Product Description Help Clifford's owner handle all her chores before the Big Red Dog's birthday party! / Ages 4-8 Review Inspired by the "I Spy" series of books, this collection of nine activities combines the trademark I-Spy rhyming riddles with collections of small photographs of objects, animals and other things to create brain teasers that exercise problem solving skills, word play and creativity. Though a little like a one-punchline story, these visually rich games range from Oops Hoops, where kids sort different objects according to types, to Woodblock City, where kids search for items mentioned in riddles in a scrollable woodblock urban center. Graphics are intriguing, a real delight just to look at, especially in the Find Me activity which is wonderfully illustrated with a chalkboard cluttered with drawings, pictures, objects and words. The Nature game uses a magnifying glass to scour for hidden objects, and the challenging Make Your Own I Spy lets kids choose from more than 200 objects and mix them in with their own riddles. Scenes tend to be busy enough to make the search eventful, but redundancy here makes the law of diminishing return applicable-especially to the older end of the age range. A 2000 Parents' Choice® Silver Honor.Reviewed by Don Oldenburg, Parents' Choice® 2000 -- From Parents' Choice®Kids love pouring over the photo collages in search of each hidden object in this new I Spy CD, derived from Jean Marzallo's enjoyable book, I Spy School Days. Like the others in the series, the transition to CD-ROM is a nice one. There are still seven types of puzzles to solve, each one containing all-new object and word searches. Some games ask kids to find the objects in a riddle, for instance "I spy a pretzel, some beans in a hand, Red corn, eight candles, a BUS TRIP planned," with each riddle read aloud. The objects in question are colorful and interesting, and the search pages are plentiful, with fresh riddles each time kids play. The other puzzles are challenging and fun, keeping kids engaged. There's a Balloon Popper game in which children find the missing piece that sets a "Rube Goldberg" type contraption in motion. One puzzle has kids sorting objects into progressively harder Venn diagrams and another has them finding pictures to break secret codes. Testers favorite is still the "Make-Your-Own" I Spy activity where players create collages of objects and then write their own riddles for friends to solve, even recording their own voices if they wish. These can be saved, or printed for use away from the computer. While this may sound like just a lot of fun and games, there are many opportunities for learning. Vocabulary is reinforced and there are several chances for children to use listening and problem solving skills. This CD is even more responsive than previous versions, letting players interrupt the narration. Our testers thoroughly enjoyed the program, and their parents and teachers commented that it gets kids thinking and having fun at the same time.Teaches: reading, logic, classification, visual memory, matching Age Range: 5-8 -- From Children's Software Revue® -- "Subscribe Now!"
K**N
School Days ISpy
My son loved it - and enjoys the entire series of ISpy books and games.
E**E
Elementary Kids Love It!
I am a computer lab teacher in an elementary school. Last year, I used this software for quite a few weeks when my Kindergarten through Grade 3 students came in for activity period. Students in grades 4-6 would beg to get a chance to use the software when their assignment for the day was completed.It was a stretch for Kindergarten to find some of the items, because they did not recognize some of the items in the riddles, but I made sure to point these out in lessons and then circulated to help them more.It was exciting to watch as students became absorbed in this activity, and most of them grew in their visual and verbal awareness. Children in grades 1-3 could either click to hear the descriptions or read for themselves.Yes, it is on the shelf this year, but will taken out to be used in two years. This year I bought I Spy Spooky Mansion for use, and next year hope to get the Î Spy Treasure software if I can find the funding.
A**R
Don't give these people your money.
Product specs and requirements are not listed. DO....NOT....BUY....THIS...GAME. That is, unless you have a computer that happens to have Windows 98 on it(we all know it's faster and more efficient). Seller is most likely sitting on some gigantic cache of these old games and intentionally leaving out requirements in order to trick people into buying them. On the upside, they make wonderful coasters. You can also use fishing line and thumbtacks to attach them to the ceiling and make neat little sun catcher thingies. Just don't expect to be able to play the game that you paid for.
K**S
Great game that is educational too!
My 4 year old loves this game and I don't feel bad if she sits and does it for a while because it is educational as well. I was worried that it may be too hard for her since she is under the recommended age but she has not had a problem with it at all. In fact, she has discovered things on it that we didn't even know about.
T**2
Not Windows XP Compatible
I just tossed this one in the trash. It looked like a good game for my girls but unfortunately Scholastic doesn't believe in updating or supporting their products. I'd be very leary of buying any software from this company since software returns are difficult to negotiate. I would appreciate a list of truly Windows XP compatible children's software titles. Windows XP has been around for at least a couple of years now. I don't understand why compatibility is such a problem. Their support site cites that the problem is "you have too much installed RAM." Well, for most software, that is not a "bad" thing.
C**L
Avoid at all costs
I agree with the reviewer who urges you to stay away from this and other Scholastic products if you run Windows XP. I received School Days and Spooky Mansion today but can't get either to run on XP, even though I am generally quite adept at working with computers. I will never buy another product from this company, even if it works well on XP. These products say they work with "Windows 95, 98, 2000 or later." Don't believe it.
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3 weeks ago
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