Fantastically fun guide to the body Seemore Skinless, your mischievous 3D host, turns himself inside out, taking you on an interactive journey of wacky games, body quizzes and experiments. Supports Key Stages 1-2 Nat.Curriculum. Windows 95/98/NT4/2000Become a Human Body Explorer is an interesting CD-ROM full of information about the human body. It's aimed at children aged 6-10 years old, but would be best suited to older end of this age range.

Seemore Skinless, the helpful skeleton, guides the children through a wide range of games, quizzes and experiments. Children can play four fun interactive games, which involve, for example, collecting body parts by answering questions and learning about the body and choosing how Seemore should spend his day. There is an excellent search feature so that children can access information screens on a very wide range of topics. (Parents of younger children may want to supervise children's use of this, as there is information about reproduction and how our bodies change.) Children also have the opportunity to create their own Secret File, which contains information about themselves and can become a scrapbook of facts.

So once children have visited the information screens, played the games, answered brainteaser questions and found out amazing facts, they will have discovered all they need to know about the human body.

Become a Human Body Explorer would be a good buy for parents or teachers of children aged 8-11 years old. It encourages children to explore and find out about the human body in a fun and interesting way. --Amanda York

would not recomend, 25 Jul 2007
I bort it for my little girl and it is not worth buying. It keeps on freezing

Kids Love This, 09 Jan 2006
My two kids (5 and 8) love this game. I admit that the 5 year old mainly likes just moving the body parts around and dressing up Seemore Skinless, but it is all good educational fun.

The 8 year old is more interested in rotating / pushing / x-raying the body parts, clicking help to find out more and answering the brain-teasers.

It is nice to let either of them just get on with this one for long periods of time, with very little requests of help, even from the 5-year old.

Highly remmend this one.

this is funny, 22 May 2003
I went on this when I was in hospital and I really enjoyed it.I think the quiz bit where you collect the body parts and the bit where you can jumble up the body are really funny.I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable way to learn about the body.

Fun and brilliant!, 16 Dec 2002
My two girls (aged 5 and 7) love this. They have learned all the organs in the body, where they are situated and what they do. But most importantly they have learned all this in such a fun way. Every screen allows them to work forwards or backwards and each screen offers a great choice of things to do. DK make use of levers and buttons and arrows and lots of other mediums to get the idea across. The sound attached is relevant, and not at all annoying.
Any child who can use a mouse will sus out how to use the package very quickly and consequently mum and dad will have peace!.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

truly brilliant, 12 Oct 2002
I have three children ranging from seven to eleven and I can honestly say we have never had so much fun exploring the human body. I am a health professional and have studied human biology etc, but I still managed to learn. My kids absolutely loved it, they were inviting friends around to explore with them, the laughter and giggles was amazing. Yet another brilliant 'explorer' title.

would not recomend, 25 Jul 2007
I bort it for my little girl and it is not worth buying. It keeps on freezing

Kids Love This, 09 Jan 2006
My two kids (5 and 8) love this game. I admit that the 5 year old mainly likes just moving the body parts around and dressing up Seemore Skinless, but it is all good educational fun.

The 8 year old is more interested in rotating / pushing / x-raying the body parts, clicking help to find out more and answering the brain-teasers.

It is nice to let either of them just get on with this one for long periods of time, with very little requests of help, even from the 5-year old.

Highly remmend this one.

this is funny, 22 May 2003
I went on this when I was in hospital and I really enjoyed it.I think the quiz bit where you collect the body parts and the bit where you can jumble up the body are really funny.I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable way to learn about the body.

Fun and brilliant!, 16 Dec 2002
My two girls (aged 5 and 7) love this. They have learned all the organs in the body, where they are situated and what they do. But most importantly they have learned all this in such a fun way. Every screen allows them to work forwards or backwards and each screen offers a great choice of things to do. DK make use of levers and buttons and arrows and lots of other mediums to get the idea across. The sound attached is relevant, and not at all annoying.
Any child who can use a mouse will sus out how to use the package very quickly and consequently mum and dad will have peace!.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

truly brilliant, 12 Oct 2002
I have three children ranging from seven to eleven and I can honestly say we have never had so much fun exploring the human body. I am a health professional and have studied human biology etc, but I still managed to learn. My kids absolutely loved it, they were inviting friends around to explore with them, the laughter and giggles was amazing. Yet another brilliant 'explorer' title.

Hooked, 18 Jul 2007
Bought this for my 8 yr old to build her confidence. Just finished real school yr 3 so the first CD Yr3 is a really good refresher. She sat there for ages with her friend working through the questions, then still was eager to continue until bedtime. The storyline & graphics were very good having to collect items going round the map to finally get the keys. The pleasure from the kids when they acheive each of the answers and stages was great to hear. Not sure they realised how much homework they did. Good for me to pick up on a lot of school work areas that she had obviously covered that I never knew she had learnt. Great !!
She can't wait to get onto the next levels & CD's.

A big hit with the kids, 02 Apr 2006
My little boy (6) loves Cluefinders and is always striving to get to the next level. It seems to provide a good topic of conversation with his friends too.

would not recomend, 25 Jul 2007
I bort it for my little girl and it is not worth buying. It keeps on freezing

Kids Love This, 09 Jan 2006
My two kids (5 and 8) love this game. I admit that the 5 year old mainly likes just moving the body parts around and dressing up Seemore Skinless, but it is all good educational fun.

The 8 year old is more interested in rotating / pushing / x-raying the body parts, clicking help to find out more and answering the brain-teasers.

It is nice to let either of them just get on with this one for long periods of time, with very little requests of help, even from the 5-year old.

Highly remmend this one.

this is funny, 22 May 2003
I went on this when I was in hospital and I really enjoyed it.I think the quiz bit where you collect the body parts and the bit where you can jumble up the body are really funny.I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable way to learn about the body.

Fun and brilliant!, 16 Dec 2002
My two girls (aged 5 and 7) love this. They have learned all the organs in the body, where they are situated and what they do. But most importantly they have learned all this in such a fun way. Every screen allows them to work forwards or backwards and each screen offers a great choice of things to do. DK make use of levers and buttons and arrows and lots of other mediums to get the idea across. The sound attached is relevant, and not at all annoying.
Any child who can use a mouse will sus out how to use the package very quickly and consequently mum and dad will have peace!.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

truly brilliant, 12 Oct 2002
I have three children ranging from seven to eleven and I can honestly say we have never had so much fun exploring the human body. I am a health professional and have studied human biology etc, but I still managed to learn. My kids absolutely loved it, they were inviting friends around to explore with them, the laughter and giggles was amazing. Yet another brilliant 'explorer' title.

Hooked, 18 Jul 2007
Bought this for my 8 yr old to build her confidence. Just finished real school yr 3 so the first CD Yr3 is a really good refresher. She sat there for ages with her friend working through the questions, then still was eager to continue until bedtime. The storyline & graphics were very good having to collect items going round the map to finally get the keys. The pleasure from the kids when they acheive each of the answers and stages was great to hear. Not sure they realised how much homework they did. Good for me to pick up on a lot of school work areas that she had obviously covered that I never knew she had learnt. Great !!
She can't wait to get onto the next levels & CD's.

A big hit with the kids, 02 Apr 2006
My little boy (6) loves Cluefinders and is always striving to get to the next level. It seems to provide a good topic of conversation with his friends too.

Good for learning., 10 Mar 2008
Bought this for my grandchildren and they love it. The sticker Book is a big incentive and keeps them at it. The seven year old was struggling at school and working through the maths and English, with some help, gave him a lot of confidence. The younger two join in, and also do the lower level, and it becomes a joint exercise. All good stuff.

Early learning through play! Simple, fun, and effective games to help children read and count. 101 games to help your youngsterread and count including phonics, number, shapes and memory puzzles. Ages 3 to 5. Windows 95/98.

would not recomend, 25 Jul 2007
I bort it for my little girl and it is not worth buying. It keeps on freezing

Kids Love This, 09 Jan 2006
My two kids (5 and 8) love this game. I admit that the 5 year old mainly likes just moving the body parts around and dressing up Seemore Skinless, but it is all good educational fun.

