Blue's
Clues - Blue's Art Time Activities
Rating: 3.2
Publisher: Humongous Entertainment
Web site: www.humongous.com
Phone: 800-499-8386
Copyright: 2000
Price: $24.99
Platform: Win, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Age range: 3-6
Grade Level: P, K CSR Review: In this new Blue's Clues title, children are asked to help Steve and the gang prepare for the Really Big Art Show. Unfortunately, what should be a fun set of activities turns into a confusing and
frustrating experience, at least for some testers. The program's big pitfall is that if you don't help the characters in a specific sequence, you can't get to the Show. Tell that to a preschooler. If children understand this simple rule (which is never explicitly communicated) and listen carefully to the characters as they are introduced, the program won't seem so bad. Kids help Periwinkle make animated pictures for her stories, create murals with Chalk Girl and build dioramas with Al
Luminum. After each task is completed correctly, a check mark is placed on the job list, moving the action one step closer to the Really Big Art Show, where the work is framed and displayed, and ribbons
are awarded. Strengths of the program include the beloved Blue's Clues characters and graphics. Testers also enjoyed printing the instructions for making the dioramas out of regular household objects. On the downside, the characters talk way too much, giving endless praise and prompts. Additionally, the software rates low on child control with limited work saving capabilities and few opportunities for creative freedom. This one's for Blue's Clues fanatics only.
Go to Humongous Entertainment, 2000, www.humongous.com
Click on Blue's paw.
Jump
Start ArtistRating: 4.3
Publisher: Knowledge Adventure
Web site: www.knowledgeadventure.com
Phone: 800-542-4240
Copyright: 2000
Price: $20.00
Platform: Win, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Age range: 5-8
Grade Level: K, 1, 2, 3
CSR Review: Here's an affordable, personal art tutor for kids. The five activities offer a variety of games that playfully present concepts like form, texture, and shape. Kids also get a nice a dose of classic art. The end result is a strong art experience‹ certainly better than Blue's Art Time Activities (3.2 stars). The program is not without faults, however, including some non-intuitive menus and some annoyingly chatty characters. Here's the scoop. Kids find the activities in an art fair scene. Our testers' favorite was Frankie's Paint-Along Songs, where children's artwork comes to life in a brief movie; similar to the older Orly's Draw-a-Story. In a concentration game, correct matches of art elements like form and lighting are rewarded with "great works" from artists like Matisse. There's also an arcade game where children collect materials, folk art and antiquities, and an invention game that lets them make creations out of a variety of lines and shapes. As kids complete an activity, they earn pieces of carnival rides for the fair's midway, an enticing incentive to play. Parents will also find 52 additional art activities in the onscreen guide, with ideas for putting on a puppet show, making Potato Prints, and so on. The main art area provides tools like paint, chalk, needlepoint patterns, tissue paper, and more. While the number of options here are strong, the menus are confusing to use, especially for younger children. The bottom line it that you're getting a lot of good content in a likable package, and kids will learn a great deal if they play all the way through.
Go to Knowledge Adventure, Click on Catalog and then Jump Start, Subjects, Jump Start Artist http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/home/
Disney's Magic Artist Studio Rating: 4.5
Publisher: Disney Interactive
Phone: 800-900-9234
Copyright: 1999
Price: $29.99
Platform: Win 95, 98; Mac OS
(CD-ROM)
Age range: 4-up
Grade Level: P, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, S, Jr, Sr.
CSR Review: Loads of fun, this sequel to the 1996 program lets children paint with a variety of creative new tools, including textured and moving paint, an electric toothbrush, chalk, markers and more. One cool new tool, the Image Launcher, tosses things like kitchen sinks and water bombs at the canvas. Other features include animated stickers and a step-by-step tutorial on animation. Artwork can be saved and viewed as a sketchbook or as a musical slideshow. It still takes a while to figure out how all the functions work, but overall, this version is easier to use than the first.
