Customer Reviews

Reader Rabbit Toddler [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We've tried Pooh Toddler, Little Bear, JumpStart and a handful of other toddler geared software and Reader Rabbit has been the favorite of both myself and my son. It's easy to skip the intros (which are short anyway) and get straight to the game; it works for a wide range of toddler skills; and it has activities appropriate to a toddler's attention span, namely short and colorful without being overly abrasive. Some of the games have more of a point than others ("can you find three matching animals?" vs. "pick a song!") but they can all be triggered by 1) point and click 2) mouse over or 3) random key pounding. This has been great for my son (who didn't get the whole mouse thing until he was 2 1/2) and means that no game is too advanced to key pound your way through. There are about eight different games on the main disc; you can pick a song to sing, match animal babies to their parents, place shapes to complete a picture, and match letter sounds to pictures -- among other things. I really like that a lot of the short tasks are rewarded with a *short* song and animation piece -- not great art, but not annoying, either. And my son loves them.

I will warn that the alphabet and the shape game can be frustrating if they accidently pick up a letter/shape on mouse over because it then has to be placed with the mouse -- random key pounding won't unstick it. Also, my son was prone to accidently bringing up the menu through key pounding and I'd have to come and fix it.

Finally, I've had the old and new versions of RR Toddler; the new one has a second disc which my son had zero interest in. On the main disc there are a few asthetic changes and a dreamship game in a completely different section, which my son loves but which has no real education value and is a little harder to access. On the good side, the new Reader Rabbit *seems* to run just fine on Mac OS X so I don't have to run 9 to get it to work. Hooray! (BTW, Little Bear Toddler has the same point and click/mouse over/random keys function, but I don't think it's as fun. The games that *require* mouse skills in toddlers have gotten shoved in the closet.)

My toddler loved this software. She was intially amused by the colors and the music. The more she played the more she learned. She knows all of her body parts, including the elbow, because of this software. The combination of colorful backdrops and catchy music keeps a toddlers attention. It helped that the software did not require many clicks of the mouse, simply moving it and holding it over an object changed the games.

Our 2-year old daughter was fascinated by the computer, but all the age-appropriate software we had was either much to simplistic (actions required only banging on the keyboard to produce a result), or required a considerable amount of help from an adult due to the need to point and click. She was very interested in the mouse, but could never quite get the concept of pointing and clicking, which was always very frustrating for her.

My favorite thing about Reader Rabbit Toddler is the method it uses for teaching little ones how to use the mouse. Making selections requires only moving the very large mouse pointer to an object on the screen, then holding it in place for about 5 seconds. A series of dots lights up, one at a time, with a pinging sound, to indicate that the object is going to be selected. This reduces accidental selections, and allows plenty of time to change your mind and move the pointer to a different object. (Clicking to select the object will also work, which our daughter caught on to very easily once she mastered the "pointing" part.) Within about 3 days, she was able to use the mouse to select and play the different games with very little help. After about a week, she could play completely unassisted, and had completely mastered pointing and clicking a short time later.

The software provides a wide variety of activities, all of which are launched from the same "home" location, which is very easy to return to when finished with an activity. The activities are cute, colorful, and very fun for this age group. Activities including a coloring book, which requires only rapid movement of the mouse to fill in the pictures; a music activity, in which Reader Rabbit does finger plays for various familiar songs; some simple games involving letters and numbers; and some animal matching games. (There are some others, but I can't recall them off the top of my head.) It seems to me that the primary focus of the software is to be cute and entertaining enough to keep a child's attention while helping them to learn fundamental computer skills necessary for using any software.

It has been about 3 months since our daughter first started using the software, and she has already moved on to other, more complex software (her current favorite is Jump Start Pre-K -- much better than Reader Rabbit Preschool.) I suppose that my only complaint about the software is that it didn't really "grow" with her ability, which would have made it last longer. Although, we probably would have gotten much more use out of it had we started using it when she was younger. (The box says ages 1-3, and I wouldn't hesitate to try it out with a 1-year old on my lap. I think a 3-year old would master it very quickly.)