The 8 year old is more interested in rotating / pushing / x-raying the body parts, clicking help to find out more and answering the brain-teasers.

It is nice to let either of them just get on with this one for long periods of time, with very little requests of help, even from the 5-year old.

Highly remmend this one.

this is funny, 22 May 2003
I went on this when I was in hospital and I really enjoyed it.I think the quiz bit where you collect the body parts and the bit where you can jumble up the body are really funny.I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable way to learn about the body.

Fun and brilliant!, 16 Dec 2002
My two girls (aged 5 and 7) love this. They have learned all the organs in the body, where they are situated and what they do. But most importantly they have learned all this in such a fun way. Every screen allows them to work forwards or backwards and each screen offers a great choice of things to do. DK make use of levers and buttons and arrows and lots of other mediums to get the idea across. The sound attached is relevant, and not at all annoying.
Any child who can use a mouse will sus out how to use the package very quickly and consequently mum and dad will have peace!.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

truly brilliant, 12 Oct 2002
I have three children ranging from seven to eleven and I can honestly say we have never had so much fun exploring the human body. I am a health professional and have studied human biology etc, but I still managed to learn. My kids absolutely loved it, they were inviting friends around to explore with them, the laughter and giggles was amazing. Yet another brilliant 'explorer' title.

Hooked, 18 Jul 2007
Bought this for my 8 yr old to build her confidence. Just finished real school yr 3 so the first CD Yr3 is a really good refresher. She sat there for ages with her friend working through the questions, then still was eager to continue until bedtime. The storyline & graphics were very good having to collect items going round the map to finally get the keys. The pleasure from the kids when they acheive each of the answers and stages was great to hear. Not sure they realised how much homework they did. Good for me to pick up on a lot of school work areas that she had obviously covered that I never knew she had learnt. Great !!
She can't wait to get onto the next levels & CD's.

A big hit with the kids, 02 Apr 2006
My little boy (6) loves Cluefinders and is always striving to get to the next level. It seems to provide a good topic of conversation with his friends too.

Good for learning., 10 Mar 2008
Bought this for my grandchildren and they love it. The sticker Book is a big incentive and keeps them at it. The seven year old was struggling at school and working through the maths and English, with some help, gave him a lot of confidence. The younger two join in, and also do the lower level, and it becomes a joint exercise. All good stuff.

Great learning for pre-school to 7 years, 03 Nov 2008
I bought this for my daughters 4 th birthday. On level 1 it is ideal for her she can work out what to do on each screen and can be left to learn on her own. It is easy to move around the different sections, 8 i believe, and then has varoius games within each section. There are two more levels for her to move onto and level 3 kept my fairly clever nearly 7 years old amused too.
A great learning tool that it fun too!


Disappointing, 24 Feb 2008
I brought this software especially for my 4 year old daughter who is struggling with her phonics in school and was very disappointed with the letters game which is NOT sounded out in phonics. This is confusing for children and misleading as it does state it teaches phonics.
The rest of the games are OK, but both of my children (3 & 4) got bored of it quickly.
It is very reasonably priced, but in my view not worth buying.

Great for pre schoolers, 21 Feb 2008
I bought this for my 3 year old after she had used it at her nursery. I can only sing its praises. It has hundreds of activities and the menu is very easy for her to navigate, I don't even need to sit with her. Supports the national curriculum and one of the best software games out there for young children. We have bought so many games that don't actually have much to do at all whereas this will keep them very entertained whilst also educational.

Excellent for ages 3 - 6, 15 Mar 2006
This is a brilliant software title. It kept my daughter (3) and son (6) occupied for hours - with very minimal intervention from parents.
I can heartily reccomend this title

PC CD-Rom 'Writing & Calculating', 19 Oct 2003
Yes, the graphics are good - but it is irritating that my daughter has to go back, page by page, to return to home page.
Also the activities are in exactly the same order, time after time - why not have a random selection??? This would be a lot more fun, for both child and parents!
The 'Jump Ahead' CD Rom series, for 4-5 years old, is MUCH better.

Based on the ever popular TV series, Bob the Builder: Castle Adventure sees Bob and friends take a trip to a medieval castle where they embark on a series of fun activities and games. Taking its theme from the Knights of Can a Lot feature-length film, it has you and your child guiding Bob, Lofty, Wendy, Spud and all your favourite characters through 10 activities. Starting at the Gatehouse, there are four castle sections. These offer maze games, moat games, castle wall games and dungeon games. There are also clips from the film included in the software. You get to hear the voices of Neil Morrissey, Richard Briers and Brenda Blethyn throughout.

The interface is child friendly, being colourful, clean and easy to follow. The software is developed in line with the National Curriculum Foundation Stage, with three different skill levels to cover a range of ages and abilities from three years upwards. To start the game you set up a player and have the opportunity to choose a shield. This enables you to have several players using the software without uncovering bonuses, or completing activities and therefore spoiling surprises for a particular child. The games themselves are straightforward, with clear instructions, but good fun. You can replay as many times as you like and when you have completed a task you earn a star. When all tasks are completed you unlock some additional activities. You can also print out a certificate for your child to say that they have helped Bob fix the castle. Nice job, Bob! --Heather Wilson

would not recomend, 25 Jul 2007
I bort it for my little girl and it is not worth buying. It keeps on freezing

Kids Love This, 09 Jan 2006
My two kids (5 and 8) love this game. I admit that the 5 year old mainly likes just moving the body parts around and dressing up Seemore Skinless, but it is all good educational fun.

The 8 year old is more interested in rotating / pushing / x-raying the body parts, clicking help to find out more and answering the brain-teasers.

It is nice to let either of them just get on with this one for long periods of time, with very little requests of help, even from the 5-year old.

Highly remmend this one.

this is funny, 22 May 2003
I went on this when I was in hospital and I really enjoyed it.I think the quiz bit where you collect the body parts and the bit where you can jumble up the body are really funny.I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable way to learn about the body.

Fun and brilliant!, 16 Dec 2002
My two girls (aged 5 and 7) love this. They have learned all the organs in the body, where they are situated and what they do. But most importantly they have learned all this in such a fun way. Every screen allows them to work forwards or backwards and each screen offers a great choice of things to do. DK make use of levers and buttons and arrows and lots of other mediums to get the idea across. The sound attached is relevant, and not at all annoying.
Any child who can use a mouse will sus out how to use the package very quickly and consequently mum and dad will have peace!.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

truly brilliant, 12 Oct 2002
I have three children ranging from seven to eleven and I can honestly say we have never had so much fun exploring the human body. I am a health professional and have studied human biology etc, but I still managed to learn. My kids absolutely loved it, they were inviting friends around to explore with them, the laughter and giggles was amazing. Yet another brilliant 'explorer' title.

Hooked, 18 Jul 2007
Bought this for my 8 yr old to build her confidence. Just finished real school yr 3 so the first CD Yr3 is a really good refresher. She sat there for ages with her friend working through the questions, then still was eager to continue until bedtime. The storyline & graphics were very good having to collect items going round the map to finally get the keys. The pleasure from the kids when they acheive each of the answers and stages was great to hear. Not sure they realised how much homework they did. Good for me to pick up on a lot of school work areas that she had obviously covered that I never knew she had learnt. Great !!
She can't wait to get onto the next levels & CD's.

A big hit with the kids, 02 Apr 2006
My little boy (6) loves Cluefinders and is always striving to get to the next level. It seems to provide a good topic of conversation with his friends too.

Good for learning., 10 Mar 2008
Bought this for my grandchildren and they love it. The sticker Book is a big incentive and keeps them at it. The seven year old was struggling at school and working through the maths and English, with some help, gave him a lot of confidence. The younger two join in, and also do the lower level, and it becomes a joint exercise. All good stuff.

