Kids with an ear for music (including classical, jazz, latin, pop or rock) can master rhythm and melody as they play a medieval game full of mystery and intrigue and musical puzzles. Queen Chantre’s Queendom has been robbed of its music by an evil-doing gnome named Gnoise. Of course, she’s trapped in an amulet and needs your child’s help to regain the castle and restore music to her Queendom. Kids pal around with a good guy named Fiddle and learn to master Rhythm and Melody tools in this three-level adventure as they explore all of the rooms inside (the Royal Kitchen, the Princess’ Bedroom, Dragon’s Lair, Blacksmith’s Armory and Throne Room) and outside (Courtyard, Castle Drawbridge, and Chess Garden) the castle and solve musical challenges to earn keys to unlock magical doors. Along the way, kids create original composition performances, which can be saved and played back to animated scenes that move with the music.

Although the interface isn’t as intuitive as it could be and the tools seem to be a tad on the complicated side, my kid tester, age 12 (who plays the violin and piano) didn’t seem frustrated by it and was intent on learning how to use the Rhythm and Melody tools. Three instruments can be played simultaneously using the Rhythm tool, while in Melody, you can control both rhythm and pitch. Kids manipulate Tiles (clicking and dragging them into position) which act as musical building blocks. The Playback area is where kids place the tiles to create a musical piece, while clicking the Play button allows them to play the tiles back in order from left to right. To change the musical notes, you’ll have to enter the Editors section, while younger kids with little or no music background will enjoy the Banks of pre-made rhythms and pitches, which makes music composition easier.

Kids can identify instruments by sound; understand meter, rhythm, and melodic shape, combine pitch and rhythm to create melodies; compose and arrange music; and learn to appreciate different forms and styles of music by playing Juilliard Music Adventure. Destined to be a software classic, this CD-ROM helps budding musicians through the assistance of multimedia technology. Not bad for less than $35!

Rest assured, JumpStart Music is an outstanding CD-ROM for kids ages 5-8 who enjoy music and arcade-like activities. By playing the games, kids can get a good introduction to melody, harmony, notation, musical scales and more.

For less the cost of a good pizza, this software won’t break the family budget!

Very similar to the other JumpStart titles, the JumpStart Learning Games adapt to each child’s grade level and learning abilities (from preschool to 3rd grade). Knowledge Adventure’s “Adaptive Learning Technology” adjusts the difficulty levels based on the child’s performance so the material is always challenging and increases replayability.

Everyone’s pal, Hopsalot the rabbit, invites children to enter the magical Land of Music. There’s evil in this land of musical magic when Sir Sour Note and his naughty band of Violin Villains has turned the music….sour! By exploring four musical regions, based on families of musical instruments (Drumville, Horn Hollow, Woods of Wind and our favorite, String City), kids can play activities and snag Sour Notes. Then, the evil Sour Notes can be tamed by the Concert Hall conductor so that wonderful sounds can bring back harmony and fill the Land of Music with good stuff.

Kids can navigate the software by helping Hopsalot find all the activity hot spots along the Blue Rhythm Road (forget the Yellow Brick Road, when you’ve got the mighty Blue Rhythm Road!). Whether children are helping a gorilla, a hippo, or a goat get some rhythm or they’re helping the instruments find their voices by matching sounds to the correct instruments, children love playing this inspirating software!

By playing JumpStart Music, parents and teachers can introduce musical notes and melodies with both visual and audio assistance. Somehow, this software makes the whole concept of making music fun and exciting. This is a “must have” for anyone interested in a low-cost approach in introducing music to kindergarteners or 3rd graders!

Kai’s Power GOO converts images into liquid “goo”. Not only that, but you can also create animations called “Goovies” frame-by-frame. You can save the movies in QuickTime, AVI or “Goovie” format.

Squeeze it, smear it, bulge it, twirl it, stretch it, and create an image with alot of static! Go ahead and spike it, rotate it, and tweak photographs to your heart’s content. A very comprehensive library of over 170 photos and images awaits you, while you can also import your own photos from a digital camera, scanner, photo CD, or video capture. The wackier, the better! Looking for a tension tamer? A program you can forget about the daily grind and kick back with? This is it!

The main screen consists of rooms: the Goo Room is where you’ll find liquid image tools; the Fusion Room is where you can mix image pieces together; the In Room is a place to load files; and the Out Room is where you’ll save your files.