I would highly recommend this software to anyone who wants to introduce their toddler to the computer.

We have a different version, I think, but the point is the same: it's great. This game taught my daughter how to use the mouse (without clicking) at 21 months of age. At first she cried to play it all the time and that was difficult, but as soon as I realized she could do it by herself it has been fantastic. The fact that it doesn't require mouse clicks is crucial. We limit the amount of time she plays it each day so she doesn't become a computer junkie, but at least it is educational.

(Tip: set your screen resolution to 800x600 or 640x480 and turn your mouse speed way down using the control panel. The slower the mouse, the less control they need.)

I bought reader rabbit toddler for my 2 year old. (She turned two in sept). It was the first game she was permitted to play, her first real exposure to using the computer.

On the plus side, it did a great job teaching her to use the mouse. All of the activities can be accessed without needing to coordinate clicking. That's good because it's pretty tough for little hands to do that sometimes. The little games are okay. There are 3 that are mainly practicing mouse movements, 1 just fun one, 2 straight matching, and 2 matching with strategy. She had a hard time getting the baby basket bingo game where you match a baby animal (hidden in a basket) to its mother or father, based solely on the sound it makes. She knew which animal made which sound, but she didn't seem to realize that a baby cow can only belong to a mommy cow. (and not a mommy duck for example).

She really loved this game. She wanted to play it non stop for a few weeks...Maybe 3. And then she mastered it. She still likes to play it every day, but it only takes 10-20 minutes of it for her to get bored. For some 2 year olds 10-20 minutes is a lot, but not mine. She'll happily sit through a feature length movie, or read book after book after book, just so you get an idea.

There is a second CD that comes with it but all the activities except one are way too old for toddlers. Activities that involve actual math (adding 2 digit numbers, etc). So that's not real useful.

There are a few annoying things, but they are small. For example in the letter matching/phonics activity their example of an "S" word is shoe. True, it does start with an s, why not use a word that is not an exception to the "S sound" rule. Sock or soup or something... Also, there's no way to turn of the instructions for each game. Ellen gets frustrated as she has to sit there listening to them again and again. Also, in the bubble castle activity, there are always 5 animals, so they are always counting to 5. Some variety might have been better for teaching the kids counting. And lastly, you HAVE to use the CD to run the game. My husband (a computer science ph.D student) tried several ways to just run it from the hard drive, but it is impossible. So we have the problem of the 2 year old who wants to take the disk in and out of the drive to play her game.

Anyway...Bottom line, your kid will like it. Your kid will learn to use the mouse. Your kid will probably outgrow it quickly. Try to find it on sale.

I bought this software based on others' reviews here. What a great buy! Our son turned 2 last month. We have an old iMac we gave him, and we thought we'd buy him Reader Rabbit to introduce him to computer use since he's taken an unhealthy interest in ours. The software installed easily, and by default makes itself start up when the computer turns on to save children from having to navigate program menus. The first time we sat our son in front of it he laughed and squealed and couldn't get enough of it. Since the software can be operated without a keyboard, we removed it (he was banging on it pretty hard), and he just navigates his way through everything with just the mouse. His favorite games are the Bubble Castle and the Fingerplay Theatre. Our son is behind in his language skills, and at the end of the first day (thanks to bubble castle) he could count to five! The best part though is the overwhelming cuteness of Fingerplay Theatre. He clicks a song, such as Twinkle-twinkle, and follows the rabbit's hand motions on the screen and then goes wild at the end clapping his hands and screaming YAY. I really could go on and on here, but let me summarize by saying after one week of Reader Rabbit, he knows more about colors, counting, alphabet and songs than he's learned in months of baby einstein videos. Best twenty bucks I've ever spent. Two technical shortcomings, but I'm reaching: There should be a "sleep" mode when he walks away from it and leaves it on, and possibly a way to disable the exit star (he sometimes clicks it by accident and inadvertently leaves the program).

This was my son's first software program and he loves it! We have now had it for over a year and he still likes to play it. This software helped him learn numbers, letters, shapes, animal sounds and matching skills. Completing an activity quickly rewards the child with a fun song or visual graphics, so it keeps him very entertained and motivated to keep playing. We've tried several other software programs and this one was definitely the most popular one we've tried, and also the one from which he learned the most.

After a bit of research, we bought this as the first computer software for our 1 year old daughter, and she just loves it. It keeps her occupied and laughing for long periods. First she was fascinated by the keyboard banging and the reactions she could cause. By 16 months she had mastered the concepts of mouse clicking and dragging objects and moving around. By 20 months she was an expert in all the games, starts and stops the program herself, and navigates to where she wants to play. This program is also educational as well as fun. She learned her numbers, colors, shapes, animal sounds, songs in large part through this software. While she is now 22 months and has moved on to a bit more advanced programs, she still goes back and enjoys playing these games quite frequently. This was a most excellent purchase. It was a very positive experience for her, not much frustration, in fact she kept pushing us away when we tried to help and show her things, she wanted to figure them out on her own. The computer has easily become her favorite toy, and the family has to fight with her just to get time of their own. I recommend this without hesitation, it is better by far than anything else I've seen for a baby/toddler starter program.

My almost 2 year old daughter LOVES this game. It came reccommended to me and I am SO glad I purchased it. Actually I am searching for another program that is as good, but I am having no luck. My daughter is using the mouse all by herself to play the games. I actually can leave her alone to play for 30 or so minutes and she goes from game to game all by herself. (Granted we played several times together and she is a fast learner.) I love that the majority of these games are educational and fun!
I feel bad writing this on Amazon but you can get it for free, just for paying shipping and handling, at www.smart-estore.com/clac - that is where I got mine!

This software arrived yesterday. My son, Zachary, has a cold, and we've been stuck inside recovering. He used it yesterday for two hours straight, and was completely involved and excited the entire time. He probably would have gone another hour if I had let him. It was difficult for me to resist "showing" my almost 2 1/2 year old son how to use the program, but I forced myself to sit back and just let him figure it out.

At first, it seemed like he was just randomly moving the mouse around, but it wasn't long before it became clear that he was sorting things out. Along with other reviewers, I saw the "problem" of having the exit located in the natural resting spot for the mouse (lower right hand corner). My first thought was "Oh, no, he's going to end up going in circles and get frustrated." But it wasn't long until he figured out that the lower right hand corner was the way to go "back" to new adventures. And this makes me think that perhaps the designer intended it this way. That is, the designer may have intentionally placed the "return" mouseover area where it is so the child would stumble upon it repeatedly and eventually make sense of how to navigate. In any case, this is how it worked for Zachary. He went in circles for a while and he gradually realized that he could avoid going in circles if he stayed off the lower right hand corner. I'm sure it would have taken longer if I had intruded to offer advice. The mouse character leads the child with just the right amount of encouragement and direction, and without any assistance from me, Zachary can now navigate through the program with confidence. Prior to this he had no experience with the computer other than sitting in my lap to watch a short video I might find on-line. He has, however, been dying to play with the computer himself for some time.

Zachary happens to be in an "I can't do it" phase, so he regularly sets up too difficult tasks for himself and then gets frustrated. I saw nothing even remotely like this happen while he was using this program. In fact, when he accomplishes a task and gets the visual/auditory reward, he will exclaim, "Yay for Zachary!"

Highly recommended. I got my copy used for half the retail price.

Update (Dec 4, 2004): After about a week, Zachary was completely bored with this software. I would still recommend, though, if the goal is to introduce the mouse without having to do any "demonstrating."