Great learning for pre-school to 7 years, 03 Nov 2008
I bought this for my daughters 4 th birthday. On level 1 it is ideal for her she can work out what to do on each screen and can be left to learn on her own. It is easy to move around the different sections, 8 i believe, and then has varoius games within each section. There are two more levels for her to move onto and level 3 kept my fairly clever nearly 7 years old amused too.
A great learning tool that it fun too!


Disappointing, 24 Feb 2008
I brought this software especially for my 4 year old daughter who is struggling with her phonics in school and was very disappointed with the letters game which is NOT sounded out in phonics. This is confusing for children and misleading as it does state it teaches phonics.
The rest of the games are OK, but both of my children (3 & 4) got bored of it quickly.
It is very reasonably priced, but in my view not worth buying.

Great for pre schoolers, 21 Feb 2008
I bought this for my 3 year old after she had used it at her nursery. I can only sing its praises. It has hundreds of activities and the menu is very easy for her to navigate, I don't even need to sit with her. Supports the national curriculum and one of the best software games out there for young children. We have bought so many games that don't actually have much to do at all whereas this will keep them very entertained whilst also educational.

Excellent for ages 3 - 6, 15 Mar 2006
This is a brilliant software title. It kept my daughter (3) and son (6) occupied for hours - with very minimal intervention from parents.
I can heartily reccomend this title

PC CD-Rom 'Writing & Calculating', 19 Oct 2003
Yes, the graphics are good - but it is irritating that my daughter has to go back, page by page, to return to home page.
Also the activities are in exactly the same order, time after time - why not have a random selection??? This would be a lot more fun, for both child and parents!
The 'Jump Ahead' CD Rom series, for 4-5 years old, is MUCH better.

Superb, 13 Dec 2007
There are so many expensive poor quality offerings in the childrens games market, its refreshing to find a title that's as good as this one.
Our pre-school children love Bob's Castle Adventure.
The voices are familiar, the graphics are superb, navigation is very easy, and the range of activities is very generous... there must be close to 15 different games to play.
Strongly recommended for pre-school children.

Educational and funny, 06 Sep 2006
My four year old was absolutely thrilled with this game. Living in Greece and my child not speaking English, I thought at first it might be difficult for my child to comprehend but from the start he had no difficulty experimenting after I explained what he had to do. After that he was on his way playing without my help. (Now he wants to learn english to play more games...)
I found this game very useful in training kids to use computers (mouse, keyboard etc) and thereby learn to maniupulate shapes, solve problems in the maize, explore in the dungeons all this in the fun filled colourful setting of the game. In all a great game for the age group specified.

The best kids game out there!, 05 Sep 2003
I've purchased many childrens games in the past and most are badly disguised, boring educational games that my kids can see right through. This one's different, it looks beautiful, the characters are really brought to life and the games themselves (I've still only played half of them) are really fun, enjoyable games, okay so they do have some educational element but they're fun and thats what kids want. Even I've been playing it for hours!
Buy it, its better than watching the videos!

Learning Ladder Preschool is an excellent CD-ROM packed with a wide range of activities for 3-5 year olds. Woody the Pencil guides children through the different activities, which are very well explained.

Children will enjoy becoming familiar with the mouse and navigating around the room making toys move and change. They will also enjoy doing the different activities such as painting the colouring book, having a go at recording their voice, listening to a story, doing puzzles and much more.

By clicking on the different bears children can carry out activities related to words, numbers, time, directions/space, shapes and nature/objects. Each of these areas contains 18 different games for children to play, so there is plenty to keep them occupied. There's also a good range of activities, many of which support the Early Years Curriculum at school. For example, there are activities that work on identifying sounds in words and on ordering, counting, matching, etc.

Children are rewarded with stickers when they complete an activity correctly and they will love collecting these in the sticker book. This would be an excellent buy for parents who want to introduce their child to using the computer in a fun and educational way. --Amanda York

would not recomend, 25 Jul 2007
I bort it for my little girl and it is not worth buying. It keeps on freezing

Kids Love This, 09 Jan 2006
My two kids (5 and 8) love this game. I admit that the 5 year old mainly likes just moving the body parts around and dressing up Seemore Skinless, but it is all good educational fun.

The 8 year old is more interested in rotating / pushing / x-raying the body parts, clicking help to find out more and answering the brain-teasers.

It is nice to let either of them just get on with this one for long periods of time, with very little requests of help, even from the 5-year old.

Highly remmend this one.

this is funny, 22 May 2003
I went on this when I was in hospital and I really enjoyed it.I think the quiz bit where you collect the body parts and the bit where you can jumble up the body are really funny.I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable way to learn about the body.

Fun and brilliant!, 16 Dec 2002
My two girls (aged 5 and 7) love this. They have learned all the organs in the body, where they are situated and what they do. But most importantly they have learned all this in such a fun way. Every screen allows them to work forwards or backwards and each screen offers a great choice of things to do. DK make use of levers and buttons and arrows and lots of other mediums to get the idea across. The sound attached is relevant, and not at all annoying.
Any child who can use a mouse will sus out how to use the package very quickly and consequently mum and dad will have peace!.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

truly brilliant, 12 Oct 2002
I have three children ranging from seven to eleven and I can honestly say we have never had so much fun exploring the human body. I am a health professional and have studied human biology etc, but I still managed to learn. My kids absolutely loved it, they were inviting friends around to explore with them, the laughter and giggles was amazing. Yet another brilliant 'explorer' title.

Hooked, 18 Jul 2007
Bought this for my 8 yr old to build her confidence. Just finished real school yr 3 so the first CD Yr3 is a really good refresher. She sat there for ages with her friend working through the questions, then still was eager to continue until bedtime. The storyline & graphics were very good having to collect items going round the map to finally get the keys. The pleasure from the kids when they acheive each of the answers and stages was great to hear. Not sure they realised how much homework they did. Good for me to pick up on a lot of school work areas that she had obviously covered that I never knew she had learnt. Great !!
She can't wait to get onto the next levels & CD's.

A big hit with the kids, 02 Apr 2006
My little boy (6) loves Cluefinders and is always striving to get to the next level. It seems to provide a good topic of conversation with his friends too.

Good for learning., 10 Mar 2008
Bought this for my grandchildren and they love it. The sticker Book is a big incentive and keeps them at it. The seven year old was struggling at school and working through the maths and English, with some help, gave him a lot of confidence. The younger two join in, and also do the lower level, and it becomes a joint exercise. All good stuff.

Great learning for pre-school to 7 years, 03 Nov 2008
I bought this for my daughters 4 th birthday. On level 1 it is ideal for her she can work out what to do on each screen and can be left to learn on her own. It is easy to move around the different sections, 8 i believe, and then has varoius games within each section. There are two more levels for her to move onto and level 3 kept my fairly clever nearly 7 years old amused too.
A great learning tool that it fun too!


Disappointing, 24 Feb 2008
I brought this software especially for my 4 year old daughter who is struggling with her phonics in school and was very disappointed with the letters game which is NOT sounded out in phonics. This is confusing for children and misleading as it does state it teaches phonics.
The rest of the games are OK, but both of my children (3 & 4) got bored of it quickly.
It is very reasonably priced, but in my view not worth buying.

Great for pre schoolers, 21 Feb 2008
I bought this for my 3 year old after she had used it at her nursery. I can only sing its praises. It has hundreds of activities and the menu is very easy for her to navigate, I don't even need to sit with her. Supports the national curriculum and one of the best software games out there for young children. We have bought so many games that don't actually have much to do at all whereas this will keep them very entertained whilst also educational.

Excellent for ages 3 - 6, 15 Mar 2006
This is a brilliant software title. It kept my daughter (3) and son (6) occupied for hours - with very minimal intervention from parents.
I can heartily reccomend this title

PC CD-Rom 'Writing & Calculating', 19 Oct 2003
Yes, the graphics are good - but it is irritating that my daughter has to go back, page by page, to return to home page.
Also the activities are in exactly the same order, time after time - why not have a random selection??? This would be a lot more fun, for both child and parents!
The 'Jump Ahead' CD Rom series, for 4-5 years old, is MUCH better.

