Customer Reviews

Reader Rabbit Learn to Read With Phonics (Preschool & Kindergarten)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I purchased this software because my kid's daycare uses Reader Rabbit. I picked this version since it was preschool to K & I've got a 3yr old & a 5yr old & I wanted something (for my first purchase of software) that they could both use. It's a two disk set with one for the preschool & the other is K. The preschool has less "story" to it; it has more games, songs, & a zillion printable activities (we haven't done them since the kids computer isn't hooked up to a printer-- another thing they might break). Some games are matching letters or shapes, while harder games have the child pick the right word for the sentence (if you move your mouse over words, etc, the sentence/word is read for the child). Both my kids like teh preschool disk. THe K disk is more story & more detail -- help the mouse find letters & fill in a map. I think my 5yr old lacks the desire right now to sit thru all that, but it seems fun & challenging without being hard. My 3yr old tries to do it, but he can't follow the steps yet. I would have given this four stars (maybe even five, but it's my first software purchase & I've got nothing to compare it to) but I had to bump one off because the software doesn't download; you have to change between disks & that is a huge drag for me when one kid is done & the other wants to do the other program. That's just a hassle that isn't necessary. Outside of this, I think the program is great. The kids spend maybe 20 minutes on a Saturday or Sunday on the computer. I would recommend this product. It was a good first purchase for us.

When I first purchased this and took a look at it before I let my four year old granddaughter view it--to be honest I thought it looked uninspiring and rather boring for her. But what do I know! She spent three hours on it the first day learning how to navigate through the various activities and books. I was amazed since she is a whirlwind of energy. Since then she views it daily and learns the letters and words and is beginning to pick them out of the hardcover books she has.
In the end what matters is that she finds this edition of Reader Rabbit engaging and that she is learning from the activities and the interactive stories.

Will not load after installation. Product description says it supports Windows XP. I am running 64-bit Windows 7, which is likely the problem. My recommendation is that you should not purchase this product if you have a 64-bit OS.

This product is a bit outdated, but still kind of works on Windows 7. My 3-year-old son is having fun with it, but doesn't quite understand how to accomplish each game yet (still learning the reading part). The graphics and usability are a flaky.

The software was designed to run on Windows 95 - XP or Mac OS 8.6 - 9.2. It has a copyright of 2002 and Amazon has carried it since 2001. It hasn't been updated for Windows Vista or Windows 7. It does seem to run correctly under Windows 7, but has a few graphical issues. The colors don't render correctly and revert to using a 256-color palate, with the occasional wrong color (i.e. black instead of tan, etc.). When it runs, it switches to its own graphics mode and goes full-screen (which is nice to keep children from accidentally clicking outside of the program).

One of the things I really didn't like is that it requires the CD to be inserted in the drive all the time in order to run. CD's and little kids don't mix very well. Fortunately, I figured out how to get it to run without the CD (read below).

What I do like about the software is that it has an entertaining story line (and cartoon) that grabs the attention of little children, and it's very educational. It is very well structured, despite being outdated. My 3-year-old son was able to quickly figure out how to navigate the menus and pop in and out of activities. The software seems to be entirely mouse-driven, but they do make it somewhat easy with a huge pointer (although the clickable regions should be a bit bigger).

This includes two CD's: "Reader Rabbit Learn to Read with Phonics" and "Reader Rabbit Dreamship Tales"

How to get it to run without the CD in the Drive:
1. Create a folder on the hard drive to contain the entire contents of each CD (e.g. "C:\CD Images\Reader Rabbit Learn to Read" and "C:\CD Images\Reader Rabbit Dreamship")
2. Copy the contents of each CD into its respective folder on the hard drive
3. Run "Play.exe" from the copies of the CD's on the hard drive to install the programs

The installation tells the program where the installation was run from (i.e. the location of the CD). Since the steps above have it run from a folder on the hard drive, the program thinks that's where the CD's are located and runs properly.

SUMMARY
This is a nice software set for the low price. I wish it was updated for newer operating systems. If you're running Windows Vista, Windows 7, or one of the newer Mac OS', you might want to consider other apps first.

My 2.5 year old son is really doing well using this Learn to Read series. He actually loves playing the games on the CD and it has given him exposure to phonics and letter-sound associations. He is doing great and it's completely interactive. I highly recommend this CD. Excellent resource for teachers and parents.

Very frustrated that it says on the package that it should work on OSX but it does not.

ONLY runs on Mac OS 8.6.-9.2
and Windows 95/98, ME, 2000, XP

if you have a current Mac OS X platform like me (10.x) it will NOT work , will not install, etc.
so dont get it if you have an Apple Mac product.

DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAM! This is by far the worst program I've ever seen. For starters, it isn't compatible with anything newer than windows XP. It will run on the mac, but only certain parts of the program, like "printable activities". The only plus about it is that I didn't lose to much money. DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAM!

The product itself is great for my two kids (5 years and 3 years), but for some reason it would not install initially on a standard Windows XP professional platform. Found the following site that explained how to update the .ini setup file and it worked...but it took a 10 minute activity into an hour and I never expect to touch the setup files when purchasing packaged software.

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Tried several different computers and it loads about 15% and stops. There is just no tech support. They recommend searching the web for answers!