Instead of a boring manual, there’s a colorful poster which will answer any navigational questions you may have while playing with Kai’s Power GOO.

The floating user interface is practically seamless. Just click on a variety of easy-to-use buttons and experiment with an amazing amount of special effects tools, all guaranteed to have you kids and adults mesmorized within minutes.

Installing this CD-ROM on a Motorola StarMax 5000/300 was a lighting quick and painless procedure. Macintosh users may want to run this program on a Power Mac–although you can run it with a 68040 processor, the performance isn’t as quick. By the way, Windows and Macintosh users will need 20 MB free on their hard drive to adequately run this program.

In fact, playing with Kai’s Power GOO is almost a zen-like experience. Whether you’re 7 or 57, you’re sure to have fun while creating liquid images and applying an array of distortion/undistortion effects.

Wait till you hit the Fusion Room. Here’s a cool activity which lets you superimpose and blend parts of one image into another. Think of the possibilities: you can have a “goo’d” time blending a photo of, say, your ex-wife, with a photo of a Doberman with lip gloss; your evil stepmother fused with your Algebra teacher from hell; the boss with your gang of co-workers from hell? Striking resemblance, don’t you think?

There are 11 libraries of pictures and images to choose from, including plenty of faces, animals, politicians, bugs, cars, and psychedelic images. For all of you Bill Clinton fans, you’ll even find an image of Bill in Kai’s Photo Goo. Conspicuously missing from the celebrity line-up…Bill Gates. Go ahead and import that photo!

Is Kai’s Power Goo all fun and games? Really, you can accomplish some productive work with these images! You can create screen savers, hilarious presentations, web pages, t-shirts, calendars, cards and more.

For those of you thinking this is Kid Pix, forget it. Broderbund’s Kid Pix software is a good paint program, but Kid Pix Studio is darned near perfect! Kid Pix Studio is an animation sensation PLUS the ultimate paint program for kids. Although the recommended age range is 3 through 12, trust me and ignore the age range. Any adult who longs to dabble and play with multimedia art and animation should own this program!

Besides fascinating animations, video, special effects and photos, kids can create SlideShow productions, QuickTime movies, and illustrate with a gazillion (over 1,300) animated stamps and way dazzling backgrounds! That’s not all. Wait till you hear the sound and music effects…in short, this is an amazing application at a killer price.

The multimedia “studio” gives you six different projects to create art and animation with. The six projects are: Kid Pix, Wacky TV, Moopies, Stampimator, Digital Puppets and SlideShow.

Kid Pix Studio has a way cool drawing screen where you can use a Wacky Brush (over 50 to choose from) to paint radical patterns, and pour multicolor fills with the Paint Can. Just turn on the Electric Mixer and watch your Picasso jumble into a gazillion crazy patterns. We counted over 110 tints and tones in the palette alone! There are a whopping 14 different tools, and many have additional options. Don’t forget the crazy DrawMe, Hidden Pictures and ColorMe features (in the Goodies Menu). DrawMes are super silly suggestions of pictures to create. Once you hear the suggestion, you’ll see the words on the screen. It’s up to you to supply the rest of it! Hidden Pictures are pictures which you actually UNdraw. The only way to view them is to use an eraser. You can see as much or as little of a picture as you like by using a special Mystery erasing tool. ColorMes are great for younger computer artists. Similar to pages in a coloring book, you can play with them over and over and save the ones you like.

What’s a Moopie? Moopie is KidPix talk for moving pictures. This is where the animations come to life. Each tool takes on a different personality. Some lines stay still, while others zig-zag across the screen. Watch them wiggle, wobble, whirl and get ready to rock-n-roll!

Stampimators are animated stamps which double as actors in your soon-to-be animation. Choose a cool background or draw your own, then select up to four stamps and drag each one along a path you want it to travel. Remember, YOU are the director of the show so be zany and creative!

Digital Puppets are a scream to create. These on-screen marionettes can be controlled with the keys on your keyboard instead of traditional strings. There are 10 puppets to choose from, including Albert, Alien, Buster, Dragon, Princess, Garden Sal, Dufus, Peteroo, Rasta and Shelley. You can choose sounds or music for your puppet to dance to from the “Pick a Sound” dialog.