Superb, 13 Dec 2007
There are so many expensive poor quality offerings in the childrens games market, its refreshing to find a title that's as good as this one.
Our pre-school children love Bob's Castle Adventure.
The voices are familiar, the graphics are superb, navigation is very easy, and the range of activities is very generous... there must be close to 15 different games to play.
Strongly recommended for pre-school children.

Educational and funny, 06 Sep 2006
My four year old was absolutely thrilled with this game. Living in Greece and my child not speaking English, I thought at first it might be difficult for my child to comprehend but from the start he had no difficulty experimenting after I explained what he had to do. After that he was on his way playing without my help. (Now he wants to learn english to play more games...)
I found this game very useful in training kids to use computers (mouse, keyboard etc) and thereby learn to maniupulate shapes, solve problems in the maize, explore in the dungeons all this in the fun filled colourful setting of the game. In all a great game for the age group specified.

The best kids game out there!, 05 Sep 2003
I've purchased many childrens games in the past and most are badly disguised, boring educational games that my kids can see right through. This one's different, it looks beautiful, the characters are really brought to life and the games themselves (I've still only played half of them) are really fun, enjoyable games, okay so they do have some educational element but they're fun and thats what kids want. Even I've been playing it for hours!
Buy it, its better than watching the videos!

Installed on Vista, 01 Sep 2008
Installed this sucessfully on Vista 64bit. Had to install the old version of Quicktime 2.1.2 - and this got stuck trying to find other versions of Quicktime, so you have to tell it to ignore.

Looks a little dated now - graphics are a bit blocky when displayed full screen, but the games are quite varied.

Just okay, 24 Apr 2006
This was the first software I bought for my under 3 year old. I found it overly complicated to navigate around. There are no instructions about how to find things or what there is to find. A lot of the things to click on a very small and not good at all for someone who is just learning to move a mouse. I wouldn't buy this to introduce a child to using computers but I can see that it might be okay for older children who already have solid basic skills.

very popular, 04 Sep 2005
This is an easy-to-find-things programme, there is a teddy-bear page where the themed tasks are (numbers, letters, space, time etc), then a large 'room' where you can click on items to play a little game or just see something happen (e.g. click on tambourine & it shakes). Woody lurks around the room and makes comments from time to time which you could find irritating if you were inclined that way but he's really not bad.

My 4 year old boy really enjoys his time on this programme. Some of the games he can't do without help (for him, it's the word ones), but I just lurk around and ask him if he needs any help. It has definitely helped him with things that he was confident doing already (numbers & space in his case), but I'm not sure if it could actually teach him anything new; I feel that the programme increases confidence and knowledge in areas that the child has knowledge of already.

That said, still excellent and would recommend.
On the technical side, it works well with no stoppages or glitches and was easy to load, important for a computer-novice like me (although probably my son could have done it for me of course...)

Loads to do, 15 Aug 2005
A great way to introduce your child to computers. I bought this for my son when he was 3 and he picked it up very quickly and was soon clicking about like a real pro! All activities are read out to the child so no reading skills required and there's a great progress report for adults so you can see how your child's doing. Woody the pencil interupts too quickly though and even irritates my son, let alone me!

Woody the Pencil, 05 Aug 2005
I bought this for my son, now 4, and he loves it. Woody the pencil is a bit annoying as you have to wait for him to stop talking before you can carry on. would be better if you had a parent key that could turn him off. Otherwise an excellent learning cd. I am amazed at how much my son can do by himself. Lots of activities to keep him amused. Well worth the money

A good all-round educational CD-Rom The CD-Rom covers basics of literacy, numeracy and science in a bright and colourful way. Children really enjoy the challenges of over 350 activities and will come back for more. Win 95/98Learning Ladder Year 3 is another excellent product from Dorling Kindersley. This CD-ROM is packed with a good range of activities tailored to support the Year 3 school curriculum. Children can navigate their way around the playroom, looking for fun activities. These include the printing machine, which they can use to create their own labels, invitations and cards.

Children can then improve their literacy, numeracy and science skills by undertaking a wide range of activities that help to consolidate Year 3 work. Children can, for example, choose correct word endings, solve addition and subtraction problems, label skeletons and identify correct habitats for animals. These are just a few of the carefully thought out and clearly explained activities here.

Children should be able to use this program independently. They are rewarded with stickers for each activity they complete correctly and will enjoy collecting these and putting them in their own sticker album.

Learning Ladder Year 3 would be an excellent buy for any Year 3 child. It consolidates the learning that is taking place at school and develops children's competence on the computer. --Amanda York

would not recomend, 25 Jul 2007
I bort it for my little girl and it is not worth buying. It keeps on freezing

Kids Love This, 09 Jan 2006
My two kids (5 and 8) love this game. I admit that the 5 year old mainly likes just moving the body parts around and dressing up Seemore Skinless, but it is all good educational fun.

The 8 year old is more interested in rotating / pushing / x-raying the body parts, clicking help to find out more and answering the brain-teasers.

It is nice to let either of them just get on with this one for long periods of time, with very little requests of help, even from the 5-year old.

Highly remmend this one.

this is funny, 22 May 2003
I went on this when I was in hospital and I really enjoyed it.I think the quiz bit where you collect the body parts and the bit where you can jumble up the body are really funny.I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable way to learn about the body.

Fun and brilliant!, 16 Dec 2002
My two girls (aged 5 and 7) love this. They have learned all the organs in the body, where they are situated and what they do. But most importantly they have learned all this in such a fun way. Every screen allows them to work forwards or backwards and each screen offers a great choice of things to do. DK make use of levers and buttons and arrows and lots of other mediums to get the idea across. The sound attached is relevant, and not at all annoying.
Any child who can use a mouse will sus out how to use the package very quickly and consequently mum and dad will have peace!.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

truly brilliant, 12 Oct 2002
I have three children ranging from seven to eleven and I can honestly say we have never had so much fun exploring the human body. I am a health professional and have studied human biology etc, but I still managed to learn. My kids absolutely loved it, they were inviting friends around to explore with them, the laughter and giggles was amazing. Yet another brilliant 'explorer' title.

Hooked, 18 Jul 2007
Bought this for my 8 yr old to build her confidence. Just finished real school yr 3 so the first CD Yr3 is a really good refresher. She sat there for ages with her friend working through the questions, then still was eager to continue until bedtime. The storyline & graphics were very good having to collect items going round the map to finally get the keys. The pleasure from the kids when they acheive each of the answers and stages was great to hear. Not sure they realised how much homework they did. Good for me to pick up on a lot of school work areas that she had obviously covered that I never knew she had learnt. Great !!
She can't wait to get onto the next levels & CD's.

A big hit with the kids, 02 Apr 2006
My little boy (6) loves Cluefinders and is always striving to get to the next level. It seems to provide a good topic of conversation with his friends too.

Good for learning., 10 Mar 2008
Bought this for my grandchildren and they love it. The sticker Book is a big incentive and keeps them at it. The seven year old was struggling at school and working through the maths and English, with some help, gave him a lot of confidence. The younger two join in, and also do the lower level, and it becomes a joint exercise. All good stuff.

Great learning for pre-school to 7 years, 03 Nov 2008
I bought this for my daughters 4 th birthday. On level 1 it is ideal for her she can work out what to do on each screen and can be left to learn on her own. It is easy to move around the different sections, 8 i believe, and then has varoius games within each section. There are two more levels for her to move onto and level 3 kept my fairly clever nearly 7 years old amused too.
A great learning tool that it fun too!


Disappointing, 24 Feb 2008
I brought this software especially for my 4 year old daughter who is struggling with her phonics in school and was very disappointed with the letters game which is NOT sounded out in phonics. This is confusing for children and misleading as it does state it teaches phonics.
The rest of the games are OK, but both of my children (3 & 4) got bored of it quickly.
It is very reasonably priced, but in my view not worth buying.

