Customer Reviews

Reader Rabbit Kindergarten Bounce Down in Balloon Town

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Let me start by saying that my 4 year old son really like the game. Its good for basic math, spelling, and reasoning skills.

The problem is that the installation process cripples Internet Explorer's encryption software! After installing, we could not use Internet Explorer to access any secured site (such as this one).

The only way to correct was to restore the operating system.

So, while the game is good, I can not run it on my Windows ME system.

I wish I could give this a better rating, as I'm generally a big fan of the Reader Rabbit series. I've used these programs for each of my four kids, and we've been through every grade level (including the previous version of RR Kindergarten).

Plus, I generally liked the construction of the game. It had a good story line, great activities and a very age-appropriate feel.

The main problem was that it's WAY too short - there's just not enough material for it to be really useful. Each activity is completed in just a few trials.

It's not even long enough for the auto-levelling feature to work well. It starts each activity on the easiest level, and a student that needs a more advaced level can zoom through and be finished before there's even a chance for it to ratchet up the level of difficulty.

I'll also give it a slight ding for not giving enough guidance toward the right answers. There's not much negative feedback for wrong answers, and it's possible to pass the activities by pure guessing. Sometimes it doesn't give any indication at all when an answer is missed.

All in all, this is an unusually poor showing for a program in the RR line-up.

My kids love this game. The action is constant, although on some games it doesn't give them enough time to figure it out without prompting for some kind of action. The main problem I had was installing it onto my Windows 2000 Pro system. I lost my hard drive, and I have to blame the software because I tried it with a fresh system, and it did the exact same thing. So, I would say buy this only if you have a Windows 95/98/ME system, but not a Windows 2000 system. Hopefully, Windows XP will be able to handle it.

My four year old has loved this program! It's a great way to introduce setting goals and seeing a project through to its completion. Understanding relative sizes, phonics, and more gives her lots to choose from and doesn't bore her yet. The only problem is that with my operating system, WindowsME, this program is extemely unstable. It tends to crash and stall and has done so from the first day of operation. This is frustrating to her AND me, of course. Maybe other Windows systems work better.

I tried to install this game on my wife's PIII running Windows 2000. It installed, but refused to run - it threw an "Appication Error" box on the screen and stopped after I clicked the "Play" button. I tried the technical support site... and there are clearly lots of problems with it as there are lots of solutions - none to my problem though and the solutions that seemed close didn't seem to apply as files indicated in the instructions were not on the CD, etc.

I was unable to download the patches as thier web site threw an error so am now the proud owner of a useless game. Not recommended!

This is of course another Fantastic learning tool from Reader Rabbit. I am homeschooling this year and my son just loves to play this and he hasn't even realized yet that he is learning, he thinks he is playing a video game!!!! Thank You.

This program appears to have serious technical problems. It crashes and generates an error when loading, after clicking "run". It is very frustrating for my daughter.