Curious George Pre-Kindergarten ABCs

Other products by Pearson Software

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004UB6J
• Item model number: 0743503821
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 4, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,194 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

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  #61 in	Software > Macintosh > Children's Software > Reading & Language
  #86 in	Software > Macintosh > Children's Software > Early Learning

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
Discovering the alphabet is one charming accident after another with Curious George as your guide. The tiny brown monkey with the wide smile sneaks onto a skywriting plane, upsets the post card stand at the zoo, and topples a boy's toys into the lake, but the always-resourceful Man in the Yellow Hat turns each mishap into an alphabet adventure. The prevailing plucky optimism of the Curious George books reigns supreme here.

In a light blue and bright yellow world that's stylistically true to the Curious George books, kids can visit four different spots for five activities that will eventually have them deftly negotiating their ABC's. The most engaging place to visit is the zoo, which is packed with everything from alligators to zebras. Kids must lead George and the Man in the Yellow Hat down a labyrinth of paths to find the proper animals or things to put in the alphabetized Zoo Picture Book. The spot has so much going on that it took us a good four minutes to "find something that begins with the letter J." Wandering the zoo's paths as monkeys hoot and elephants trumpet in the background will keep young letter seekers interested in the hunt for quite some time.

Skills such as hand/eye coordination come into play as kids help Curious George recover the alphabet blocks he accidentally dumped in the lake. Memory is honed as George messes with bread dough, falls in a heap on the floor, and discovers a letter-matching game in the bakery. Kids don't just learn the alphabet here; they learn that honest mistakes aren't that bad. This CD-ROM is at its best whenever Curious George sticks his finger in his mouth, considers the possibilities, then wanders off to live up to his name. (Ages 3 to 6) --Anne Erickson

Amazon.com Product Description
Explore alphabet sounds, shapes, and pronunciations with the lovable Curious George as he frolics through activities such as flying a skywriting plane, fishing in an alphabet lake, or visiting the zoo. Includes a printable Curious George storybook.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My Two-Year old LOVES this cd-rom!, October 13, 2000

By	K. Heffernan "Canadian in OC" (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've given this game 4 stars simply because my daughter is a year younger than the lowest recommended age. I'm sure I would give it 5 if she was three. We bought it anyway, as she LOVES letters, and thought we'd have fun with it. As it is, she really enjoys the various scenarios. She adores the animals in the zoo, and there is certainly a lot to look at. At the air field, she is able to choose the correct letter for the pilot to write in the sky, and is really proud that she can accomplish this. While we help with with the retrieval of the blocks at the lake (a little tricky to manipulate the timing and positioning for a 2 year) she enjoys sitting on my lap and pointing at the proper block to pick up. The scenario at the the bakery is again, a little beyond her abilities at this point, but she loves to watch me play it. Despite the fact that some of the game is a little advanced, we have lots of fun with it. I highly recommend it.

2.0 out of 5 stars More about hand/eye coordination than learning ABCs, January 17, 2002

By	lspswr (Idaho, USA) - See all my reviews

I bought this program based largely on the editorial review. My 2 year old knows his ABCs and I bought the program thinking it would focus on letter sounds. The four games that are included in the package are 1) an airplane skywriting letter match which quickly advances to identifying the first letter of a object and then selecting that letter from four choices. This sounded good, but in practice is not working out -- when the selection is incorrect the airplane very cutely writes a frowny face in the sky. It is difficult to get my airplane-loving son to understand that the frowny face is not a "prize." 2) The second game is set in a zoo where George is to find an object that begins with a particular letter dictated by the Man in the Yellow Hat. Sounds like a good game, except that you have to use multiple screens in order to find the object. By the time one gets to multiple screens one has completely forgotten what letter was requested or what screens have already been viewed. The objects are animated and are cute, making the game fun, but again, the learning factor is lost in the details of the exercise. 3) The third game features a lake in which George is required to fish for ABC blocks. Sounds like it might be fun and educational -- except that the task of positioning the boat above the requested letter, then timing the click of the mouse just right in order to "catch" the block can be frustrating. The exercise of letter identification is not the point of the game -- it is a hand-eye coordination exercise and that is all. 4) The fourth game is a memory match game, which is the only one that my son truly understands and achieves the desired lesson. However, many of the preschool software packages contain memory match exercises which are more interesting and more educational.

All in all, I am disappointed in this software. I have not yet found the right package for my child's skill and learning level. He has long tired of Reader Rabbit Toddler, is playing RR Preschool (but I have some complaints there as well), LOVES Dr. Seuss's ABC program which I also think is well written, LOVES Miss Spider's Tea Party which is especially good for developing listening to directions skills but is lacking on the ABC skills, and we are awaiting Richard Scarry software in hopes that it will fit the bill.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Dissapointing, May 21, 2002

By	apoem "apoem" (Bosque Farms, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This is one of the few CDs that I have bought that I wish I had not spent my money on. Very dissapointing.

There are basically four games on the cd. I found the games to be slow in loading and the graphics to be cheap looking many times. The games are not very fun.

One is fishing- you have to fish for the letters, but you have to have everything just right to get the letters. Hard. Another one is sky writing, my son loved this game but I don't know how much he really 'got it'. The third one is at the zoo and you have to find things that begin with letters that are given to you- however, you have to go through several screens to find the correct letter and with the loading time being longer than ever, by the time you get to the thing you are looking for, you forgot what you were looking for. Not Fun. The Match game is fun but you can get this on other CDs.

I'd give this one a skip. Stick with Reader Rabbit, Jump Start and others like that. One we got a lot of use out of while learning the letters (not the sounds) was the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom CD. That one was well worth the money.