Go to Disney Interactive, disney.go.com/DisneyInteractive/learning/index.html Click on Search - Multimedia - CD-ROM; type in Magic Artist Studio
With Open EyesRating: 4.0
Publisher: Learn Technologies Interactive (Voyager)
Web site: www.learntech.com
Phone: 212-334-2225
Copyright: 1995
Price: $39.95
Platform: Win 95, 98; Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Age range: 3-up
Grade Level: P, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, S, Jr, Sr.
CSR Review: Formerly distributed by Forest Technologies, this product is now sold by Learn Technologies/Voyager. The text of the original review follows. Kids go to the Art Institute of Chicago without leaving their seats. They can freely explore 200 objects of art up close and can listen to descriptions of each piece. The zoom features, the different views of the 3D art and a virtual gallery that helps children understand the actual sizes help kids appreciate the works of art. For a historical viewpoint, a timeline and globe are available.
Go to Art Institute of
Chicago with Voyager, 1995, www.artic.edu/aic/books/cdbooks.html
Call 312-563-5150
Kid
Pix Studio DeluxeRating: 4.4
Publisher: Brøderbund (The Learning Company)
Web site: www.learningco.com/
Phone: 800-716-8506
Copyright: 1998
Price: $39.99
Platform: Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Age range: 3-12
Grade Level: P, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
CSR Review: Note: please see Kid Pix Studio 3rd Edition. The following review is for version 1.0. For a rock-solid children's drawing and painting program, you can't go wrong with this classic. Be forewarned, however, although this is an upgrade of the original product, there aren't many new features besides text-to-speech capabilities and some new clip art and music. When it was first released back in 1991, Kid Pix's design power turned heads. Unfortunately the original drawing program is essentially the same.
This version of Kid Pix is a bit like a trusty Model-T when compared to new programs like Flying Colors 2.0 and Disney's Magic Artist Studio which have many more tools and options. The opening menu offers five activities. Most children go directly to the drawing portion of the program to start creating. The other four areas let kids make moving pictures, watch cartoons, make a puppet dance by pressing keys on the keyboard and learn about animation. Kid Pix handily loads onto your hard disk, so no CD is required. You'll find a nice range of paint tools, a vast array of tiny stamps and the ability to erase your picture with a stick of dynamite. You can easily create professional-looking slide shows out of an entire classroom of children's work great for back-to-school nights. We appreciated the program's ability to switch between Spanish and English. The new text-to-speech feature reads back children's writing and pictures can be imported or exported in BMP (PICT for the Mac), JPG or GIF formats. Kid Pix earns every bit of its 4.4 star rating, but we'd love to see some new design features and a smoother interface.
Go to The Learning Company 1998, $19.95
Orly's
Draw-A StoryRating: 4.8
Publisher: Brøderbund (The Learning Company)
Web site: www.learningcompanyschool.com/
Phone: 800-825-4420
Copyright: 1996
Price: $29.00
Platform: Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Age range: 5-10
Grade Level: P, K, 1, 2, 3, 4
CSR Review: The kids can't get enough of this truly innovative program that provides multiple opportunities for creative expression. With the island of Jamaica as a backdrop, children are first introduced to Orly, a little girl with a penchant for story-telling. As she tells her tales, she invites kids to create characters, vehicles and buildings at a well-stocked pop-up art center. For instance, she'll be telling a story and she'll stop and say "Hey! We need a submarine for this story. Can you make
one?" Kids then create a submarine, either independently or by using templates. They decorate and paint their vehicle and when the story resumes, there is their submarine, cruising across the screen! Fantastic! Even more fun is when Orly asks for a creature or character to be created. She provides its animated eyes and mouth and kids do the rest. When the story resumes, the child's new character can talk and make facial expressions. And when kids want to make their own stories, there's a writing center that allows them to write their own text, choose music and sound effects, and of course, illustrate their work. Testers and reviewers alike didn't want to stop playing with this one. Children loved seeing their creations and characters come to life and play important roles in the stories. Work can be saved, printed, or seen in its entirety at a "junkyard" theater, and the manual contains lots of ideas for away-from-the-computer activities. Criticisms are few sometimes it's a bit hard to understand Orly as she speaks with an accent‹ but this is also what makes her so endearing. Her stories are engaging and emphasize "morals" like the importance of friendship. This terrific program is both educational and entertaining, and breaks new ground in children's software. This title was the winner of the International Bologna New Media Prize in 1997.
