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Tune Land
Tune Land has been around for awhile, but it is still a children's favorite. It is hosted by "Howie" and has the voice of Howie Mandel. Tune Land keeps the child interested with familiar songs and great graphics. It will interest children from the ages of 1 to 5 years of age. They will interact with the characters on the screen with the use of the mouse or if too young to operate the mouse the program will automatically start a new screen in about 10 seconds of any inactivety. This software will teach a child about rhythm and rhyme and eye-hand cooridination of using a mouse. The songs are old favorites, like "Old MacDonald's Farm","Patty-Cake", "Three Blind Mice", and many more.
Disney's Animated Storybooks
The Disney Animated Storybooks is a wonderful series. It brings stories alive for children. I own two of the Storybooks, Toy Story and The Lion King. In both of these the child can have the story read to them or they can read along with a narrator. This is especially an incentive in getting your child to read. They will learn while having fun. The storybooks also allow the child to play along by clicking on characters and learning more about them or by just clicking on a scene to see what else might happen. The storybook may also have one or two games that go along with the story line, which proves to be a hit with the child. The child will learn as well as have fun with their favorite stories with this software.
Reader Rabbit's Interactive Reading Journey
This software is geared for beginning readers between the ages of 4-7. In this journey, the child will reinforce letter recognition skills, build word recognition skills, develop phonics skills, build vocabulary, and develop a reading comprehension. There are 20 lands to explore full of poems and interactive animation. In each land the child will read 2 books and play games to master the phonics skill for that level. Once the skill is mastered the child can then move on to the next skill (which takes him/her to a different land). The mastery level can be set by the parent (i.e.: 80%-100%). The software is set up so that the parent can turn on the microphone option which allows the child to hear himself read the story. This is a wonderful tool to use to help a child read. But don't forget the bedtime stories!
Reader Rabbit's Toddler and Preschool
The following review was submitted by my Good friend, Kris:
We have Reader Rabbit's Toddler and Preschool version. It is awesome. The
toddler version is very good for getting a child familiar with the computer.
It familiarizes them with animals, shapes, songs, fingerplays, colors. Layne
knows this software by "Maddie", that is the little mouses name that takes him
to different activities. We just bought the Preschool version, which is a
little more challenging. The ages on that are 3-5, and it familiarizes them
with abc's, counting, sorting, pattersn, dress up, hide and seek. I really
like this Learning Company series because it grows with the child. When a
child out grows one level of the game, their is a new level to move up to.
Submit your own reviews of children's software or children's books here, and I will post them: 
matchamom@angelfire.com
