Arthur's Preschool

by The Learning Company

Product Features

• This 2-CD set features great games & activities that make learning fun
• Play fun games in the sandbox & create your own puppet show
• A grand total of 9 exciting projects with 60 total activities
• Practice letters and numbers, shapes and colors, matching, music and more!
• Ages 3-5

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005MKSN
• Item model number: 380901
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 6, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,572 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Arthur, Francine, Baby Kate, and a host of other familiar faces are on hand to give children a guided tour of the preschool curriculum in Arthur's Preschool. This educational game is designed to give early learners some practice in basic concepts such as counting, shape recognition, the alphabet, and more. By helping Arthur's friends in these drills, players create pictures, build robots, and complete half-built puppets, just to name a few.

Children who don't mind straight-up education drills are the definite target of this game, aimed at the 3 to 5 years age range. Arthur's Preschool places a heavy emphasis on learning over play. The various activities--whether identifying letters by the sounds they make, choosing a particular shape in response to a verbal cue, or doing simple counting--offer, essentially, an electronic version of old-style educational flash cards. Each activity is designed to maximize learning and has a built-in scale of escalating difficulty. They will challenge users to harder tasks if they ace the first level of toughness.

For players who want their learning activities sugar-coated with a little arcade play or humor, Arthur's Preschool is certain to feel a little dry. This is not a flaw, though, so much as a difference in approach. The game provides learning statistics for parental review and offers one "achievement certificate," complete with a connect-the-dots game, for each academic subject. The game also offers a series of creativity-oriented games--arts, crafts, and musical activities--in addition to its more hard-core subjects.

With so many games and activities, it is safe to say this game is genuinely trying to pack everything but a teacher and school friends into its school-in-a-box. Arthur's Preschool takes itself seriously, true, but children who take it seriously, too, are sure to learn a great deal. --Alyx Dellamonica

Product Description

Packed with learning and fun for preschoolers!Product InformationPreschool is a big step for little learners but it doesn't have to be adifficult one. Trust Arthur to lead your child through a delightful learningworld where building important skills is as easy and as much fun as playing agame. From the puppet show to the sandbox and beyond.  Arthur's Preschoolis the perfect combination of learning fun and helpful features. This two discset is packed with nine exciting learning activities and over 20 creativityactivities. Arthur's Preschool teaches a full year's worth of Preschool skillsand entertains your child with limitless fun and learning.PALS technology specially designed to create a warm individualized learningenvironment. Personalize the learning experience. Assess abilities. Laugh while learning. Smart Helpers are always on hand to keep you right on track!Skills LearnedThere's no limit to what kids ages 3 to 5 can learn! Arthur's Preschool haswhat it takes to keep hungry young minds active stimulated and eager for freshideas. Just look at the topics your child will explore: Letter names and sounds Vocabulary Numbers and counting Matching and sorting Simple arithmetic Spatial relationships Music composition Instruments Crafts Coloring Shapes and colors Noticing differences Recognizing emotions Following directionsProduct Features Discover 2 CD-ROMs packed with 9 learning exercises Over 20 creativity activities Teaches a full year's worth of preschool skills Entertains your child with limitless fun and learning Developed for early learners Auto-leveling Progress reports Automatic help messages Printable activities Multiple skill levelsFun Activities IncludedLetter Names & SoundsHelp Baby Kate dig out the right letters.Numbers & CountingCount how many balls Francine hits and identify the correct number.MatchingMatch the puppet parts to put on a puppet show!Shapes & C

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great learning adventure!, September 3, 2001

By 

Lara Norton (Soperton, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arthur's Preschool (CD-ROM)

My four year old will sit for hours at the computer with Aurthur. It is very easy for her to change activites and print items. I am very pleased with Aurthur's preschool and would recommend it to all.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Windows Incompatability Problem-Very Dissappointed!!!, July 4, 2002

By 

Maria Lynch (New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Arthur's Preschool (CD-ROM)

This CD-Rom is not compatable with Windows XP and it should be stated clearly somewhere on the packaging. The whole thing froze my computer. Extremely dissappointing!

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good games, marred by bad implementation, December 28, 2001

By 

Vimal Rajamanur - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Arthur's Preschool (CD-ROM)

My son has been using this for the last two months. He's 2 & 8 months, slightly under the recommended age for it.

As a game, it should have a lot going for it. For a new user, there are a variety of skills tested, from counting (using baseball), to alphabet (using a robot builder), to shape sorting (using piggy banks of different sizes & coins to match).

However, it is quite flawed in many ways. In most games, the instructions on what letter to select, will stop abruptly if a key is pressed or the mouse is clicked.

For example, in the alphabet game, Arthur will say something like, "Hand Brain the upper case letter A", & there are 5 choices. If however, my son happens to click anywhere on the screen, Arthur will stop before the sentence completes & my son will click at random. It's tough to pick a letter if Arthur doesn't say which one is to be picked!
That sort of thing happens in many of the games, so for us, quite a few of them are un-playable.

If you play the games more than a few times, there's not much variety in the games. The almost exact same things happen each time, even if they were completed correctly the last time.

Quite soon, I'm not sure if my son is learning new stuff or simply remembering the game's prompts from previous experience.

Bottom line : Good game with possibilities for a month or so, will become old hat after that.