One of the most wholesome families in all of the world has to be the adorable Berenstain Bears. What better family to help teach the youngsters of today about the basics of learning? Berenstain Bears Learning Essentials was released by Compton’s Newmedia in the early nineties, adding to their growing stable of edutainment titles, which already featured Wild Learning Safari. Some of the activities in Berenstain Bears Learning Essentials reflect very similar themes as Wild Learning Safari.
Berenstain Bears Learning Essentials is geared for children ages three through nine.
It offers children a chance to play with some developing concepts in their minds, while learning to become comfortable with the most influential piece of modern technology, the home computer. The influence of games such as this one on the pre-kindergarten age group is especially important in giving them a head start with their basics, as well as teaching them about computing.
Berenstain Bears Learning Essentials features three separate programs to teach kids some fundamental ideas. Berenstain Colors is the game that is most like Wild Learning Safari. It is primarily an interactive coloring book, only instead of featuring wild animals, it stars the Berenstain Bear family. The Berenstain Bears Puzzles is a collection of small jigsaw puzzles made up of scenes taken from various Berenstain
Bears books. This program helps children to develop spatial skills, as well as hand and eye coordination in manipulating the pieces on the screen. The final program in this collection is Berenstain Bears Music, which teaches children about musical notes, and allows them to compose their own basic pieces, and hear them played back.
Although the game is recommended for up to age nine, it is more geared for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students that learn more by playing and doing than by studying. The puzzles and coloring book both teach very rudimentary skills that will be too low for older children. The music portion is more suited for older kids with a better capacity for symbols and abstract concepts.
At any rate, Berenstain Bears Learning Essentials definitely has some edutainment merit, especially for the younger learners. It is colorful, fun and educational, and it features a great family of bears that are average in an above average way. Kids can’t go wrong with this one, and truthfully, even adults might catch themselves trying to assemble a puzzle from this lovable children’s cartoon. Highly suggested download.
