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Clifford the Big Red Dog Reading

That big red dog returns in Clifford the Big Red Dog Reading that is a great literacy program aimed at children between the ages of 4 - 6. The program itself focuses on an important part of communication such as phonics, letters and sound recognition to really give your child that edge when they reach school by being a master reader in their class.

As with all Scholastic programs, the installation was a breeze and it simply auto-installed once the CD was detected by the computer which is a boon to parents who are somewhat computer illiterate. Apart from the minimalist installation of the program, it also runs on very low end computers with its basic system requirements being a Windows 95 machine, 90Mhz, 35MB hard drive space, 640x480x256 colour display, windows compatible sound card and a CD-ROM drive. Optional equipment that can also be used is a printer and a microphone.

Clifford the Big Red Dog Reading revolves around Emily and her big red dog Clifford as they explore Birdwell Island looking for adventures, all in the course of learning. As they meet various characters throughout the island, they need to help their newly found friends solve a variety of word and letter problems. For these challenges, the players are rewarded tickets that can later be exchanged for various amusing the cute prizes.

For instance, one puzzle in the game is to assist an artist paint Clifford by giving her various 2 to 4 letter words that have been previously learned in the game. The artist then interprets these words into her colourful painting and of course the player is rewarded with a ticket. Another entertaining game has the player popping the correct balloon that contains certain words, in order for Elizabeth to dunk Clifford.

With this in mind, the main aim of Clifford the Big Red Dog Reading is to assist the young gamer with a myriad of reading skills such  consonant sounds, word building, phonics and vowels that is done through a variety of entertaining puzzles and questions.

Graphically, Clifford Phonics is extremely colourful and looks like a Saturday morning cartoon that is filled with simple yet colourful shapes and of course that famous dog, Clifford himself. As with all Clifford products, the pronunciation is a little biased towards North Americans but it does not hamper the enjoyment or educational aspect of this title.

In conclusion, Clifford the Big Red Dog Reading is an amazing piece of educational software that contains games, learning and entertainment which comes at an extremely affordable price. Check it out!

System Requirements

PC: Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Pentium 90 or higher, 16MB Ram, 4X CD-ROM, 8-bit sound card, 256 colour 640x480/SVGA monitor, 35 MB free hard drive space.

Macintosh: Power Mac, 7, 8, 9,OS X Classic Mode, 16 MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM, 640 X 480 display with 256 colours, 13" monitor, 35 MB free hard drive space, 4X CD-ROM.