Great for pre schoolers, 21 Feb 2008
I bought this for my 3 year old after she had used it at her nursery. I can only sing its praises. It has hundreds of activities and the menu is very easy for her to navigate, I don't even need to sit with her. Supports the national curriculum and one of the best software games out there for young children. We have bought so many games that don't actually have much to do at all whereas this will keep them very entertained whilst also educational.

Excellent for ages 3 - 6, 15 Mar 2006
This is a brilliant software title. It kept my daughter (3) and son (6) occupied for hours - with very minimal intervention from parents.
I can heartily reccomend this title

PC CD-Rom 'Writing & Calculating', 19 Oct 2003
Yes, the graphics are good - but it is irritating that my daughter has to go back, page by page, to return to home page.
Also the activities are in exactly the same order, time after time - why not have a random selection??? This would be a lot more fun, for both child and parents!
The 'Jump Ahead' CD Rom series, for 4-5 years old, is MUCH better.

Superb, 13 Dec 2007
There are so many expensive poor quality offerings in the childrens games market, its refreshing to find a title that's as good as this one.
Our pre-school children love Bob's Castle Adventure.
The voices are familiar, the graphics are superb, navigation is very easy, and the range of activities is very generous... there must be close to 15 different games to play.
Strongly recommended for pre-school children.

Educational and funny, 06 Sep 2006
My four year old was absolutely thrilled with this game. Living in Greece and my child not speaking English, I thought at first it might be difficult for my child to comprehend but from the start he had no difficulty experimenting after I explained what he had to do. After that he was on his way playing without my help. (Now he wants to learn english to play more games...)
I found this game very useful in training kids to use computers (mouse, keyboard etc) and thereby learn to maniupulate shapes, solve problems in the maize, explore in the dungeons all this in the fun filled colourful setting of the game. In all a great game for the age group specified.

The best kids game out there!, 05 Sep 2003
I've purchased many childrens games in the past and most are badly disguised, boring educational games that my kids can see right through. This one's different, it looks beautiful, the characters are really brought to life and the games themselves (I've still only played half of them) are really fun, enjoyable games, okay so they do have some educational element but they're fun and thats what kids want. Even I've been playing it for hours!
Buy it, its better than watching the videos!

Installed on Vista, 01 Sep 2008
Installed this sucessfully on Vista 64bit. Had to install the old version of Quicktime 2.1.2 - and this got stuck trying to find other versions of Quicktime, so you have to tell it to ignore.

Looks a little dated now - graphics are a bit blocky when displayed full screen, but the games are quite varied.

Just okay, 24 Apr 2006
This was the first software I bought for my under 3 year old. I found it overly complicated to navigate around. There are no instructions about how to find things or what there is to find. A lot of the things to click on a very small and not good at all for someone who is just learning to move a mouse. I wouldn't buy this to introduce a child to using computers but I can see that it might be okay for older children who already have solid basic skills.

very popular, 04 Sep 2005
This is an easy-to-find-things programme, there is a teddy-bear page where the themed tasks are (numbers, letters, space, time etc), then a large 'room' where you can click on items to play a little game or just see something happen (e.g. click on tambourine & it shakes). Woody lurks around the room and makes comments from time to time which you could find irritating if you were inclined that way but he's really not bad.

My 4 year old boy really enjoys his time on this programme. Some of the games he can't do without help (for him, it's the word ones), but I just lurk around and ask him if he needs any help. It has definitely helped him with things that he was confident doing already (numbers & space in his case), but I'm not sure if it could actually teach him anything new; I feel that the programme increases confidence and knowledge in areas that the child has knowledge of already.

That said, still excellent and would recommend.
On the technical side, it works well with no stoppages or glitches and was easy to load, important for a computer-novice like me (although probably my son could have done it for me of course...)

Loads to do, 15 Aug 2005
A great way to introduce your child to computers. I bought this for my son when he was 3 and he picked it up very quickly and was soon clicking about like a real pro! All activities are read out to the child so no reading skills required and there's a great progress report for adults so you can see how your child's doing. Woody the pencil interupts too quickly though and even irritates my son, let alone me!

Woody the Pencil, 05 Aug 2005
I bought this for my son, now 4, and he loves it. Woody the pencil is a bit annoying as you have to wait for him to stop talking before you can carry on. would be better if you had a parent key that could turn him off. Otherwise an excellent learning cd. I am amazed at how much my son can do by himself. Lots of activities to keep him amused. Well worth the money

Very useful software, 15 Jan 2005
I found this software very useful and it kept my son engrossed for a long time, he loves the sticker rewards for each task completed.

My only grip is that there are no instructions, although we quickly worked out how what to do once we clicked around a few times.

It's getting old now, 04 Dec 2004
I was very dissapointed with this release. It's now 6 years old, but there was no mention of the release date, so it came as a surprise to me to see ancient graphics and ideas and an annoying Timmy Mallet sounding "guide". There must be better software out there now for Keystage development

Perfect distraction, 03 Feb 2004
Finally, something educational that distracted my son from his xbox. He sat for 2 hours using this software and was totally engrossed. He loved the sticker rewards, just like so many sticker books stacked on his bedroom shelf. He came away with a great sense of achievment. Apart from being a fun way to learn, it is a postive experience and is helping my son's confidence.
I'm off to buy Year 4

Fantastic fun while learning., 20 Oct 2003
I bought this software to help give my dyslexic 7 year old a little confidence during the summer holidays. Not only has she enjoyed it but my other, younger kids also enjoyed playing with it, as have several of the neighbours kids. They all think its fun and not like learning at all (?)

Another Great Title From the DK Stable, 12 Oct 2003
This is a great way to get reluctant scholars to apply themselves to Maths and English. There are also modules on telling the time, nature and geography. The work modules are first class and are of the high standard that we have come to expect from Dorling Kindersley. However there are a couple of negatives that stop me from awarding this five stars: firstly the interface is cumbersome - on completion of a task for the first time, children are rewarded with a sticker for their digital sticker book. However, moving from the work area to the sticker book and back to the work area is time consuming and unnecessarily complicated (you can save several sticers to stick in at the end, but children like to see the results of their hard work at the time). Secondly, you have to listen to every sound clip and there does not appear to be a way to "double-click" through it. Having said that, children are less likely to be put off by this and they will be more tolerant of the grating voice of the "host" - a talking pencil called Dash Scribble. However, when you get down to the Maths and English modules the units are well thought out and offer a fun alternative to homework - my eight year old son will often choose to do Learning Ladder over more conventional maths homework. All in all, this is great value for money and complements school work perfectly. So, if you can set aside the adult gripes about the interface, I can heartily recommend it to anyone with a child in, or about to go into Year 3, anywhere in the world.

A good all-round educational CD-Rom The CD-Rom covers basics of literacy, numeracy and science in a bright and colourful way. Children really enjoy the challenges of over 350 activities and will come back for more. Win 95/98Learning Ladder Year 4 is a fantastic CD-ROM aimed at Year 4 children. It is structured so that children listen to a lesson and then carry out exercises that help to consolidate the literacy and numeracy they are learning as part of the school curriculum.

Exercises can be done at five different levels of difficulty, so that children are challenged and continue to make progress. For every 400 points that a child scores, they are rewarded with new pictures to use with the printing machine. As they gather more pictures they can enjoy making their own cards, invitations and labels, which can be printed out.

Children can also have lots of fun navigating around Science City and learning lots of facts along the way. For example, they can have a go at the science quiz and find out about roots, leaves and flowers. The progress tracker clearly shows how each child is getting on with a system of green and red lights. This would quickly show parents where more help is needed. --Amanda York

would not recomend, 25 Jul 2007
I bort it for my little girl and it is not worth buying. It keeps on freezing

Kids Love This, 09 Jan 2006
My two kids (5 and 8) love this game. I admit that the 5 year old mainly likes just moving the body parts around and dressing up Seemore Skinless, but it is all good educational fun.

The 8 year old is more interested in rotating / pushing / x-raying the body parts, clicking help to find out more and answering the brain-teasers.

It is nice to let either of them just get on with this one for long periods of time, with very little requests of help, even from the 5-year old.