Lights, camera, ACTION! Are you ready for the Slide Show? SlideShow links your pictures, animations made with Moopies, Stampimator, and Digital Puppets, digital movies, or a mix of all of these!. The result is a awesome multimedia presentation of special transitions, sound effects and visual wonders. After all, you’re the director!

You’ll appreciate the SlideShow Controls on the bottom of the SlideShow screen. Here’s where you meet the Undo Guy, Firecracker, Play and Play Looped. The looped arrow plays your slide show continuously. Great for first-time directors. After all, you can never get too much praise.

Show your movies on Wacky TV! This is your exclusive on-screen movie player. There are over 100 Wacky TV movies included to get you started. Throw in more special effects with the Electric Mixer and you’re ready to roll the action. If you use the Paste Jar, you can paste your movie right onto a Kid Pix picture!

OK, so you’re ready to be a super artist! Let me say that the drawing tools and easy-to-use menus will impress even the skeptics out there. An excellent User’s Guide comes with the software, so you’ll never be lost in space with this program. The emphasis in Kid Pix Studio is a three letter word — FUN!! If you keep that in mind, you’re sure to have a blast with this software.

Particularly hot are the sound effects: tools which make realistic sounds while you work with them, sounds you can import to projects, and recording original sounds. Even the colors make sounds when you click on them. If it gets annoying, you can always click on “Tool Sounds” and turn the puppy off. For Windows users, the option is called “Turn Tool Sounds On/Off”, by the way.

Although you can only print projects in the Kid Pix section, you can save and show all of your projects.

For those of you interested in digital video, digital video clips can be pasted into Kid Pix pictures, viewed in the Wacky TV, or used as slides in SlideShow. Want to import digital video from users groups, BBS, or your own Kid Pix Studio projects? Just remember to save your animation projects by using the “Save for SlideShow” option. Fellow Mac users will use QuickTime format for its digital video files, while Windows users use AVI format. Digital sound can also be imported up to 450k and is available in Moopies, Stampimator and Digital Puppets. If using a Mac, import sound files in SoundEdit, otherwise sounds can be imported in .WAV format for PC.

Another bonus in Kid Pix Studio is that it supports Photo CD. In other words, you can take any roll of film to a Kodak film development facility, and ask for it to be developed onto a PhotoCD. Your pictures are stored in digital format, so they can be opened as graphic files on your computer. Open the Photo CD files in Kid Pix, or import them into your Moopies, Stampimator, and Digital Puppet pictures as backgrounds!

Although you can buy Kid Pix Studio alone, it is also available in Broderbund’s Creative Advantage Library. The Creative Advantage Library consists of Kid Pix Studio and The Amazing Writing Machine (2 separate CD-ROMs) and is an outstanding package…you get two titles for the price of one!

A hand of applause to Broderbund’s Kid Pix Studio for the slickest painting and creativity program ever. Your kids will play this software over and over again! If you’re lucky, they’ll give you a turn!

Wacky and wonderfully creative, this is the artistic CD-ROM you and your kids deserve. This easy-to-use program is practically ageless and its seamless interface seamless on a Power Mac was obvious.

Cool new projects combine animation, video, special effects, photos, music and a bunch of hip stuff. In fact, you don’t have to have kids to appreciate Kid Pix Studio Deluxe–don’t let that name fool you!

If you loved Kid Pix Studio, you’ll really savor the new Deluxe version. And, at less than $30, it’s a slam-dunk…this is the one art program you should add to your family’s growing multimedia library. Trust me, you’ll use this CD-ROM as often as the kids.

New in the Deluxe version are bunches of fun, power tools! Check out these stats: 2,500 Stamps (330 animated!!); 589 clip art pieces; 262 maps; 150 backgrounds; and 160 sensational sounds.

Also, 70 Pencils; 84 Wacky Brush effects; 126 Wild Paints & Patterns; 28 Electric Mixer Effects, an animated alphabet and a bunch of eraser tools. There’s even a new speech tool which lets kids hear what they’ve typed–in both English and Spanish.

But, who’s counting?

Six excellent art and animation programs include Kid Pix, a classic painting and drawing program where creativity rules–even if your child can’t draw on paper; Moopies (”moving pictures”), an Animation 101 experience where kids dabble with Wacky Brushes, Rubber Stamps, Alphabet Stamps and an Electric Mixer for some crazy effects; Stampimator, the hands-down activity of choice which lets kids animate Rubber Stamps and drag them along a moving path to create their own path on the computer screen.

