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Little Bear Rainy Day Activities By Pam Gleichman Tribune Media Services Maurice Sendak�s Little Bear Rainy Day Activities is based on the award winning Little Bear books, videos and Nickelodeon television show. You�ll join Little Bear and Mother Bear for a day of indoor activities, including making and decorating cookies with Mother Bear, playing matching games and dress up with Little Bear and his friends, solving puzzles, and creating scenes with stickers and paint pictures. Many of these activities can be printed. There are also several activities to print for time away from the computer. Our testers really enjoyed this program. They were all familiar with Little Bear and his friends. The activities are easy enough for the 3-year-old set, yet they maintain the interest of children who are 5 years old. A favorite game is making cookies with Mother Bear. Children "read" the list of ingredients to put in the bowl, choose cookie cutter shapes, "cut" the cookies out, decorate them and "print" the finished product All of the activities develop skills well and, amazingly, children liked them. Although the box mentions "over 100 fun-filled activities," there are actually seven activities. The puzzles, for example, have five different puzzles with three levels of difficulty. I am assuming this is counted as 15 "different" activities. Though the "hype" is a bit bothersome, the program offers good value. There are 18 different activities and projects to print for use away from the computer. Publisher : Creative Wonders/The Learning Company, 6493 Kaiser Drive, Fremont, Calif. 94555, (510) 792-2101, http://www.learningco.com . Category : Early Learning. Age : 3 and up. Installation : Easy. Use : Easy to use. We did experience problems with the mouse. It jumped around making it impossible for children to control. I spoke with technical support, however, and was given a prompt solution to the problem. Graphics : Cute. Written Materials : Installation instructions are included on the CD jacket. System Requirements : Windows 95/98, 486/66 MHz or faster, 16MB RAM, 7MB free hard disk space, 4X speed or faster CD-ROM, 256 color display, Soundblaster or compatible, mouse, color printer. Macintosh PowerPC or higher, System 7.5 and up, 16 MB, 7MB free hard disk space, 4X speed or faster CD-ROM, 256 color display, mouse, color printer. Tested Version : Windows 95/98/Macintosh CD-ROM. Cost : $29.95. Rating : Three and a half stars. Little Bear Rainy Day Activities is an adorable, easy-to-use program for young children. DEAR PAM : I have twin boys who are turning eight next month. Since they love Pokemon, I was wondering if you knew of any Pokemon games for the computer? DEAR READER : The Learning Company is currently developing two programs based on the video game. The two titles, Pokemon Project Studio Red and Pokemon Project Studio Blue will focus on creativity and imagination. There are more than 250 creative projects involving Pokemon trading cards, calendars, T-shirts and photo frames. Each version contains 80 of the 150 Pokemon characters. They are scheduled for release in November. You can also go to http://www.topthemes.com and download a free desktop theme (wallpaper, sound, pointers and icons) for Pokemon. Your boys will love this! WEB SITE OF THE WEEK THE HUNGER SITE http://www.thehungersite.com All you do is click a button and somewhere in the world some hungry person gets a meal to eat at no cost to you. The food is paid for by corporate sponsors. You are only allowed one click per day so spread the word to others. RATING KEY : ***** � Outstanding; **** � Very Good; *** � Good; ** � Fair; * � Not Worth Purchasing. Pam Gleichman welcomes questions/comments from readers. Write to Pam at Tribune Media Services, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400, Chicago, Ill. 60611. Send e-mail to [email protected] . © 1999 Tribune Media Services, Inc. Techno file index Mail Tribune Copyright © The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA