What is KidsTime?

For a computer that’s so easy to use, Mac still has very few quality programs for children. KidsTime from Great Wave Software addresses that lack with five terrific programs for kids.

The KidsTime programs cover a good range of activities, and each program has many options that affect their difficulty level; as a result, kids from 3 to 12 will find this collection interesting. The fact that most of the programs use MacInTalk for speech generation makes a good thing even better.

ABKey is for beginners—letters appear on the screen and the child finds the match from the keyboard. Options include upper or lowercase letters, single or double letters, three speeds, voice and pictures. (For pictures, type the first letter of the picture's name.) The options are not mutually exclusive; users can, for instance, mix upper and lowercase letters. An interesting sound and graphic reward appears after enough right answers.

Dot-to-Dot is a terrific adaptation of the pencil and paper game. You don't even have to click on the dots—placing the mouse over the dot is sufficient, which makes it easy for even the youngest child to do by hit-and-miss. Dots can be labeled by letters or numbers of various sizes; when the outline is complete, the rest of the picture shows up. With the editor provided, you can turn any MacPaint picture into a Dot-to-Dot challenge.

Match presents an almost bewildering variety of options, making it useful to a wide age range. In each game, a truck rolls by and dumps rows of cards on the screen; you have to drag the cards to their proper positions. Sometimes this means putting a puzzle back together; one variation asks you to find the matching letter or shape cards; another option requires you to match letters and pictures. As you make correct matches, those cards are piled up at the edge of the screen, and when the pile gets too big the truck comes by to pick them up again, A special utility program available to registered users lets you create puzzles and match games, controlling both the pictures and the degree of difficulty.

StoryWriter is a mini-WacWrite that reads whatever your child types. What makes it extra-special is that you can type pictures with the special Storybook font provided; the pictures are read as words. Even if your child is too young to do the typing, she'll appreciate hearing one that you typed in with pictures.

KidsNotes is unbelieveably sophisticated for being "just" a unit in a package, but then what else would you expect from the makers of ConcertWare? Enter notes from the Mac keyboard or from the on-screen piano; specify the time value of each note, or play in rea) time. The notes are played as you enter them, and appear on a musical staff. You can play back your compositions at different volumes and speeds.

The KidsTime documentation is strong on educational theory, but a little light on specific instructions—a few screen shots would help immensely. The whole package is wonderful enough for you to overlook its rough edges—pictures in ABKey, for instance, are enlarged from the picture font and thus are ragged outlines. The rough edges keep KidsTime from getting a five-mouse rating, but they shouldn't keep you from getting KidsTime.

Zardetto Aker, Sharon. (October 1986). KidsTime. MacUser. (pg. 33).

Download KidsTime for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Mini vMac