Caillou - Birthday Party

by BRIGHTER MINDS

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005Q8N7
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 21, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,619 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #13 in Software > Children's Software > Interactive Books
  • #85 in Software > Children's Software > Early Learning
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From Children's Software Revue® -- "Subscribe Now!"

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. Caillou is preparing for his birthday party. Children help out by exploring his house, finding party hats and playing eight multilevel games. These teach early learning skills like colors, letters, shapes and counting. The graphics and storyline are engaging, and the creativity activities are nicely integrated. For instance, children can make birthday invitations and greeting cards. In general, this is a nice first-computer-use program. Flaws include some non-necessary text pages and some overlapping sounds, but these are fairly minor problems.
Teaches:
Age Range: Copyright © 2001 Children's Software Revue

Product Description

Join Caillou and all his friends from the award-winning PBS series for a fun-filled celebration! You choose from one of four party themes, and you can even make your own printable party accessories for when your next birthday comes along.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 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 - Birthday Party (CD-ROM)

Caillou's friends will be arriving soon for his birthday party, and your little one will enjoy wandering through the rooms of Caillou's house as he gets ready for the big event, finding clickable objects, 6 party hats and 8 activities. Before playing, you select a "theme" -- Sports, Music, Sun & Sand or Nature, which only minimally affects game play.

The games, most of which have three difficulty levels, are: (1) Sound identification. Caillou shakes a present and you determine what it is by choosing from three objects represented. Difficulty level varies whether you select from a set of pictures, words or pictures with words. (2) Melody Match. Create a free-form song or listen to a progressively longer song then recreate it by clicking on the appropriate characters and pictures. (3) Crafts. Design and print party hats, invitations, cards or placemats. (4) Bubble pop. As Caillou takes a bath, you are asked to pop specific bubbles. Difficulty determines whether the bubbles depict colors, shapes or numbers. (5) Rhyming. Grandpa reads a two-line poem with the last word missing, and you choose from among three words to make it rhyme. Words are highlighted as the story is read. (6) Make a cake. Use given layers and decorations to construct a cake, then identify who will get a piece of it. Difficulty varies the number of layers and how the recipient is identified -- by clicking on the full name, overlapping letters of the given name or constructing the name from a jumble of letters. (7) Musical Chairs. Caillou and his three friends are dancing. You click on the person that corresponds to a given color, shape or number. (8) Number Chase. This is a game that Caillou plays against a chosen character. Die are rolled and the difficulty level determines whether Caillou counts, no one counts or two dice are rolled.

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 simple to change difficulty levels.

I didn't like that the Number Chase game was confusing and that, during cake construction and name building, the pieces must be placed in order; in the former case, the order is not always intuitive. Also, it would be nice if there were a printed instruction booklet. 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 Magic Playhouse -- identical format, different activities.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun game, January 31, 2002

By 

pandabear "pandabear35" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Caillou - Birthday Party (CD-ROM)

We have both Caillou CD-ROMs, and this one is great (a little better than the Magic Playhouse one). It is really fun for 4 year olds. It has a bunch of fun games that also educate, like the one that plays like a boardgame with rolling dice and moving ahead on the board. There's also a couple good early reading/alphabet activities. We are very pleased with it! Great for Caillou fans especially, but probably kids who have never seen the TV show would enjoy this game too.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, April 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Caillou - Birthday Party (CD-ROM)

Keeps the child busy for a long time. They learn but most of all they have fun - what a 3yr old should be doing!