Highly remmend this one.

this is funny, 22 May 2003
I went on this when I was in hospital and I really enjoyed it.I think the quiz bit where you collect the body parts and the bit where you can jumble up the body are really funny.I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable way to learn about the body.

Fun and brilliant!, 16 Dec 2002
My two girls (aged 5 and 7) love this. They have learned all the organs in the body, where they are situated and what they do. But most importantly they have learned all this in such a fun way. Every screen allows them to work forwards or backwards and each screen offers a great choice of things to do. DK make use of levers and buttons and arrows and lots of other mediums to get the idea across. The sound attached is relevant, and not at all annoying.
Any child who can use a mouse will sus out how to use the package very quickly and consequently mum and dad will have peace!.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

truly brilliant, 12 Oct 2002
I have three children ranging from seven to eleven and I can honestly say we have never had so much fun exploring the human body. I am a health professional and have studied human biology etc, but I still managed to learn. My kids absolutely loved it, they were inviting friends around to explore with them, the laughter and giggles was amazing. Yet another brilliant 'explorer' title.

Hooked, 18 Jul 2007
Bought this for my 8 yr old to build her confidence. Just finished real school yr 3 so the first CD Yr3 is a really good refresher. She sat there for ages with her friend working through the questions, then still was eager to continue until bedtime. The storyline & graphics were very good having to collect items going round the map to finally get the keys. The pleasure from the kids when they acheive each of the answers and stages was great to hear. Not sure they realised how much homework they did. Good for me to pick up on a lot of school work areas that she had obviously covered that I never knew she had learnt. Great !!
She can't wait to get onto the next levels & CD's.

A big hit with the kids, 02 Apr 2006
My little boy (6) loves Cluefinders and is always striving to get to the next level. It seems to provide a good topic of conversation with his friends too.

Good for learning., 10 Mar 2008
Bought this for my grandchildren and they love it. The sticker Book is a big incentive and keeps them at it. The seven year old was struggling at school and working through the maths and English, with some help, gave him a lot of confidence. The younger two join in, and also do the lower level, and it becomes a joint exercise. All good stuff.

Great learning for pre-school to 7 years, 03 Nov 2008
I bought this for my daughters 4 th birthday. On level 1 it is ideal for her she can work out what to do on each screen and can be left to learn on her own. It is easy to move around the different sections, 8 i believe, and then has varoius games within each section. There are two more levels for her to move onto and level 3 kept my fairly clever nearly 7 years old amused too.
A great learning tool that it fun too!


Disappointing, 24 Feb 2008
I brought this software especially for my 4 year old daughter who is struggling with her phonics in school and was very disappointed with the letters game which is NOT sounded out in phonics. This is confusing for children and misleading as it does state it teaches phonics.
The rest of the games are OK, but both of my children (3 & 4) got bored of it quickly.
It is very reasonably priced, but in my view not worth buying.

Great for pre schoolers, 21 Feb 2008
I bought this for my 3 year old after she had used it at her nursery. I can only sing its praises. It has hundreds of activities and the menu is very easy for her to navigate, I don't even need to sit with her. Supports the national curriculum and one of the best software games out there for young children. We have bought so many games that don't actually have much to do at all whereas this will keep them very entertained whilst also educational.

Excellent for ages 3 - 6, 15 Mar 2006
This is a brilliant software title. It kept my daughter (3) and son (6) occupied for hours - with very minimal intervention from parents.
I can heartily reccomend this title

PC CD-Rom 'Writing & Calculating', 19 Oct 2003
Yes, the graphics are good - but it is irritating that my daughter has to go back, page by page, to return to home page.
Also the activities are in exactly the same order, time after time - why not have a random selection??? This would be a lot more fun, for both child and parents!
The 'Jump Ahead' CD Rom series, for 4-5 years old, is MUCH better.

Superb, 13 Dec 2007
There are so many expensive poor quality offerings in the childrens games market, its refreshing to find a title that's as good as this one.
Our pre-school children love Bob's Castle Adventure.
The voices are familiar, the graphics are superb, navigation is very easy, and the range of activities is very generous... there must be close to 15 different games to play.
Strongly recommended for pre-school children.

Educational and funny, 06 Sep 2006
My four year old was absolutely thrilled with this game. Living in Greece and my child not speaking English, I thought at first it might be difficult for my child to comprehend but from the start he had no difficulty experimenting after I explained what he had to do. After that he was on his way playing without my help. (Now he wants to learn english to play more games...)
I found this game very useful in training kids to use computers (mouse, keyboard etc) and thereby learn to maniupulate shapes, solve problems in the maize, explore in the dungeons all this in the fun filled colourful setting of the game. In all a great game for the age group specified.

The best kids game out there!, 05 Sep 2003
I've purchased many childrens games in the past and most are badly disguised, boring educational games that my kids can see right through. This one's different, it looks beautiful, the characters are really brought to life and the games themselves (I've still only played half of them) are really fun, enjoyable games, okay so they do have some educational element but they're fun and thats what kids want. Even I've been playing it for hours!
Buy it, its better than watching the videos!

Installed on Vista, 01 Sep 2008
Installed this sucessfully on Vista 64bit. Had to install the old version of Quicktime 2.1.2 - and this got stuck trying to find other versions of Quicktime, so you have to tell it to ignore.

Looks a little dated now - graphics are a bit blocky when displayed full screen, but the games are quite varied.

Just okay, 24 Apr 2006
This was the first software I bought for my under 3 year old. I found it overly complicated to navigate around. There are no instructions about how to find things or what there is to find. A lot of the things to click on a very small and not good at all for someone who is just learning to move a mouse. I wouldn't buy this to introduce a child to using computers but I can see that it might be okay for older children who already have solid basic skills.

very popular, 04 Sep 2005
This is an easy-to-find-things programme, there is a teddy-bear page where the themed tasks are (numbers, letters, space, time etc), then a large 'room' where you can click on items to play a little game or just see something happen (e.g. click on tambourine & it shakes). Woody lurks around the room and makes comments from time to time which you could find irritating if you were inclined that way but he's really not bad.

My 4 year old boy really enjoys his time on this programme. Some of the games he can't do without help (for him, it's the word ones), but I just lurk around and ask him if he needs any help. It has definitely helped him with things that he was confident doing already (numbers & space in his case), but I'm not sure if it could actually teach him anything new; I feel that the programme increases confidence and knowledge in areas that the child has knowledge of already.

That said, still excellent and would recommend.
On the technical side, it works well with no stoppages or glitches and was easy to load, important for a computer-novice like me (although probably my son could have done it for me of course...)

Loads to do, 15 Aug 2005
A great way to introduce your child to computers. I bought this for my son when he was 3 and he picked it up very quickly and was soon clicking about like a real pro! All activities are read out to the child so no reading skills required and there's a great progress report for adults so you can see how your child's doing. Woody the pencil interupts too quickly though and even irritates my son, let alone me!

Woody the Pencil, 05 Aug 2005
I bought this for my son, now 4, and he loves it. Woody the pencil is a bit annoying as you have to wait for him to stop talking before you can carry on. would be better if you had a parent key that could turn him off. Otherwise an excellent learning cd. I am amazed at how much my son can do by himself. Lots of activities to keep him amused. Well worth the money

Very useful software, 15 Jan 2005
I found this software very useful and it kept my son engrossed for a long time, he loves the sticker rewards for each task completed.

My only grip is that there are no instructions, although we quickly worked out how what to do once we clicked around a few times.

It's getting old now, 04 Dec 2004
I was very dissapointed with this release. It's now 6 years old, but there was no mention of the release date, so it came as a surprise to me to see ancient graphics and ideas and an annoying Timmy Mallet sounding "guide". There must be better software out there now for Keystage development

Perfect distraction, 03 Feb 2004
Finally, something educational that distracted my son from his xbox. He sat for 2 hours using this software and was totally engrossed. He loved the sticker rewards, just like so many sticker books stacked on his bedroom shelf. He came away with a great sense of achievment. Apart from being a fun way to learn, it is a postive experience and is helping my son's confidence.
I'm off to buy Year 4

Fantastic fun while learning., 20 Oct 2003
I bought this software to help give my dyslexic 7 year old a little confidence during the summer holidays. Not only has she enjoyed it but my other, younger kids also enjoyed playing with it, as have several of the neighbours kids. They all think its fun and not like learning at all (?)

Another Great Title From the DK Stable, 12 Oct 2003
This is a great way to get reluctant scholars to apply themselves to Maths and English. There are also modules on telling the time, nature and geography. The work modules are first class and are of the high standard that we have come to expect from Dorling Kindersley. However there are a couple of negatives that stop me from awarding this five stars: firstly the interface is cumbersome - on completion of a task for the first time, children are rewarded with a sticker for their digital sticker book. However, moving from the work area to the sticker book and back to the work area is time consuming and unnecessarily complicated (you can save several sticers to stick in at the end, but children like to see the results of their hard work at the time). Secondly, you have to listen to every sound clip and there does not appear to be a way to "double-click" through it. Having said that, children are less likely to be put off by this and they will be more tolerant of the grating voice of the "host" - a talking pencil called Dash Scribble. However, when you get down to the Maths and English modules the units are well thought out and offer a fun alternative to homework - my eight year old son will often choose to do Learning Ladder over more conventional maths homework. All in all, this is great value for money and complements school work perfectly. So, if you can set aside the adult gripes about the interface, I can heartily recommend it to anyone with a child in, or about to go into Year 3, anywhere in the world.

Learning Ladder Yr 4, 20 Jan 2005
Very good, my son aged 9 loves it.

It proved invaluable when he was off school for a week, he could get on the PC and keep up with his english and maths, in such a fun way.

He has voluntarily gone back onto it many times too, so it must be fun.

Learning Ladder Year 4, 10 Apr 2004
Brilliant - my child loves it can't get her off the computer!!! Very well laid out and very interesting almost like not learning when you are!!

Learning Ladder Year 4, 19 May 2003
I have recently purchased this item, and my 8 year old has been steadily working through the exercises. The Navigation through the system, and the exercises themselves are well structured, with appropriate questions at the right level. The downside is the lack of intelligence in the progression from one exercise to another and to the rewards section: While working on any given question, the programme advises the user "For the next exercise click on the roller skate" - unfortunately it does this at 5 second intervals even when the user is trying to do the exercise - eventually you have to turn the sound off or go mad. My son finds this very offputting. The explanation of how the reward system works, by giving the user a picture and how to use it, is repeated in full every time, rather than just once - again very irritating.

A good all-round educational CD-Rom The CD-Rom covers basics of literacy, numeracy and science in a bright and colourful way. Children really enjoy the challenges of over 350 activities and will come back for more. Win 95/98/ME/2000/XP.Learning Ladder Years 1 and 2 is an extremely good CD-ROM aimed at children aged 5-7. It presents a huge number of activities that would help to support the school curriculum.

Children can navigate their way around the playroom, which will develop their confidence with the mouse. Children will enjoy making things move on the screen. There is also a range of fun activities, such as painting and copying the tune.

The program also helps to consolidate and reinforce what children are learning in literacy, numeracy and science at school. There are games involving identifying sounds, making words, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and much more. Children are rewarded with stickers as they complete activities correctly, which they will love collecting and putting in their own sticker book. --Amanda York

would not recomend, 25 Jul 2007
I bort it for my little girl and it is not worth buying. It keeps on freezing

Kids Love This, 09 Jan 2006
My two kids (5 and 8) love this game. I admit that the 5 year old mainly likes just moving the body parts around and dressing up Seemore Skinless, but it is all good educational fun.

The 8 year old is more interested in rotating / pushing / x-raying the body parts, clicking help to find out more and answering the brain-teasers.

It is nice to let either of them just get on with this one for long periods of time, with very little requests of help, even from the 5-year old.

Highly remmend this one.

this is funny, 22 May 2003
I went on this when I was in hospital and I really enjoyed it.I think the quiz bit where you collect the body parts and the bit where you can jumble up the body are really funny.I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable way to learn about the body.

Fun and brilliant!, 16 Dec 2002
My two girls (aged 5 and 7) love this. They have learned all the organs in the body, where they are situated and what they do. But most importantly they have learned all this in such a fun way. Every screen allows them to work forwards or backwards and each screen offers a great choice of things to do. DK make use of levers and buttons and arrows and lots of other mediums to get the idea across. The sound attached is relevant, and not at all annoying.
Any child who can use a mouse will sus out how to use the package very quickly and consequently mum and dad will have peace!.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

truly brilliant, 12 Oct 2002
I have three children ranging from seven to eleven and I can honestly say we have never had so much fun exploring the human body. I am a health professional and have studied human biology etc, but I still managed to learn. My kids absolutely loved it, they were inviting friends around to explore with them, the laughter and giggles was amazing. Yet another brilliant 'explorer' title.

Hooked, 18 Jul 2007
Bought this for my 8 yr old to build her confidence. Just finished real school yr 3 so the first CD Yr3 is a really good refresher. She sat there for ages with her friend working through the questions, then still was eager to continue until bedtime. The storyline & graphics were very good having to collect items going round the map to finally get the keys. The pleasure from the kids when they acheive each of the answers and stages was great to hear. Not sure they realised how much homework they did. Good for me to pick up on a lot of school work areas that she had obviously covered that I never knew she had learnt. Great !!
She can't wait to get onto the next levels & CD's.

A big hit with the kids, 02 Apr 2006
My little boy (6) loves Cluefinders and is always striving to get to the next level. It seems to provide a good topic of conversation with his friends too.

Good for learning., 10 Mar 2008
Bought this for my grandchildren and they love it. The sticker Book is a big incentive and keeps them at it. The seven year old was struggling at school and working through the maths and English, with some help, gave him a lot of confidence. The younger two join in, and also do the lower level, and it becomes a joint exercise. All good stuff.

Great learning for pre-school to 7 years, 03 Nov 2008
I bought this for my daughters 4 th birthday. On level 1 it is ideal for her she can work out what to do on each screen and can be left to learn on her own. It is easy to move around the different sections, 8 i believe, and then has varoius games within each section. There are two more levels for her to move onto and level 3 kept my fairly clever nearly 7 years old amused too.
A great learning tool that it fun too!


Disappointing, 24 Feb 2008
I brought this software especially for my 4 year old daughter who is struggling with her phonics in school and was very disappointed with the letters game which is NOT sounded out in phonics. This is confusing for children and misleading as it does state it teaches phonics.
The rest of the games are OK, but both of my children (3 & 4) got bored of it quickly.
It is very reasonably priced, but in my view not worth buying.

Great for pre schoolers, 21 Feb 2008
I bought this for my 3 year old after she had used it at her nursery. I can only sing its praises. It has hundreds of activities and the menu is very easy for her to navigate, I don't even need to sit with her. Supports the national curriculum and one of the best software games out there for young children. We have bought so many games that don't actually have much to do at all whereas this will keep them very entertained whilst also educational.

Excellent for ages 3 - 6, 15 Mar 2006
This is a brilliant software title. It kept my daughter (3) and son (6) occupied for hours - with very minimal intervention from parents.
I can heartily reccomend this title

PC CD-Rom 'Writing & Calculating', 19 Oct 2003
Yes, the graphics are good - but it is irritating that my daughter has to go back, page by page, to return to home page.
Also the activities are in exactly the same order, time after time - why not have a random selection??? This would be a lot more fun, for both child and parents!
The 'Jump Ahead' CD Rom series, for 4-5 years old, is MUCH better.

Superb, 13 Dec 2007
There are so many expensive poor quality offerings in the childrens games market, its refreshing to find a title that's as good as this one.
Our pre-school children love Bob's Castle Adventure.
The voices are familiar, the graphics are superb, navigation is very easy, and the range of activities is very generous... there must be close to 15 different games to play.
Strongly recommended for pre-school children.

