to 24 month old children. Every time your child hits a key on the keyboard a tone is played along with a variety of graphical images being displayed. A Windows PIF file is provided. Over 800K of disk space is required. Balloons 3.9 (BALLOON) AssistWare ASP $7 is a visual delight for children. It draws a balloon and sounds a tone when any key is hit. Each key is has a different tone. You can play tunes by pressing the appropriate keys. Balloons may be enlarged until they pop into a rainbow as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star plays. Suitable for 18 months and up. DrawSome 3.9 (DRAWSOM) AssistWare ASP $8 is a visual delight for children 18 months and up. It provides the child with experience using the computer. Lines are drawn with a hand as it is moved with the arrow-keys or with the mouse. The program also draws flowers, circles, triangles and squares when certain keys are pressed. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8907.) Kid Sound (KIDSND) Myers, Wes $0-$4 makes a sound when a key is pressed and displays the letter or character in the center of the screen until another key is pressed. Raina Johnson, Stewart $5 makes colorful geometric shapes and sounds as your young computer genius-in-diapers pounds at the keyboard. Requires an EGA/VGA. TatrHead (TATRHED) Axelgraphics $? is a simple Mr. Potato Head game for young children. A mouse is required to drag the blinking eyes and other features onto the faces. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #3875 -------------------------------- ABC Fun Keys 4.3 Krehbiel, Courtney E. $15 #7028/1244 is a children's learning game that teaches letters, numbers and the keyboard. It has on-screen scrolling lyrics for all twenty-seven nursery rhyme songs, functional arrow keys to the opening kid's menu, an option to allow PrtScreen to function, and adjustable timing. The number of songs can be set with a command line parameter that allows you to add your own songs. A CGA compatible or mono-graphics video card is required. Amy's First Primer Computing Specialties $15 #7028/1475 is a set of six different programs for ages four through eight. It will help teach the alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, counting, matching, pattern recognition and problem solving. Color video is required. Beginning Sounds Custom Programs Unlimited $15 #7028/1284 helps pre-school children relate to the beginning sounds of words, which is the first stage of learning to read. The program displays pictures of several different objects on the screen, including a sample picture, and the child is supposed to pick the two that start with the same letter as the sample. There is no scoring or other feedback until you quit the program, so someone will have to help the child evaluate his answers as he goes. The program requires CGA-compatible graphics. The files with an extension of .BAS are the graphics picture files used by the program, so do not try to run them. Just enter BS101 to run the program. Instructions are on-line. Note that the files on the disk with the extension of *.BAS are not BASIC programs, as the extension might well make you think. Instead, they are screens that are loaded by the actual program, which is named BS101.EXE. To run the program, at the DOS prompt type BS101. Animated Alphabet Guthery, Tom IV $8 #7077/2519 [4 disks] teaches the alphabet to pre-schoolers through first grade using animated graphics. When the child matches the correct letter to the displayed picture, they are rewarded with a movie-like animation. The author is an artist with over a dozen years of experience in classical animation. Requires 640k, EGA/VGA and either a 1.44meg drive or a hard disk. Animated Clock Guthery, Tom IV $8 #12129 teaches children to tell time in a variety of ways. The program helps them convert digital time to analog time. Various levels can be selected to provide practice in increments of hours, half-hours, 15 minutes, 5 minutes and one minute. A cuckoo clock feature does not work in this version. Requires 640K, EGA/VGA. Animated Math Guthery, Tom IV $10 #7467/3161 [2 disks] teaches counting, addition and subtraction to pre-schoolers through first grade. It makes good use of animation. Various games can be played after completing ten questions. Requires EGA/VGA, 640K RAM, and a hard drive. Animated Multiplication and Division FLIX Productions $10 #20149 [2 disks] teaches multiplication and division to children from first through third grades. It is based on the multiplication table from 1 to 10. Progressive help is provided as needed. It makes good use of animation. Several build-and-color-your-own animated games can be played after completing ten questions. Requires EGA/VGA, 640K RAM, and a hard drive. 