Excellent Learning And Family Values
Written: Sep 27 '01 (Updated Sep 27 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Helps learn reading, vocabulary, and shapes. Worth reading over and over again.
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: Just Grandma And Me is a cute, very simple little story worth reading over and over again with parents, as well as grandparents. Promotes learning and family values.
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| Peachy3's Full Review: The Learning Company Just Grandma and Me Full Vers... |
Living Books - A Broderbund Company
Just Grandma And Me by Mercer Mayer
I am going to tell you about a cute, simple, little short story called Just Grandma And Me. I read the book with my children on the Just Grandma And Me CD rom. The new age way of reading books. This is the only actual story book we have read together on a CD rom so far. The experience was actually very nice. The CDrom has not only the story but a few very simple activities which I will describe later below.
Now about the story...My 3 and 4 year old children really enjoy reading and listening to this story on the CD rom. The story has two main characters which are Grandma and her Grandson. These characters are animals that look somewhat crossed between a beaver (without the tail) and a squirrel. The Grandson is cute and resembles the age of about 5 years old I would say. He is brown, dressed in green swimming trunks, and has black straight hair. The Grandma looks similar except, well, she looks like his Grandma. She has on a nice dress and a hat.
The Story
Basically, the story is about Grandma and her grandson going on a trip to the beach together. Just the two of them. It is their day to share each other's company.
The story is narrated by the grandson. On each page the words are displayed and are highlighted as the grandson reads them. He has a sweet, childish voice and expresses good emotion. After and during the narration, the characters and their surroundings act out the story being told. It is quite entertaining. Your child hears and sees the words while watching them being acted out. This helps learn what words mean. Each scene (page) is creatively colored and cartoonish but realistic enough to associate with every day life and personal experiences, and is easy on the eyes. The artistic quality is nice and just right for kids. It does not look generic. Now that you know what to picture in your mind...here's how the story goes...
Page 1--- "We went to the beach, just Grandma and me."
Grandma and grandson walk out of the house together and wait for the bus. The bus arrives and they get on. They are on their way to the beach. "Here we go" says the grandson.
Page2--- "I wanted to set up the beach umbrella, but the wind was too strong."
The bus arrives at the beach. There is sand, water, a lifeguard, and other animals there. Grandma and grandson depart from the bus. The grandson tries to set up the umbrella in the sand, but the wind blows him up into the air with the umbrella. The lifeguard whistles as if to say he's breaking a rule. Then he comes back down. Grandma asks him if he's alright. This scene makes you smile.
Page 3--- "I flew my kite instead."
Grandson is flying the kite up in the air and it loses its wind and accidentally falls on Mrs. Cows head. (Mrs. Cow, as I have named her, is a guest at the beach). She looks bewildered and then gives him a frowning look of disapproval. This scene makes you snicker.
Page4--- "I bought hot dogs for Grandma and me, but they fell in the sand. So I washed them off."
Grandson trips and the hot dogs go flying up in the air and fall in the sand. He washes them off in the beach water. Grandma and grandson fix the hot dogs, brush the sand off them, and eat. They chew, and chew, and chew. This scene is comical.
Page5--- "I found a nice seashell for Grandma, but is was full of a crab."
Grandson picks up a blue seashell and out pops a crab! (really funny!!!) Grandson's eyes "pop" out of his head and he looks surprised and call for his grandma to look. Grandma is reading a book and says "That's nice dear." I like this scene a lot.
Page 6--- "I wanted to blow up my seahorse, but I didn't have enough air. So Grandma helped a little."
Grandson tries to blow up his floatable seahorse, but he can't fully blow it up. Every time he takes a deep breath, his pants fall down and his face turns red. The air fizzles out of the seahorse. Then Grandma blows
it up.
Page 7--- "I told Grandma to take me way out in the deep water, but not too far."
Grandma takes her grandson out into the "deep" water, kisses him, and he splashes and plays while she watches.
Page 8--- "I put on my fins and my mask and showed Grandma how I can snorkel."
Grandson tries to put on his fins but they slip out from under him. (funny for kids) He tries again and then jumps into the water and Grandma catches him. He snorkels and a fish swims up and kisses his goggles.
Page 9--- "I dug a hole in the sand for Grandma. Then I covered her up and tickled her toes."
Self explanatory. Grandma's laughing is a bit comical. It is a cute scene.
Page 10--- "I built a sand castle just for Grandma, but a big wave came. Grandma said that's what happens to sand castles, and we will build a new one next time."
A wave comes and washes away the sand castle.
Page 11--- "On the way home Grandma was tired, so I told her I would watch for our stop."
Grandma and Grandson get on the bus. Grandson son notices she is tired and is trying to be a big boy and let her rest. He tells her he will watch for their stop. He then falls asleep. This is an adorably, sweet scene. Also, very realistic. He is tuckered out after a full day. I particularly like this scene.