Computer marionettes controlled by a keyboard? Why not? You’ll find plenty of fun in Digital Puppets, an activity where puppets magically spring to life with the click of a mouse. Don’t miss Wacky TV, a virtual movie viewer where kids can watch their own flicks which they’ve made and saved for SlideShows. Speaking of SlideShows, here’s where you see the big picture–the whole enchilada. Kids can add Kid Pix pictures and projects to tell special stories or preview their masterpieces.

Other cool stuff to mention: you can record your own voice and import and export pics (JPEG, GIF, MBP, PCD and PICT files). A nice, new feature is the ability to resize graphics and text, preview graphics and fonts and access all of the cool fonts as easy as 1-2-3.

Is this software all play and no work? Absolutely not! It has plenty of practical applications, especially for use in the school classroom or home schools. Kids can create artwork for school reports, maps for school projects, multimedia projects while boosting their creativity by playing over 80 “Rainy Day Activities” on this CD-ROM.

Whether kids are staging an outrageous puppet show, producing a multimedia slide presentation or choosing music clips and special sound effects for their unique projects, Kid Pix Studio Deluxe technology enables them to expand their imaginations and world of learning!

Perfect for at home or the classroom, Kid Pix Studio Deluxe is a classic that just keeps getting classier! No wonder it’s a “Best of 98″ winner at The REVIEW ZONE!

Shari Lewis and her trusty side-kick Lamb Chop do a fine job introducing kids to music in a fun and clever way. Before Lamb Chop learns to play the piano, Shari urges Lamb Chop to learn something about all of the instruments before deciding which one to play.

So, come along with Lamb Chop and friends as music comes alive in this enriching adventure. Children (3 to 7 years old) learn about more than 50 accurately rendered musical instruments. Lamb Chop Loves Music is a must for young music learners and for anyone who wants to introduce the magic of music to a young child. Shari Lewis also retells the classic children’s story, The Musicians of Bremen, as Lamb Chop joins the Horse, Dog, Cat and other animal friends in a fantastic musical story adventure with lots of exciting clickable “hot spots”.

Kids will also discover different musical styles from classical and jazz to rock n’ roll by playing Lamb Chop Loves Music.

The center of all the activities and games is Lamb Chop’s Bedroom. Here, you can click The Big Poster to start the story in the play along mode. There are many hidden clickables in each story screen. For younger kids, clicking The Radio allows the story to be read aloud without turning pages. If your kids have a favorite page, they can skip the narration and click on The Open Book where they can pick a page and view it in the play along mode to interact with.

Want to play in a real (well, almost) music store? A store where kids are encouraged to play each instrument as long as they want? Come into the Music Store by clicking The Piano in Lamb Chop’s room. There are four instrument rooms, each represents a different family of instruments. The Violin Door leads to the String Room, The Clarinet Door opens to the Woodwind Room, The Trombone Door shows you to the Brass Room and The Drum Door takes you to the Percussion Room.

In the Music Store, you can also watch Cat, Horse, Raccoon and Bear play some of their favorite musical instruments in a variety of musical styles. Learn the shapes and sounds of the string, woodwind, brass and percussion instruments and how each is played by spending time in the store.

There are five fun-filled games to challenge and entertain your child’s musical mind. The Musical Memory Game tests kids’ memory skills as they listen to the animal musicians play their instruments and then try to repeat the order in which they were played. Four-year-old Timmy didn’t enjoy this challenging game, which would be more appealing to older kids.

The Wacky Musicians Game is a hilarious activity where a concert stage filled with musicians begin to play, but something is definitely wrong because some of their instruments are making the wrong sounds! Kids shake their heads as they listen to a flute that booms like a trombone, a drum that sings like a violin and other wacky sounds. Our young detectives must solve the mystery of which instruments sound right and which are definitely wrong. This is a game that kids can play for hours.

Another mystery game is Find The Sound Game. Help Dog find the instrument that matches the mysterious sound. This is an extremely educational game where kids search the music room to find the correct instrument which matches the sound. If kids guess wrong, Dog will give them help by repeating the sound. You can always hear the sound again by clicking on the Musical Note Button. Some instruments sound similar, so pay attention in this zany game!

