Product Overview
The Berenstain Bears have been a real fixture in many families' homes — the storybooks are filled with important lessons to be learned, and children can easily identify with the adventures, and often misadventures, of this famous bear family. I would even venture to say that parents can learn a few things from the realistic problems — and solutions — presented in the Berenstain Bears books. These lovable bears have recently made the leap to a video series and a feature-length direct-to-video movie is in the works.
Now kids can interact with their favorite characters in this series of computer games entitled "Life's Little Lessons". Although the Berenstain Bears have been represented in the form of interactive storybooks (Living Books) on the computer, this new series has more of an interactive "feel" to it.
Sister Bear and Brother Bear are confronted with some rather scary situations, and through 4 short stories and activities, the little bears discover that things aren't as scary as they might at first appear to be. The four short stories each have a related activity, as follows:
- Sister Bear learns that frightening-looking shadows can be caused by familiar things. Kids help her determine exactly what items are causing these shadows by doing a sorting puzzle activity.
- Kids help Brother Bear overcome stage fright before his xylophone concert by helping him to be prepared. Children strike the correct note (in the form of a colorful shape) on Brother's xylophone shown by the note indicator, and create short songs.
- Scary Halloween masks are actually quite fun to make — kids get creative in this fun craft activity. First, Mother Bear asks children to copy the given mask by selecting the correct components. Once she has the masks she needs, kids can create their own mask by toggling between the many different features.
- The little bears discover what is causing those creepy noises in the night. Kids listen to a sound, find its location, then click on the object or animal making the sound. The sound might be a cricket or a group of fish splashing in the lake.
The activities include adjustable levels of difficulty and have two-player options. Each mini-story is hosted by a member of the bear family and starts with an introductory poem (much like the Berenstain Bears storybooks). After watching the story (optional), the associated activity is presented. Once successfully completed, kids earn a reward certificate that can be printed in color or in a format that allows for children to use crayons or markers to decorate it away from the computer.
The characters are very encouraging and say things like "don't worry about making a mistake". Kid testers thoroughly enjoyed playing the game, but found it to be much too short! Some of the activities take a very brief time to complete and there are not enough of them. However, the game can be replayed as often as possible and at different difficulty levels (3 levels altogether).
Technically Speaking
Minimum requirements are Windows 95/98, a Pentium 133 (Pentium 200 recommended), 24 Mb RAM (30 Mb recommended), and 4X CD ROM. Mac users require a Power PC with 32 Mb RAM, System 7.5.3 (7.6.1 recommended) or higher, and at least 4X CD ROM (8X recommended). A color printer is recommended as well. It takes up 10 Mb of hard drive space, and is easy to install and load.
Skills Covered
thinking skills, arcade skills, creativity, sorting, teamwork, confronting childhood fears
Educational Value
This title doesn't have a whole lot to offer in terms of traditional academic learning. However, children can learn some basic social skills from the stories. The "lessons" to be learned are positive.
Entertainment Value
The characters and basic activities were immediately appealing to the kid testers.
Design
For the most part, the program is designed in such a way that using it is quite straightforward for even the youngest testers (aged 3).
Replayability
Kid testers enjoyed playing the program, but we do wonder about its long-term appeal, mainly because there is not a whole lot of content to the program. Children generally wanted more activities, or at least longer ones. However, a younger 3 year old tester played happily for hours, and asked to play the game again every day. The brief activities seemed to appeal to her, perhaps because of her shorter attention span.
Dollar Value
The program sells for $19.95 US.
Released: 1999
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