Caillou Magic Playhouse

by BRIGHTER MINDS

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005Q8N9
• Item model number: 381343
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 11, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,333 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #58 in Software > Children's Software > Interactive Books
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

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In case you're not familiar with Caillou, he's an appealing little four- year-old boy who stars in the animated PBS kids' show of the same name. This CD extends the TV show experience to the computer in a very pleasant way. Children join Caillou on a treasure hunt through his house. As they explore, kids find clickables, seven multilevel games and four printable activities. They'll also see full screen video clips from the television show. Games are acceptable but quite standard, and include block puzzles, tap that tune, matching, and silly stories. Graphics are bright and appealing, and the scavenger-hunt style theme is compelling, but there are too many audio directions.

Product Description

It's a day of fun and games as Caillou's babysitter creates a scavenger hunt in the house! Choose from four exciting themes as you join Caillou, Gilbert, and all his friends as you search room-to-room looking for hidden treasure. Click on the items you find and watch your collection grow!

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun (and stable) software for little Caillou fans, December 5, 2002

By 

audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Caillou Magic Playhouse (CD-ROM)

Mommy and Daddy are ging out for the evening and Julie is babysitting Caillou and Rosie. Your little one will enjoy wandering through the rooms of Caillou's house, finding clickable objects, 6 treasure hunt objects and 8 activities. Before playing, you select a "theme" -- Sports, Music, Sun & Sand or Nature, which only minimally affects game play, such as the drawings found in the Crafts area.

The games, most of which have three difficulty levels, are: (1) Crafts. You can make pictures or puppets, and choose coloring pages or connect-the-dots, and then print them out. (2) Music. Julie taps a tune on a xylophone and your child repeats it. Difficulty levels vary the number of notes (1, 3 or 5). (3) Cloud Shapes. As the three watch clouds float by, click on those that have a distinctive shape. Difficulty levels vary the number of clouds and whether or not the shapes are partially hidden. (4) Matching. Eight dresser drawers are shown. Match pairs by opening the drawers. Difficulty varies from solid color socks to simple versus more complex patterns. (5) Sing and Dance. Your child can choose from among several songs, then place a dancing Caillou image along the bars of music. When you press 'Play', Caillou dances along to the song. (6) Building Blocks. Use given shapes to construct a toy, then identify the object. Difficulty varies how the object is identified -- by clicking on a picture, overlapping letters of the given name or constructing the name from a jumble of letters. (7) Silly Stories. Determine a story by choosing a character, a place and two objects, then click the 'Play' button to have the story read aloud. Words are highlighted as the story is read. (8) Fly By Butterflies. Catch butterflies in a net by clicking on them. Difficulty level determines whether the butterflies are solid or have a simple or more complex pattern.

I like that the game begins with the familiar song and introduction from the television series, that it is very stable and seamlessly incorporates animated and puppet sequences into gameplay. I also like that these scenes can be interrupted with a mouse click. Instruction screens precede each activity and are clear, though too lengthy for little kids to take in. From any screen you can access help or instructions, or easily back out of an activity, and it's easy to change difficulty levels.

Little ones will probably learn mouse and navigation skills more than they will learn math or reading from this game, but it is entertaining for Caillou fans. Because the instructions can be lengthy, it's important that you sit with your child and play through the game at first. This title is very similar to Caillou Birthday Party -- identical format, different activities.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Only for children under 3, May 5, 2003

By 

Gary "Busy Parent" (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Caillou Magic Playhouse (CD-ROM)

Caillou Magic Playhouse is very disappointing. The pictures are cute but the games are not challenging. This item says that it is for a 2-6 year old but all except one of the activities is for a child of 2 or younger. My daughter is 3 checked out all the games and except for a run of the mill advanced reading and math game could do all of the games on their hardest settings the first time. She immediately declared this game boring after the first and only time she played with it. Games like Freddie Fish, Madeline and many others she is still playing with after many months because they have challenges, which grow with the child's ability. For example the matching game in Caillou only goes up to 10 pictures which is 5 pairs. A good game, which is challenging would have more pairs as an option. Don't buy this game.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No Value in this title, February 21, 2002

By 

Anthony J Sheehan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Caillou Magic Playhouse (CD-ROM)

This game was vey disappointing for both me and my 3 year old. There isn't a whole lot of content here. The games are poor and my child is bored with them after only one session. The games reminded me of a macromedia-flash game that you would find on kids' web sites. This one was rushed to the shelves.