I didn’t like the Stop The Robbers Game. Here, the stereotypical robber is a man with a mask over his eyes and the object of the game is to stop the robbers before they reach the musical instruments by clicking on the correct instrument when its sound is played. There are four robbers sneaking towards four instruments. If you’re successful, the robber will be stopped and put behind bars as a cage drops over him. The kids thought this game was funny, but it would have been nicer if Lamb Chop and friends would have been in this game instead of the obvious cliche good guys vs. bad guys theme.

In the Song Jumble Game, favorite children’s song have been scrambled and the pictures represent lyrics to four different parts of the song. Kids rearrange the pieces into the correct musical and visual order by clicking on one of four different squares. This game is a great way to introduce your kids to classic kids’ tunes and gives them practice in musical sequencing skills.

Between live-action video with 11-time Emmy winner Shari Lewis and lovable puppet Lamb Chop and the introduction to music for young kids, Philips Media deserves a round of applause for Lamb Chop Loves Music.

I’m still getting tons of mail about this software–Mac users want in on the fun! I’d like to see a Mac version of this CD-ROM, too! One option for Mac owners is to get a PC compatibility card (or PC emulating software)to play Windows software. Unfortunately, it’s not always a sure-fix, especially when it comes to playing this particular game. The CD-ROM seemed to crash more often than not on the PowerMac 7300/180 PC-compatible (with PC card) I used!

You’ll be blown away by the incredible full-motion animation (over 3 hours worth!) on this CD-ROM. If you use an MMX system, you’ll optimize the experience–gaining speed, smoother graphics and higher-quality images. Then again, it’s pretty easy to get sucked into the fantasy of LEGO world–there are missions to make, races to run and a whole lot of fun to be had!

All 35 LEGO characters walk and talk. Each has an unusual personality trait. Seven main characters start off the CD-ROM including The Infomaniac, The Brickster, Pepper, Mama and Papa Brickolini and Nick and Laura Brick. Here’s the fun part: kids click on one of them and do some role-playing, becoming one of the characters.

Build some LEGO vehicles, deliver pizza on a skateboard (yeah, right!), drive the cars, ride bikes, race jet skis, and bop on down to the pizzeria, the racetrack, or the gas station. The choice is yours–aah, idyllic island life!

Multi-level game play is self-leveling–while young players are satisfied by exploring the characters and the Island, older gamers will settle for nothing less than races and tough missions. The choice is theirs!

A LEGO mission? Can’t imagine it? How about this one– kids accidentally spring the resident bad-guy, the Brickster,from jail. What happens next is ultimate chaos as the bad dude disassembles the Island’s only chopper and attempts to destroy the Island–brick by brick! Kids help foil this devious mission by finding the missing bricks to piece the chopper together, locate the bad guy and participate in a hell-bent chase with flying doughnuts and spinning pizzas!

Hmmm..now you’re thinking …sounds like entertainment for the kids, but what are they learning? How about imaginative play, problem solving and map reading? Settle for them but know that nothing replaces 3-D manipulatives (just ask your kid’s teacher and they’ll tell you the same!). It would be nice to find some real LEGO characters or blocks thrown in with this software. Maybe, next time (you know, in the Macintosh version). Or, you could make a LEGO run to the store! Nah, not after plunking down nearly $40 to buy this one. Let the kids save their allowances to buy more LEGO bricks!

The action game is nonlinear, which means there are alot of different game possibilities. Of course, this means the CD-ROM gets played over and over again due to its random variability.

One of the most creative, comic book-style instruction manuals for kids is also included with the software.

Gotta go–it’s time to catch that skateboarding pizza delivery dude or else, I’ve got to cook dinner. Whoa–reality check!

Well, there’s good news and bad news for parents of girls into Lisa Frank stuff. The good news is that you might not have to buy all of it from the store. Your daughter can make her own Lisa Frank creations. But, for the bad news, read on. I’m not sure this will save you much money, if any!

Girls ages 6-12 years usually go ga-ga over the pink bunnies, the yellow puppies, the glittery horses, and the lovable teddy bears on Lisa Frank merchandise–which has a huge range from stickers to stationery to software! Sure, it’s an empire with millions of loyal fans. They call them “Frankologists”, that is, according to the handy dictionary you’ll find in the CD-ROM, which also includes words such as “likodelic”, “colorageous”, “Friend Zen”, and “packcrud” (all the junk that settles at the bottom of your kid’s backpack–probably some Lisa Frank stickers and pencils, too).

