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Just Grandma and Me |
ContentsGeneral InformationSummary Review details Contacting the Vendor and Comments ForumsComputers and KidsRelated ArticlesTop Ten Titles For the HolidaysFinding the Best Software for Different Ages |
Vendor: BroderbundProduct SpecificationsMacintosh Requirements: 256 color Macintosh, 4MB of RAM, System 6.0.7 or higher, CD-ROM drive.MPC Requirements: 386SX or higher, Super VGA (640x480x256 colors), Windows 3.1, 4MB of RAM, CD-ROM drive, Sound Blaster or Sound Blaster Pro and compatibles. List price$39.95KidSource OnLine RatingA rating from 1 to 5 stars:**** Excellent. Consistently above average in the all key categories. Back to the Table of Contents SummaryProduct descriptionJust Grandma and Me is an interactive re-telling of the children's story of the same name by Mercer Mayer. Each page of the book has been animated, telling the story of Little Critter and his Grandma's trip to the beach. Children have a choice of having the story read to them, or browsing each page and clicking on hot-spots to discover the animations or sounds. The CD-ROM is done in 8-bit (256 colors).Age levelBroderbund advertises it for grades pre-K to 4 or for ages 3 through 8, but we started playing it with our son when he was under 2 years old. Even if your child can't use a mouse, it is a beautiful story to interactively tell your children as they sit on your lap.CategoryEarly education/interactive storytelling. By following along as the story is being read, children can learn new words and phrases. This product is a good way for young computer users to learn hand-eye coordination by becoming proficient with a mouse.Overall valueYes, this product is worth the money. If you have young children and are looking for your first CD-ROM title, or one to add to your collection, this is a must-have.Support policyFrom their on-line forum: "All Broderbund Software is guaranteed for 90 days from the date of shipment to the original purchaser." For phone technical support they request a"personal product registration" number or the owners manual available to prove ownership. Broderbund has a wide-range of on-line areas (see below.)Back to the Table of Contents Review detailsReview processThis product has been uses on a series of Macintosh computers, from a Quadra 700 to 800 (these CPU's have the same or lower performance than today's new Apple CPU's for the home), using a 2x CD-ROM drive, 8 or 24-bit graphics support and a 13" or above display. It has been used on both 7.1 and 7.5 operating systems. We have had the product for about 1 year and has been played with extensively by my son alone (who's now 2.5 years old ) and he and his parents together.We did **NOT** use this on a Windows machine, just our Mac. If you have questions about Windows support, contact Broderbund directly. See the end of this page for contact information. Computer skill levelDepending upon your child's ability to use a mouse, children can begin playing with it about 2 years of age or older. Once started, Just Grandma and Me is a "point and click" product, no other computer skills are required.Installation and configurationOn our Macintosh, it worked the first time. We didn't read any instructions, we just put it in the drive, clicked on the icon and started playing. If your monitor is set to other than 8-bit (256 colors) it will ask you if it can change it, and then it changes it back when you are done.Functionality and PerformanceThe product advertisements do not do justice to the quality of the animations. We were pleasantly suprised with how much more the CD had than we expected. There are ample animations on each page so there is much to keep a child involved.It does take a while to go from page to page. My 2 year old would begin to lose patience while waiting. Sometimes he would start banging away on the keyboard and would hit a key sequence that would either take it to a different page or would change languages. (Most of the time, he didn't mind if it read back to him in Japanese. ) The advantage of the long downloads is that once you're on a page, the animation playback is pretty quick. LongevityNot only did my son enjoy the CD-ROM, he began to enjoy looking at the book version. With the many pages and many animations on a page, we had many hours of enjoyment with it. The duration of each session depends upon your childs attention span, but my son at age 2 could play with it for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. Now after playing with it for many months, is he moving on to other titles. I expect that he will come back to this one later when he begins to read.Educational valueJust Grandma and Me promotes several different types of learning skills. For early readers it reinforces basic reading skills (you can click on a word and it will be read to you, or as it reads the sentences, it highlights the individual words or phrases. For the very young, it helps improve their listening skills and it teachs them about "cause and effect " (I click here with the mouse and something happens there on the screen). Later, it will aid in basic reading skills. In the meantime in encourages exploration.Design qualityThe design is very rich, with many clever and some unexpected animations using a wide range of sound effects and music themes. The animations are quite cute and appropriate for young children.UsabilityThe interface is very consistent and very user friendly. It is a "point and click" interface. While it is easy for an adult to exit the program, it is not as easy for a very young child, so you can leave them alone while playing (for a little while) and not worry about them going off and erasing your hard disk.If you set up the program in "read to me" mode, it advances from page (i.e. screen) to page automatically and children can be told the story from beginning to end (this feature is a good for "babysitting" when you need it). Or you can start the program on any page, by selecting "Options" at the start of the program. This works well if your child spends a long time on the first few pages and grows tired of them sp you want to begin another session at a later page. Kid-ProofnessWhen it is set up in full-screen mode (the default mode), the program is isolated from the rest of system until you exit. Exiting the program requires the user to back out through several different screens, so you can only intentionally exit. While a determined child who understands the interface will be able to exit in a minute or so, a younger child probably won't. So depending upon your child's inquisitiveness and level of computer skills, you can decide if you wish to leave your child unattended during play. There are certain keystroke combinations that will either change the language or change the page, so if your child bangs away at the keyboard, they can have an effect. But we never found anything that was destructive such as crashing the system. It's pretty bullet-proof.Social valueIt is an unbiased, non-violent story using animals as key characters.ReliabilityWe did not find any problems when we played it on our configurations, or with our system extensions.Technical supportFor phone support, Broderbunds want you to have the "personal product registration" number or the owners manual available to show identification. We also tried the Broderbund on-line forums for information (see below), which is what they recommend if you don't have the identification numbers handy. When we called tech support to ask how to change the sound level from within the program, they were prompt and quite helpful. They found us a solution very quickly. Also, there is a regularly scheduled Technical Support chat scheduled for every Wednesday from 2-4 PM Pacific Standard Time on the CompuServe forum.Fun quotientThis is a beautiful title that my son enjoyed immensely. He has been continually suprised by many of the animations and sounds. Even now we occassionally find a new animation that we hadn't seen before.Fun things to doDon't forget to click on the clouds, sky and water in many scenes. While there may not be an object there, there often is an animation that shouldn't be missed.Other featuresThis is one of the few titles that is multi-lingual. You can select either English, Japanese or Spanish language versions at the start, or by pressing keys 1 (English), 2 (Japanese) or 3 (Spanish) while a screen is loading. (My son discovered this accidently) Some have used this feature to introduce the concept of a second language, or for bilingual education.Tech support told us that by hitting "command space-bar", the menu bar appears, giving access to the Apple menu. This allowed me to get to the sound control panel so I could adjust the sound level from within the program. For educators, they listed " Call Broderbund Software-Direct toll-free at 800-521-6263 for a complimentary copy of our school catalog, "Software for Education," with information on School Editions and Lab Packs. " Wish listThe only wish I have is to have a on-line help feature built in to indentify what the optional key stroke sequences do (such as changing the language options or accessing the menu bar). Even if they are in a manual, most users won't keep paper documentation around.Back to the Table of Contents Contacting the Vendor
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