User Reviews (1 - 11 of 37)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

It doesn't work with w2k

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 25
Date: October 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'm an A+ network Engineer. This sw doesn't work with w2k, and probably not with xp. I spent hours on their website and am still searching the web for a fix, no luck. Consider this before you buy from this company.

doesn't run on mac os x

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

there's no support information available regarding failure to run on mac os x platform. i was unaware of the problem because the product is advertised as macintosh compatible, and only subsequently discovered that others have run into the same difficulty after searching online for troubleshooting help.

What a Disappointment!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: May 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I remember when this series had snappy graphics and good customer support. My disk arrived today. We installed. We re-installed. The graphics froze, or the music/sound disappeared, or both as soon as we accessed any of the puzzles. We looked for customer service from the reader rabbit website. It was not a website that was intended to make customer inquiries easy. We received an automated response from Broderlund, that was followed by a second message telling us that tech support was now being done by another firm. So, I registered my issue with that company. Another automated response directing me to another website. More FAQs. And the 'Contact Us' button sends you to the same address that generates the automated response.
Might be a decent program - but you better hope nothing ever goes wrong!!!

Avoid - Bug in CD teaches kids how to spell incorrectly

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Piano portion of this game has a bug that teaches you how to spell incorrectly. There are no updates to fix this problem, and the manufacturer no longer supports the game.

Not supported on Mac OS X

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This product is not supported on Mac OS X as indicated in the product description. The product says it works with Mac OS 7.5 or greater. To me, 10 is greater then 7.5 so I assumed it worked. It didn't and when I contacted the company (I purchased it from EducationMax) they told me that my Operating System was to new. I've had the same Mac for 10 years and my Operating System is at least 2-3 years old. I'm in the process of returning the product. I'm rating EducationMax 1 Star, not Reader Rabbit.

Awful! Did anyone test this before shipping???

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Okay, it works. That's the good news. The program does what it was programmed to do. Otherwise is is awful.

Our four year old has been using the program for about a week now and we hate it. She enjoys the stories and the general layout of the game but has a very hard time with the actual tasks. I sat with her and tried to help only to find that I had a hard time with it as well.

In every "letter world" there are a list of things you have to complete. First you click on four things in the picture that start with the letter you are looking for. Then you go into the cart with the hamsters.

In the hamster cart you have three tasks. The first is to correctly identify the word that the hamster says from three possibles. The problem is that the hamster is very hard to understand as he sounds like a hamster rather than a well articulated person trying to teach a small child.

The next section is a fill in the blank area. There are three pictures of three letter words (cat, bus, etc.). Under the words are three blanks. Some of these blanks are filled in but not with letters that belong in the word!!! Sometimes there are X's in the spaces, sometimes random other letters and sometimes they are all blank. Then, with NO OTHER INSTRUCTION WHAT SO EVER, you are given 5 letters and expected to fill them in. The problem is that you are expected to fill in only the first, last or middle letter and they don't tell you which they are looking for. I can do this game. I know how to read and how to spell small words like bus. My daughter is learning to read and doesn't understand when looking at the words "dog, gum and bus" that the computer is looking for her to fill in the last letter just based on the available choices. She starts sounding out the word dog and wonders why there isn't a "d" in the pile to choose from.

When you leave the hamsters you go to the book section where the computer reads you a small story. This is fine except that on some of the pages the computer won't let you go to the next page until you click on something in the picture. But it doesn't tell you what it wants you to click on. My daughter's answer to this has been to randomly click all over the picture so that she can hear the rest of the story. It works but I hardly think it's teaching her anything at that point.

I think this is a worthless program that has confused her much more than it has helped. It seems as though the people writing it forgot that the target audience doesn't know how to read. When you are trying to teach someone who doesn't know how to read you need to speak clearly and slowly. You need to be consistent and you need to tell them what they need to do. This program is hard to understand, counter-intuitive and wildly inconsistent. It is not worth buying.

No technical support and no upgrades

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: October 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game was bought for my son 1-2 years ago when he was a toddler. Now that he's four we started using it. There is an error in the piano game that basically teaches your child how to spell words incorrectly putting in lots of incorrect letters at random. The piano game features prominently in many of the exercises, so you basically have to do a work around throughout the entire process.

What really gets me though is 1) I recently bought what I thought was an upgraded version of the game only to find the problem had not been fixed by the manufacturer 1) there are no patches or upgrades available to fix the problem, 2) the manufacturer states on their website that they will not give a refund for this game. Buyer beware.

Well my son likes it....

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

... but it's not as good as some of the others. Flat graphics and unimaginative games make this one less than stellar. For the 3-6 year old set I'd recommend Bob the Builder, or Clifford. However, your child will probably love it as much as mine does.

Difficult to Use

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I tried 3-4 Reader Rabbit Programs. They are hard to use. The navigation is not good. It takes significant learning effort to get used to the programs. I work in Software from 10 years. If its difficult to navigate for me, the kids definitely will not be able to navigate freely. It will not allow you to skip something. If the kids are using the same thing again and again and They want to skip the things they are bored of they are out of luck. It will not allow skip. Apart from that the program is educational. Another negative: The program does not install on computer. Every time you need to put the CD in to run the program.

Instead of struggling with Reader Rabbit, I would highly recommend the Leapfrog Letter Factory and Math Circus. In fact I bought all Leapfrog DVD titles one by one after seeing the difference the Frog makes to kid's learning. My Kids 5 and 3 yrs love the frog.

The designers of Rabbit should keep in mind that its going to be used by little kids. Usability is the most important. Learn from Leap Frog.

Buggy Software!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: October 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Excellent game, but I've got v1.3 (under XP, and tried on two PCs) and it has a bad software bug with the piano game, as other reviewers have stated. Otherwise I'd give it 5 stars.

This is what I got back from customer support regarding the bug:

"Thank you for your inquiry and for choosing Riverdeep, Broderbund, The
Learning Company, and Edmark for your software needs.

Unfortunately, this issue does not have a resolution. I want to apologize
for this inconvenience."

It's still well worth the purchase if you're willing to sit with your child during the piano game to try to prevent any confusion and frustration.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 Next 

Actions