Go to Broderbund, 1996, part of The Learning Company Call: 1-800-358-9144 $19.85
Story
Book Weaver DeluxeRating: 4.5
Publisher: MECC (The Learning Company)
Web site: www.learningcompanyschool.com/
Phone: 800-825-4420
Copyright: 1996
Price: $49.95
Platform: Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Age range: 6-12
Grade Level: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
CSR Review: This pleasant creativity program
combines a child-friendly word processor with an extensive library of clip-art and sounds. Work can be saved or printed and this deluxe version offers a text to speech feature that lets children hear their writing read aloud by the computer. An exceptionally nice feature is the dual language option that allows kids to write stories in either English or Spanish. The menus, thesaurus, spell-checker and text to speech capabilities function in both languages. Graphics can be imported and children can record themselves reading their stories or sound effects.
Go to The Learning Company, 1998, part of Mattel Interactive, 1-800-825-4420, $69.95
The
World's Greatest MuseumRating: 4.3
Publisher: Grolier Interactive
Web site: http://gi.grolier.com
Phone: 800-217-1495
Copyright: 1998
Price: $39.95
Platform: Win, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Age range: 9-up
Grade Level: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, S, Jr, Sr.
CSR Review: A terrific selection of 150 works of art are showcased in this program, including paintings, sculptures and artifacts from all time periods. An index organized by date, theme, country, artist and artworks makes it easy to explore each genre of art. The background music is pleasant for browsing, and the narration serves up interesting tidbits of information about each piece of art. Fascinating details of cave paintings, for instance, are highlighted and discussed, helping to develop children's understanding of the art of prehistoric times. The CD nicely presents an overview of art history and would be useful in home or school settings.
Go to Grolier, 1-800-371-3908
Create
and Draw in Elmo's WorldRating: 4.1
Publisher: The Learning Company
Copyright: 1999
Price: $29.99
Platform: Win 95, 98 (CD-ROM)
Age range: 3-7
Grade Level: P, K, 1
CSR Review: In this unusual drawing program, kids help Elmo draw animals and objects for scenes like the zoo, the beach or the backyard. First, children are presented with an outline to color using a set of paints or patterns. Next, it's off to one of the scenes in Elmo's World. Here, children see their drawing efforts in action. If they colored the outline of a butterfly, for instance, kids find their butterfly in the zoo scene, flapping its wings. Children move from scene to scene in a train that they create in the drawing area. There's a piano that plays tunes and a TV screen that shows animal video clips, with both areas incorporating children's drawings into the action. The transitions between screens were unusually slow on an IBM Aptiva, but the software ran fine on a Compaq Presario and a Packard-Bell. The program has two weaknesses. First, aside from seeing their animated drawings in scenes, watching short video clips and listening to a few songs, there's not much else for kids to do. There's also no way for kids to print out their work. On the whole, though, testers enjoyed the program once they got the hang of it and loved seeing the animated versions of their drawings. Elmo is as appealing as ever, and the video clips and graphics are very well done.
Check at your local office or computer software retailer, 1999, $29.99
Creative
Writer 2 Rating: 4.8
Publisher: Microsoft Corp.
Web site: www.microsoft.com/kids/creativewriter/
Phone: 800-426-9400
Copyright: 1996
Price: $34.95
Platform: Win 95 (CD-ROM) (16 MB recommended)
Age range: 8-up
Grade Level: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, S, Jr, Sr.
