Blue's 123 Time Activities
Company: Humongous Entertainment
Estimated Price: CD-ROM, $19.99
http://www.humongous.com

Blue's 123 Time Activities is created for the 3 to 6 year old age group.

Blue's 123 Time Activities

As you start the game you are reminded to register your program. Please do! There are several advantages to this, including the Humongous online site.

Blue's 123 is arithmetic's answer to Blue's ABC! Can you have fun learning math? You just sit back and watch your children. The object is to collect enough Blue Dollars to buy the prizes offered at the "Backyard Fair Prize Tent."

Let's go to the Fair!

We start by spelling our names. The color of the names can be changed. I choose Red! This area is big enough that even the smallest of hands should have no trouble clicking inside the boxes.

Now into the fair grounds with Blue. Blue keeps track of our dollars in his backpack. There are several games for you to play. Blue enters the fairgrounds and waits while you choose where to go. Wow, what a decision... let's go to Mother May I. For this you click on the Shovel and Pail. Blue grabs our backpack and off we go.

At Mother May I, you meet the Shovel and the Pail who explain the game. This game is fashioned after the old childhood game that I remember from my youth, Mother May I. You play against others' characters. The Shovel and the Pail tell you how many steps to take. You must take the right amount of steps to advance and win. This game is for beginners and it's lots of fun! A three year-old toddler should be able to play this game. You get a dollar every time you play, even if you do not win. You can continue to play and collect Blue's dollars for as long as you want. When you are ready to leave this game for another, you click on the thick blue arrow.

We leave this game are for the center of the fair again. Now we are off to...

Baby Bear's Card Game! Now we are going to play a matching game. Baby Bear explains the game. This is a little more advanced then the previous game and would be great fun for the children over four. Ok, let's play. Let's see how we do. The cards are matched by numbers, colors or shapes. The first card to be matched from Baby Bear is a blue five triangle. Let's see... no, I don't have that but I have a blue three. That works. Now Baby Bear plays a red two... Yes, I have a red three... oh no, he played a green square, all I have left is a red circle... now I must take a new card from the pile until I match or until I have five. Oh no, I lose my turn; no matches. This continues until one of us is completely out of cards. Well Baby Bear won... but I still get a Blue dollar for playing.

Ok, let's go to one more game. Let's make this one a little harder. So let's go to Bell's Souvenir Stand. This is for the older children. Here we must work with weights and memory. This takes more dexterity then the previous games because you must move souvenirs to the weights, and then to the customer's bag. The customer only tells you the weight that they want. You must weigh the objects and then put the correct weight in the customer's bag. You cannot just think which item will weigh the right amount, you must weigh the souvenirs.

There are several more games that you can play: Pattern Parade, Tink's Train Ride, and Sort Snack. But if I play all of these games I will never get this review finished and will leave nothing for you to discover.

So I am off to the Big Prize Tent with my Blue dollars. In the prize tent you are shown many different prize parts that when put together make a surprise toy. You are asked to buy a prize and then you must count out the correct amount of dollars and place them in the cash drawer. In return the cash register gives you the prize that you bought. If you do not have enough money for all of the prizes which is needed to put your surprise toy together, you may return to the fair.

As we leave Steve sings to us... thank you, Steve! It was fun playing all the games at the fair.

Each time you win at a game the instructions--and the games--become more challenging. There are different facts and skills to be learned at each game. I had so much fun playing the games and I'm a grandmother! The program creates an atmosphere where the children must use their basic and advanced, math skills. The basic skills are: addition and subtraction; how much things weigh; and to recognize a pattern. The more advanced games offer counting and sorting, and prediction and estimation (as in the weight and measurment games).

The color and graphics are fantastic! They grab and hold the attention of both 3 year toddler and the 6 year old school age child. Blue's little song is so catchy that I found myself winning another "Blue's dollar" just so I could sing it with him! The program is so easy to travel through that it can be done by all ages without a lot of help from the parents.

To get to Quit, play, and Restart, you must use the Option key to activate the menu bar at the top of the screen. This is a small thing, and since it wasn't an inconvenience to me I don't feel it will bother a parent, either.

What you get
Blue's 123 Time Activities comes with a CD. The CD also has product demos so you can sample other Humgonous games. Please do! I think you will find that you and your child will be hooked on all the wonderful characters that Humgonous has to offer. Humongous included a wonderful reviewer's kit that was very helpful to me. The package included an information guide, and on a separate CD, character art and screen shots. Once again, thank you Humgonous!

Your child can get a Blue's screen saver by visiting the Humongous website at http://www.humongous.com Here Humongous offers game tricks and tips. Your child will also have the opportunity to join the Humongous Club and to join in online gaming fun!

Requirements and Installation:
Blue's 123 Time Activities requires Mac OS 7.5.3 or greater, PowerPC (90MHz recommended), 16 MB RAM, and a 4X CD-ROM. There is no installation. The CD also runs a video and CD-ROM speed test the first time it is launched.

Summary
Blue's 123 Time Activities are great fun. It is the first game that I have found that truly satisfies my definition of a game properly designed for a 3- to 6 year-old child. It's a great learning tool both for the beginning toddler and for the early school age child. I would strongly recommend this program to all of you interested in the early development of your child's math skills.

MacMice Rating: 3

Lyn Price
vlprice@earthlink.com