Enter Lisa Frank Interactive’s Paper Play Studio! Although recommended for kids (it’s really aimed at girls) ages 5 and up, I’d suggest that anyone under age 10 be supervised when playing this software. There’s a reason I say this! EVERYTHING is printable and 18 projects, which include “groovy” stationery, greeting cards, stickers, invitations, postcards, card envelopes, card boxes, stationery envelopes, note paper, note cards, little postcards, certificates, signs, photo pages, bookmarks, pencil wrappers, wrapping paper and more are ink hogs and require plenty of ink. Forget the coloring crayons, mom and dad, this is serious ink.

Prepare to shell out some cash for a few new color inkjet cartridges when buying this software if you plan to give this software to your daughter –hoping it will keep her happy for hours . If buying plenty of inkjet cartridges is painful (inkjet cartridges aren’t cheap–around $25-30 per cartridge), then you should monitor your kid when playing this CD-ROM. At any rate, asking permission to print things on the family printer is always a nice habit for kids to get into. Otherwise, it could spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E the next time you need to print something important (like the book report that was due yesterday).

You’ll find over 100 sticker and stationery templates which truly are Lisa Frank designs. You can also create your own semi-original art. If you invest in some glossy paper, you can get a more realistic effect.

A plastic bag filled with decorations is included with the software. This little bag turned out to be the biggest hit–girls will find feathers, beads, lace, neon-colored ribbons and little plastic confetti-like cutouts (all of which eventually will wind up on the floor!).

Considering the fun factor (girls love making personalized award certificates, stationery and stickers!) and the long-term costs involved (figure $30 or less for the software and another $25 for a cartridge), this would make an ideal gift—with the holidays or a birthday coming around. Think of it this way, it would be an excellent present for a friend (you can let the friend’s parents buy the extra inkjet cartridge that way).

Three nice features includes a nice assortment of interesting fonts; an address book which girls can print out to include their friends, phone numbers, e-mail and mailing addresses and there’s even a space for the URLs of their own home pages; and the ability to import favorite photos into the program.

Oh, and about that little plastic bag of decorations—make sure your daughter or the girls playing with the software get on their knees and pick up all the way cool stuff before nasty Mr. Vacuum sucks it up! Kids who clean up after their art projects are nice to have around! Who likes to vacuum, anyways?

With over 100 learning activities in this software, it’s a bargain at less than $20. One thing I noticed right away is the abundance of printable away-from-the-computer activities. Many of the activities lend well at home and in the classroom–especially the seek-a-word puzzles, mazes, and craft ideas.

The creative activities help kids build their memory and problem-solving skills. They also touch on logic, science, French and Spanish, geography and vocabulary.

The main screen is Madeline’s house–just click on a variety of objects which will lead you to the bazillions (I mean hundreds) of activities. Unfortunately, there weren’t any hidden clickables or “hot spots” for 5-year-olds to explore. It would have been a nice feature–especially on the main screen. However,this software gets down to business–that is, learning games that are fun to play! Let the games begin!

A mega-fun, multi-level Concentration-like matching game is intense as kids match picture to picture, picture to word and picture to sound by clicking on the right cards. Paying attention to small details pays off as children can select from 10 different categories: 12 Girls, Animal Sounds, Objects En Francais, Objects En Espanol, Animal Environments, Grab Bag, Flags & Countries, Jobs & Tools, Paris Landmarks, and Musical Instruments.

For children who love to color and draw, there’s a coloring book paint program where kids can dabble their brushes in paint and then decorate their drawings with 78 interesting rubber stamps (including Madeline in many different poses). The pleasant background music is a nice touch.

Exploring the Print Shop is similar to watching a kid go crazy in a candy shop! Here, kids can find plenty of away-from-the-computer fun when they print cards and stickers (you can use Avery Kids Big Round Stickers #3113 for the sticker activities and Avery Kids Postcards #3611).

It’s great fun making postcards from Paris or Madrid! There are tons of Games and Puzzles, Paper Dolls, Science, Word Games, and Arts & Crafts activities waiting to be printed. One suggestion: supervise your kids when they start printing out stuff–especially the mazes and word searches as the computer will automatically print the game AND the solution on two different pages. This way you can grab the solution page before your kids get to it!).

The Dress Up game isn’t only for girls. After all, you’ve got to accessorize! It’s accessories that makes the outfit. Kids can choose five different Madeline characters (including the dog) to decorate!

Looking for more games? Kids can play Madeline’s Trivia on the computer. This will prove once and for all how much they really know about Madeline and her adventures! They can also learn to identify Holiday symbols; play Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme Trivia; play The Right Madeline (a matching game where kids pay attention to Madeline’s different facial expressions); play Where Am I When (the most challenging game of all which gives kids a chance at exploring different languages of the world; learn about Animal Groups; play more Dress-Up Clothing; play Going to Extremes (tall and short, fast and slow concepts); learn all about Occupations and play Odd Girl Out (another matching game).

Interested in manipulating puzzles on the computer? Then check out the Brainteasers/Puzzles section where kids can play with a dozen different black and white patchwork-like patterns–some of them very intricate indeed! There’s a handy arrow to rotate pieces so that puzzle pieces fit exactly right.

Younger kids love dot-to-dot activities and you’ll find five of them to play on this CD-ROM. If your children love silly stories, they’ll enjoy Make A Silly Story, a super reading activity where they can choose from a variety of nouns and adjectives to fill in the blanks to several stories.

Check back at the Print Shop and you’ll find there are signs that your kids can print to decorate their walls, doors and ceilings. Clever sayings like “I’m the Best”, and “Genius At Work” or their own customized signs (like STAY OUT OF MY ROOM, TIMMY!) makes this activity popular with most kids, especially older siblings who want their baby brothers and sisters OUT of their rooms!

Remember, don’t let the title fool you! Madeline Rainy Day Activities is excellent to play any day of the year–regardless of the weather.

Aimed at kids ages 5-12, this software that will fuel any child’s creative energies! In fact, I fell in love with this CD-ROM and strongly recommend it to kids AND adults of all ages! Perfect for at home or in the classroom, it’s a bargain when it comes to edutainment software!

If you’re a fan of Broderbund’s famous Kid Pix software, you’ll love the competition’s Make A Masterpiece.

Your guide is an eccentric animated character named Scribble who sports a hilarious French accent. He’s your man when it comes to studio art–whether you choose to use realistic traditional tools (crayon, chalk, marker, pencil, oil and watercolor) or wacky tools (multi-color foaming shaving cream, popping popcorn, patterns, lines and flickering neon). There are also crazy effects such as ribbons, food (kids love splattering their art with fried eggs, tomatoes, blueberry pie and spaghetti!), “smudge”, airbrush and Picture Mill (create an instant forest in seconds!). Don’t miss the amazing magic effects wand which lets you convert your creation into a dozen different art styles from mosaic to charcoal! Kids love the awesome animated stickers like a giant green frog leaping across the screen!Art tools are arranged in easy to use palettes–just click to pick a color, a brush stroke size, or scroll through a rainbow of colors. You can even mix hundreds of your own paint combinations and give them special names!

This software provides special inspiration! Go to the Journal and read about famous artists, art styles and techniques (there’s an option where the text can be read aloud) and view artwork from The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the State Heritage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Perfect for the classroom, it provides kids with the right amount of art history to keep them interested in art!

Need a Personal Art Mentor? You’ve got it when you click on Scribble’s suitcase, where you can find idea starters in six different themes: ocean, mountain, city, rainforest, desert and Artic. Each theme contains 15 color (photographs, sketches and drawings) or outline backgrounds which you can use as a starting point to make your own masterpiece! Beware of that realistic coyote sound that pops up out of nowhere in one of the desert scenes. My dogs were really fooled–they were convinced that a coyote had invaded their home. Guess you could say the sound effects are very realistic!

A nice feature of this program is that you can import photographs and your own graphics into it (JPEG, BMP, PICT and KODAK Photo CD). This gives you the option of sending your creations as e-mail attachments–you could even e-mail your unique Christmas or birthday cards with this software!

Your art (no matter how silly!) won’t go unrecognized in Make A Masterpiece! You can save your artwork in your own gallery and showcase it in a slide show.

When it comes to art programs that are easy to use for artistically challenged individuals, budding artists, or an entire class of 6th graders, Make A Masterpiece can’t be beat! Run to the stores and grab this one! Mastering this program is a cinch!