123-Talk for Sound Boards 1.2 DareWare $25 #12066 uses digitized speech and colorful graphics to teach children number-related activities. It covers simple addition and subtraction, counting, phone numbers, and more. Requires 512K, hard drive, and a sound board capable of reproducing .VOC files. (The PC-speaker version is available below.) 123-Talk Creative Software Sounds Inc. $25 #7658/3810 has a voice that teaches children ages 1-7 how to say numbers, counting, addition, subtraction and more. It also has a 1-2-3 song, alluring graphics and a drawing program that requires a mouse. Requires 512K. ABC-Talk Creative Educational Software, Inc. $25 #7658/3513 is a fabulous talking voice that helps children ages 1-7 learn how to talk, read, learn the alphabet, spell and work with a computer. It also has an ABC song, alluring graphics and a drawing program that requires a mouse. Although it will work with all video cards, you will get higher resolution and more colors if you have EGA/VGA. The speech has a lot more life to it than the speech in most other programs we've tested. Given the severe limitation of the PC's speaker, you're not going to find much better than this. The only weak point was in "Spell the Word", we could not understand any of the words. "On" sounded like "ORAN", for example. Even excluding that section, there is a lot going for this program. Requires 512K. Computer Voice Tutor Forben Software Engineering $25-$30 #7658/2266 is a talking alphabet tutor for preschool children. It uses digitized voices for fairly intelligible speech. Polyphonic music enhances the program. CGA or better required. Animated Shapes Guthery, Tom IV $8 #7659/2798 teaches shape and color identification to young children. Each correctly identified shape combines with other shapes to create pictures. When completed, the picture is amusingly animated. Very nicely done EGA/VGA graphics. Requires 640K and a hard disk. BabyDraw Casey, Kenneth R. Jr. $10 #7659/3628 is a simple drawing program for children. Function keys change the colors, the number pad keys serve as direction keys, and the number keys across the top play sound effects. All other keys cause random drawing and sound effects. This can be used by toddlers for amusement, or for older children who wish to draw pictures of their own. An animated demo is included, as well as some sample pictures. FastStart Nguyen, Hinh Van $15 #7659/3224 uses hand/eye coordination with pictures, repetitive movements and sounds such as music in order to enhance a child's learning ability. For children ages 3 to 10. The program did not display the main menu on one machine during testing, but worked fine on others. We have no idea why. The wide variety of graphics and learning options, along with the sounds and music, will make this a popular program with young children. CGA compatible video required. Fun with Letters and Words Westcott $19 #7659/1736 is an outstanding educational program for pre-schoolers (2 thru 6). Features include numeral recognition, counting, grouping, adding, and subtracting, all with animation, colorful graphics, and large block numbers. It allows you to have words in any language, and you can use two different languages at one time. You can also create theme files to add additional words. There are many entries for personal words, and mouse support is provided. Your kids are going to love this! Numbers Myers, Larry $5-$25 #7660/3008 is a graphic number program to teach pre-schoolers the numbers 1 through 9. Each number is displayed with a simple animation the child can control. Parents can modify and create other scenarios. Requires 512K, VGA. Teach-A-Tot, Buckets & Funnels and Math School #7660/084 are educational programs for children. Word Gallery Swope, David C. $24 #7660/2268 [2 disks] is an educational program for children that will help them associate the printed word with the object it describes. The program consists of four separate levels. It provides a set of colorful word-object flashcards. Children, aged 4 to 7, will enjoy watching the screen filled with color as they match the words with their pictures. EGA/VGA is best, but CGA is supported. A mouse is optional. Also included are five separate games which will appeal to an older child. Support is provided for several foreign languages including German, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Italian. Wunder Book Le, Hung P. $15 #7660/3166 is a set of five educational games for children 3 to 10 years old. Explore objects, numbers, alphabets, words, shapes, and four different languages including English, Spanish, French, and German, using graphics. It features colorful pictures, mouse support, music, and scores. Requires EGA/VGA. Talking ABC's Crowther, Karen $23 #7737/4242 [2 disks] uses speech and graphics to teach the alphabet. Three approaches are used. The first requires the child to press the key which was pronounced by the program and which is displayed on the