Educational and funny, 06 Sep 2006
My four year old was absolutely thrilled with this game. Living in Greece and my child not speaking English, I thought at first it might be difficult for my child to comprehend but from the start he had no difficulty experimenting after I explained what he had to do. After that he was on his way playing without my help. (Now he wants to learn english to play more games...)
I found this game very useful in training kids to use computers (mouse, keyboard etc) and thereby learn to maniupulate shapes, solve problems in the maize, explore in the dungeons all this in the fun filled colourful setting of the game. In all a great game for the age group specified.

The best kids game out there!, 05 Sep 2003
I've purchased many childrens games in the past and most are badly disguised, boring educational games that my kids can see right through. This one's different, it looks beautiful, the characters are really brought to life and the games themselves (I've still only played half of them) are really fun, enjoyable games, okay so they do have some educational element but they're fun and thats what kids want. Even I've been playing it for hours!
Buy it, its better than watching the videos!

Installed on Vista, 01 Sep 2008
Installed this sucessfully on Vista 64bit. Had to install the old version of Quicktime 2.1.2 - and this got stuck trying to find other versions of Quicktime, so you have to tell it to ignore.

Looks a little dated now - graphics are a bit blocky when displayed full screen, but the games are quite varied.

Just okay, 24 Apr 2006
This was the first software I bought for my under 3 year old. I found it overly complicated to navigate around. There are no instructions about how to find things or what there is to find. A lot of the things to click on a very small and not good at all for someone who is just learning to move a mouse. I wouldn't buy this to introduce a child to using computers but I can see that it might be okay for older children who already have solid basic skills.

very popular, 04 Sep 2005
This is an easy-to-find-things programme, there is a teddy-bear page where the themed tasks are (numbers, letters, space, time etc), then a large 'room' where you can click on items to play a little game or just see something happen (e.g. click on tambourine & it shakes). Woody lurks around the room and makes comments from time to time which you could find irritating if you were inclined that way but he's really not bad.

My 4 year old boy really enjoys his time on this programme. Some of the games he can't do without help (for him, it's the word ones), but I just lurk around and ask him if he needs any help. It has definitely helped him with things that he was confident doing already (numbers & space in his case), but I'm not sure if it could actually teach him anything new; I feel that the programme increases confidence and knowledge in areas that the child has knowledge of already.

That said, still excellent and would recommend.
On the technical side, it works well with no stoppages or glitches and was easy to load, important for a computer-novice like me (although probably my son could have done it for me of course...)

Loads to do, 15 Aug 2005
A great way to introduce your child to computers. I bought this for my son when he was 3 and he picked it up very quickly and was soon clicking about like a real pro! All activities are read out to the child so no reading skills required and there's a great progress report for adults so you can see how your child's doing. Woody the pencil interupts too quickly though and even irritates my son, let alone me!

Woody the Pencil, 05 Aug 2005
I bought this for my son, now 4, and he loves it. Woody the pencil is a bit annoying as you have to wait for him to stop talking before you can carry on. would be better if you had a parent key that could turn him off. Otherwise an excellent learning cd. I am amazed at how much my son can do by himself. Lots of activities to keep him amused. Well worth the money

Very useful software, 15 Jan 2005
I found this software very useful and it kept my son engrossed for a long time, he loves the sticker rewards for each task completed.

My only grip is that there are no instructions, although we quickly worked out how what to do once we clicked around a few times.

It's getting old now, 04 Dec 2004
I was very dissapointed with this release. It's now 6 years old, but there was no mention of the release date, so it came as a surprise to me to see ancient graphics and ideas and an annoying Timmy Mallet sounding "guide". There must be better software out there now for Keystage development

Perfect distraction, 03 Feb 2004
Finally, something educational that distracted my son from his xbox. He sat for 2 hours using this software and was totally engrossed. He loved the sticker rewards, just like so many sticker books stacked on his bedroom shelf. He came away with a great sense of achievment. Apart from being a fun way to learn, it is a postive experience and is helping my son's confidence.
I'm off to buy Year 4

Fantastic fun while learning., 20 Oct 2003
I bought this software to help give my dyslexic 7 year old a little confidence during the summer holidays. Not only has she enjoyed it but my other, younger kids also enjoyed playing with it, as have several of the neighbours kids. They all think its fun and not like learning at all (?)

Another Great Title From the DK Stable, 12 Oct 2003
This is a great way to get reluctant scholars to apply themselves to Maths and English. There are also modules on telling the time, nature and geography. The work modules are first class and are of the high standard that we have come to expect from Dorling Kindersley. However there are a couple of negatives that stop me from awarding this five stars: firstly the interface is cumbersome - on completion of a task for the first time, children are rewarded with a sticker for their digital sticker book. However, moving from the work area to the sticker book and back to the work area is time consuming and unnecessarily complicated (you can save several sticers to stick in at the end, but children like to see the results of their hard work at the time). Secondly, you have to listen to every sound clip and there does not appear to be a way to "double-click" through it. Having said that, children are less likely to be put off by this and they will be more tolerant of the grating voice of the "host" - a talking pencil called Dash Scribble. However, when you get down to the Maths and English modules the units are well thought out and offer a fun alternative to homework - my eight year old son will often choose to do Learning Ladder over more conventional maths homework. All in all, this is great value for money and complements school work perfectly. So, if you can set aside the adult gripes about the interface, I can heartily recommend it to anyone with a child in, or about to go into Year 3, anywhere in the world.

Learning Ladder Yr 4, 20 Jan 2005
Very good, my son aged 9 loves it.

It proved invaluable when he was off school for a week, he could get on the PC and keep up with his english and maths, in such a fun way.

He has voluntarily gone back onto it many times too, so it must be fun.

Learning Ladder Year 4, 10 Apr 2004
Brilliant - my child loves it can't get her off the computer!!! Very well laid out and very interesting almost like not learning when you are!!

Learning Ladder Year 4, 19 May 2003
I have recently purchased this item, and my 8 year old has been steadily working through the exercises. The Navigation through the system, and the exercises themselves are well structured, with appropriate questions at the right level. The downside is the lack of intelligence in the progression from one exercise to another and to the rewards section: While working on any given question, the programme advises the user "For the next exercise click on the roller skate" - unfortunately it does this at 5 second intervals even when the user is trying to do the exercise - eventually you have to turn the sound off or go mad. My son finds this very offputting. The explanation of how the reward system works, by giving the user a picture and how to use it, is repeated in full every time, rather than just once - again very irritating.

Effective and works on MAC, 05 Jul 2006
Just to let anyone know who is interested, this CD-Rom does work on Mac. I have a recent Mac, and when I put the disk in, my OS 9 system kicks in. It works without any problems.

As far as the game itself, I was very pleased and have not found any difficulty in understanding how it works, but I suppose instructions would no be a bad idea!

We are using this CD to help my son, who has never been to school in England, and I find that this is a very effective way to work on his grammer, etc. He is not a big reader, like his brother, so this game has been a very helpful tool. He finds it fun and ejoys getting the stickers.

I am probably going to go on to year 3, but will have a look at other games, as so many people seem to think that there are better ones out there.

Don't buy, 03 May 2006
Needed to spend ages re-configuring my PC to actualy get it to run. This program objects to standard Windows settings.

Too old to bother with, 28 Jan 2006
If you're happy enough to search the software company's website for some clues, fiddle around with your PC's virtual memory settings a few times and reboot the machine three times, you might get it to work for five minutes before it crashes.
My advice would be not to do all that with your child sitting on your lap: there were a lot of tears at the third reboot.
Save your money.

fantastic, 17 Nov 2003
i bought this CD ROM because they use it in school. My 3-year-old loves it, it goes on when he comes in from school and stays on with him playing visits to it throughout the day. I find it colourful and very entertaining as well and being educational. My son loves it when he wins the stickers for his sticker book and he knows the words on it word for word. I would highly recommend this CD ROM.

Disappointing, 16 Sep 2003
No instructions, no help. The 'friend', Woody tells you nothing and is nothing more than an irritation. The exercises are not explained. Eager children quickly loose interest.