CSR Review: If you're looking for a word-processing/printing program for your upper elementary or high school age child, look no further. Microsoft completely revised the interface of this second version of Creative Writer, lost the goofy guide, McZee and added some features. They have come up with the best kids' writing program to date. From a very simple and clear menu, children can select what they want to do. They can choose from A Blank Page, Greeting Cards, Project Ideas, Banners, Writing Ideas, or Web Pages. From each of these areas, kids can easily access powerful but easy-to-use features that are pretty much the same for each type of project. They can adjust the size, style, look and color of their writing with writing
tools. The layout of pages is easily adjusted, and picture tools let writers wrap words with shapes, add background textures, borders and clip art, or draw a picture for their story. In addition to a sufficient but not overwhelming selection of banners and cards, kids will also find great ideas and pre-made templates for newsletters, certificates, award ribbons, business cards, flyers and letterhead. Kids can try out writing challenges such as adding lines to a pre-made poem, or work on writing puzzles. They can also get ideas for journals, reports, scripts
and song writing. Tools for creating web sites are available with which kids can learn how to make web pages, use links and add HTML tags. The general operation of the program is unusually smooth and uncomplicated, and the features seem endless. In short, this CD offers all that a young writer will need.
Go to Microsoft www.microsoft.com/kids/ 1999
The
Louver Museum for KidsRating: 3.9
Publisher: Learn Technologies Interactive
(Voyager)
Web site: www.learntech.com
Phone: 212-334-2225
Copyright: 1996
Price: $29.95
Platform: Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Age range: 5-up
Grade Level: K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, S, Jr, Sr.
CSR Review: This is the first program we've seen that effectively introduces works of art in a friendly, child-oriented way. Featured are 150 of the Louvre Museum's interesting paintings and sculptures. From the main menu (pictured), you can read a seven page, narrated book about The Louvre, watch a three minute video of the museum, or access each of the works by scrolling through them, one at a time. For each work of art you can also select a magnifying glass for a closeup look (some of these even let you view the art from different angles). You can take a picture and save it in a photo album, and look in a book to read text that is related. You can also access an linked index, hear a short narrative, see what country the piece comes from, learn about the time period in which it was created, and see how big the piece is, in relation to a person. Children can also access short activities for each piece of art, including connect-the-dots, jigsaw puzzles, finding missing sections, locating small images, and identifying how a piece has been altered. The short activities were somewhat repetitive and superficial. Levels of challenge, and richer activities would have made the experience stronger. In general, however, the program's content and design are great for kids, and we would recommend it as a nice way to introduce children to works of art. Parents and teachers should be aware that the art work was not screened for nudity. Consequently, the magnifying feature makes it easy for kids to get some close-up views of nude sculptures and paintings. Note: this program is available in French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and English.
Go to Grolier, 1-800-371-3908
HyperstudioRating: 4.8
Publisher: Knowledge Adventure
Web site: www.knowledgeadventure.com
Phone: 800-542-4240
Copyright: 2000
Price: $199.95
Platform: Win, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Age range: 8-up
Grade Level: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, S, Jr, Sr.
CSR Review: This is a powerful creativity tool that makes it possible for children or adults to create their own multimedia presentations. It is especially useful for combining a variety of sounds, pictures, web sites or animations for the creation of computer-delivered reports, papers, projects and so on. The program is easy to install and starts with a blank white screen. Using pull down menus, you can freely draw pictures, enter text, or program buttons that cause actions. Pictures and other visual objects can be easily programmed with behaviors. For example, you can make items move, make sounds, morph into other things, or jump to a web site. Weaknesses are few, but should be noted. Some of the menus and navigation are clunky, and there is just one level of "undo." We would have liked more shortcut keys and better display options for larger monitors. New to this version is the ability to export files for viewing with Navigator or Explorer, provided you download and install a special plugin available from www.hyperstudio.com/resource/hsplugin/plugin.html. The support materials are excellent and include large libraries of graphics, 170 backgrounds, 290 sound clips, 195 animations and 30 movies.