Page 12--- "We had a good time at the beach, just Grandma and me."
The bus drops them off at Grandma's house. Grandma carries her sleeping grandson into the house. All the lights in the house go on and then the half-crescent moon in the sky says "Goodnight and pleasant dreams".
The page turns and Grandson pops up and says "And that's the end of my story. Bye bye. See you later."
Overall, this story is very cute and very special if read by a grandma and her grandchild. It is thoughtful, well written, and has humor. The "living book" makes it even more special because the scenes are acted out and are so adorable.
On The CD Rom...
Opening page- On the opening page of the CD rom, there are 3 activities to choose from.
The first is reading the story. Upon pressing this button, the story will be read out loud by the grandson. The story will be acted out page by page, scene by scene...as described above. This makes the story very fun. My kids love it. Your kids will love it. There are many funny things that happen and the animation is very colorful and fun to look at. It is just a simple story, but exceptionally special if read with a grandparent. Reading with mom or dad or alone, the story is memorable and fun.
The second activity is "Let Me Play". Here you can "play" on each individual page of your choice. By "play", I mean, clicking on various objects in the picture to make them interact and do goofy things. For example, clicking on a raccoon floating on an inner tube in the water, makes him spin around real fast with sound effects. Most of the interaction is comical. All pages can be "played" in this activity. It is fun and entertaining. You get to giggle a lot too. The page is read and acted out just like in the reading section, except it stops after the reading so your child can "play". Clicking an arrow at the bottom brings up the next page.
Also, in the play activity there is a green button with a white hand on it pointing with first finger called "sticker". Clicking on this button brings up a set of pictures on the left. Usually about seven. The pictures are individual of one thing. As you might have guessed, the sticker pictures are from the page your child is now on. Clicking on the picture tells its name. On the page there are white spaces in the shapes of the sticker pictures. Your child can drag the picture over to the correct space and place them in the picture. When placed correctly, the sticker animates. This is kind of like those sticker books we buy our kids. The ones where you punch out the stickers, lick them, and place them in the appropriate spot. (Just without the licking and animation). This is a neat aspect. You can also print out each story page and choose which language to view the page in.
The third activity is playing in the sand. This is a very fun and creative activity in which your child can make sand castles. There are tools, items, and decorations to use. To wipe out a castle, your child can click on a wave coming in, and wash it away. The background in this activity is a close up of the beach. The sand is a pretty brownish-yellow and the waves coming in are at the top of the screen.
There is a beach towel with different shaped buckets for building the sand castles and a watering can to erase what you don't want. There is a pile of rocks, which has two different types of rocks, that your child can use to accent the sand castle. There is beach bag full os seashells and starfish (4 different kinds in all), a shovel to dig out sand, a spoon to dig a smaller area out, a stick to draw in the sand with (spell name, draw castle moat, area, etc.), and a book with the word "castle" and a picture of a sand castle printed on it. The castle book allows your child to view sand castle illustrations that they can make, and your child can print out the castle and picture they have made. This is a nice feature.
Oh, and let me not forget, the cutest feature in the sand...Lo and behold- the crab! It is a cute crab, probably as cute as a crab could get. He is orange and has googly eyes. Kind of realistic though with cartoon emphasis. Moving the cursor over the crab, or close to him, makes him move. My older son told me to click on the crab and I said "you can't". However, kids always know more about games than adults. He showed me something I didn't know. If you can catch the crab before he moves, click on him and he will jump up and spread his legs out. The crab's eyes then get big and he squeals "Wowwwwwww" in a teeny weeny voice. My kids and I laughed for a while on this and kept clicking on him.
If your child is slow to click on anything on the opening page, the grandson will give instructions and do a little dance. Also, in the opening page, different languages can be chosen to view the story in. These are English, French, Spanish, and German. The Quit button and Options are also on this page.
Learning
As far as learning goes, these are the things I think benefit children from this experience. It helps your child learn to read, and understand what the words mean (due to the fact the scenes are acted out while being read). It helps your child's vocabulary (the sticker area), helps invent and be creative (with the sand castles), and helps your child recognize shapes of things (also sticker placing part). Also, it helps your child learn what the mouse does. Clicking an object makes it interact. All of these things definitely don't hurt but help.
Well, that's the whole story book and activities by using the CD rom version. Just Grandma And Me is a cute, very simple little story. I think it is very well put together. There is nothing fancy about it. Just a grandma and her grandson having a fun, amusing day. If they would have made this story/activity more complex it would have ruined it. It is worth reading and keeping to read over again and to share with parents, as well as grandparents.
Recommended:
Yes
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Peachy3
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