screen. The second allows the child to press any keys, which results in the letter being pronounced and an associated graphical image displayed. The third displays images and requires the child to find the one whose name beings with the letter pronounced. Requires a hard disk, 512k RAM. Talking Teacher for SoundBoards 1.3 Creative Educational Software ASP $29 #20061 [4 disks] allows you to use your own voice to teach children how to talk, read, write, spell, and use the computer. Children can be tested on weekly spelling words which can be changed to match a child's school assignments. Requires 512K, hard drive, EGA/VGA, and Sound Blaster or compatible sound card. Brandon's Big Lunchbox 1.7 Robichaux, Joey ASP $25 #3363 is a set of children's educational games. Programs include Brandon's Lunchbox - a series of games for 3 to 7 year olds; BoatBox - a set of reading drills; FlashBox - reading and memory drills; USABox - and introduction to the states and geography; and Superbox Menu. Children's Graphics Program 4.0 Motes, Dr. Andrew ASP $10 #4550 is a graphics program for children. Features include lines, boxes, circles, boxes, arcs, and "macros". Drawings can be colored in and animated. The drawing features are not so easy that a young child will be able to use it without training. The animation definitely would require adult help for a young child. EGA and a mouse are required. John's Animated Computer Game Guthery, Tom IV $0 #12185 helps young children develop an acquaintance with the computer. There are 20 different animated sequences and sound effects that result at the touch of a key. Requires 640K and EGA/VGA. Learning Letters Sunbeams and Rainbows $15 #4170 teaches small children upper- and lowercase letters. Supports CGA, EGA, and VGA. Preschool Pack 1.0 PractiComp $100-$15 #7872/4664 [2 disks] uses graphics, songs, and speech to teach preschoolers counting, number recognition, the alphabet, colors, matching, and classifying. All activities contain music and animation sequences. Activities include Animal Homes, where animals must be placed in their appropriate homes; Balloons, in which the child clicks on a color block matching the color of a rising balloon before it pops; Matching, a memory game with an animated bee rewarding all matches located; Counting, the child counts along with the computer as a variety of colorful images are displayed; and ABC's, in which all letters that match a displayed letter must be found. Speech is used in ABC's to pronounce each letter as it is selected. Requires 640K, 1.5meg of hard drive space, EGA/VGA and a mouse. School-Mom 4.3 Motes Educational Software ASP $29 #2267 (10-93 CD) is a Music Composition, Art, Spelling, English and Math, educational tool for children ages 4 to 14. It contains 3 levels of Music Composition; 5 Art options that support the mouse or joystick; 3 levels of English that teach nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, subject-verb agreement, and sentence structure; 4 levels of Spelling with the capability to enter spelling homework exercises; an Alphabet option that teaches upper and lower case letters; a Math option that includes multiple levels of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, pre-algebra math and a preschool game called Laser Blast. It uses a back-to-the-basics approach to teaching and also has some other interesting aspects that make it very enjoyable. Sounds Like A... 1.0 PractiComp $10 #7873/4665 [2 disks] contains two entertaining games for children from 1.5 to 7 years of age. The program features colorful graphics and a variety sounds. In the first game, the child must identify the picture which matches a sound. As each picture is matched with the sound, parts of a larger underlying picture are revealed. There is also a memory game in which the child must match pairs and its appropriate sound. For example, if the child clicks on a block revealing a picture of a donkey, he must find the block which contains the "Hee Haw" sound in order to make a match. Requires 640K, 900K of hard disk space, EGA/VGA and a mouse. EGA Mouse Paint 4.5 Fischer Grafix & Software ASP $20 #4706 is a painting program for children. Included are 29 pictures to be colored from a selection of 42 colors and patterns. Children can also create their own drawings to color. Requires EGA/VGA and a mouse. Words Alive 2.01 Learn-n-games $14 #12230 (10-93 CD) is an entertaining set of educational games for children. The program uses colorful animated pictures, popular children's tunes, and excellent quality PC-speaker speech to teach spelling, letter and case recognition, and telling time. The games are easily adjusted to various difficulty levels, and you can also control the speech and music. Requires EGA/VGA, and a hard drive is recommended. The voice option requires a 286+, and a mouse is supported but not required. ]]]]]