Fun School 3... Fun School 3...

Database £24.99

If you are still looking for something to keep the toddler quiet then this is your salvation. The package of six different games covers simple counting, letter recognition (both lower case and capitals), colours and cursor control.

All the games work their way up through different skill levels and are self-correcting. They are simple to operate, using only the space bar and return keys. You could even put stickers on the keys to help younger children. A teddy motif is featured in all six games, making him a familiar friend by the end of your first session. You can meet all his buddies at the fairground as you match letters of the alphabet and your reward for correctly identifying each combination is an ice-cream for teddy and his pals. The animation is fairly good and the animals sit in eager anticipation of filling their tums with grub!

Overall, the content is pitched to catch the attention of the under fives. The educational value of such a program should not be underestimated.



Fun School 3... ...Under 5s CDTV

£24.99 EUROPRESS SOFTWARE

Straight Amiga port, this: no enhancements at all. It's a collection of six little games designed to teach basic reading, comprehension and maths skills to pre-school children. The games involve: picking out the capital letter that matches the lower-case letter on the screen; choosing a word (hop, sit, read etc) to make Teddy do the action; counting a number of objects; connecting a word with a picture of the object; matching pairs of shapes; and colouring in a farming scene.

It's not the most impressive set of ideas in the world, but children do love the simplicity of these games because they can deal with them easily on their own. The fact that this does not exploit the capabilities of CD at all makes this version no news at all for Amiga owners who can buy it on floppy; but it falls into the category of stuff that it would be a shame for CDTV owners to miss out on.

At the same time, it seems it's purely marketing that stops Europress from putting all the Fun Schools on one CD. The question you should ask yourselves is are you being ripped off?



Fun School 3... ...Under 5s CDTV

EUROPRESS * £24.99

A collection of six little educational games which deal with such terribly basic concepts as numbers and letters. Kids genuinely enjoy having a bash at it and can be left to their own devices once they have mastered the mouse. Pity it is a straight Amiga port.



Fun School 3... ...5-7s logo

Database £24.99

Telling the time, adding up, using money, direction finding, connecting up electrical circuits and a jolly introduction to databases are all skills which are included in this comprehensive package! The second in the Fun School series of educational disks is aimed at the slightly older group of five to seven year olds. The more sophisticated children get a frog instead of a teddy as a recurring motif, but otherwise the same high standards of graphics and user-friendliness apply.

The games are all easy to operate and well thought out, with the possible exception of the electricity program. Here you are asked to complete circuits to make bells ring or light bulbs illuminate. Surely it would be much simpler to give the children a small battery, some bits of wire and so on and leave them to discover for themselves what conducts and what insulates?

The most consistently popular program in the package has been 'Telling the Time'. The manual calls the reward for correct time telling 'a sonic and graphics extravaganza' and that is exactly what it is! Teddies dance round the clock and pop out like cuckoos.



Fun School 3... ...5-7s CDTV logo CDTV

£24.99 EUROPRESS SOFTWARE

Essentially very similar to the other Fun School title, this is again a straight port of the two-year-old Amiga version. Because this is for an older age group, it involves a couple of more challenging concepts in the skills it is attempting to reinforce.

Of the six small games, four are pretty simple, involving: picking out the right object in the toyshop; telling the time on a clock with hands; guiding the frog to the place identified by a word; guiding the frog around the pond picking up mathematical symbols and numbers to create a correct sum.

The other two are somewhat more adventurous, one testing knowledge of simple electrical circuits and the other teaching the basic skills involved in using a computer database.

These differences aside, the same applies for this disc as for the other Fun School title. The Fun School series, and their well-thought out characters, remain enduringly popular with Amiga owners and children take to them very easily, but you can't help feeling that the asking price is a bit too high.



Fun School 3... ...5-7s CDTV logo CDTV

EUROPRESS * £24.99

This version of educational games for older kids has some more enterprising ideas, like basic electronics, and more of an emphasis on computer concepts, but overall exactly the same applies as for the Under 5's.



Fun School 3... ...Over 7s logo

Database £24.99

Too old for teddies or frogs? The Database team have come up with a package aimed at the 7+ range. Your guide this time is a rather chunky looking little robot (is this sexism - it is a very masculine symbol?!). Again, there is a choice of six different programs: a Treasure Search, which introduces the use of simple co-ordinates; Planetary Maths, an arcade-style maths tester; a spelling and grammar checker; a LOGO look-alike drawing utility; a very sophisticated database and - of all things - a wordsearch grid!

The whole feel of this package is a bit contrived. It is almost as if the team had run out of original ideas to use. To have resorted to a wordsearch is practically unforgivable - and you could hardly claim that it conforms to the National Curriculum! It really is a waste of disk space when you can buy whole books of these things at the corner newsagents for 25p or so!

Still, the database is well worth having a look at. It not only lets you have a go at playing with an electronic filing system, but has also cleverly incorporated a test facility so that you can use the program as a sort of limitless quiz.

Of all the Funschool 3 packages, this was by far the least attractive. However, having said that, it still remains one of the best-produced, professional packages around for the Amiga. Perhaps that says more about the state of educational software than anything else.


FUN AT SCHOOL?

Database's series is great value for money - six different programs per disk, lovely graphics, extremely well documented, and a badge to wear! What more could you possibly want?
The hook that they (and most other so-called educational software released lately) use, is that of the National Curriculum. Parents are now convinced that their little darling needs an extra boost to have even a faint chance of keeping up. Database even use the marketing slogan 'give your child an unfair advantage'. What no-one tells you is that there is precious little new about any of the targets of the National Curriculum - it is just that they have written down formally for the first time what most teachers have been doing for years. So, do not panic!