Caillou Magic Playhouse - PC

Mommy and Daddy are ging out for the evening and Julie is babysitting Caillou and Rosie. Your little one will enjoy wandering through the rooms of Caillou's house, finding clickable objects, 6 treasure hunt objects and 8 activities. Before playing, you select a "theme" -- Sports, Music, Sun & Sand or Nature, which only minimally affects game play, such as the drawings found in the Crafts area.The games, most of which have three difficulty levels, are: (1) Crafts. You can make pictures or puppets, and choose coloring pages or connect-the-dots, and then print them out. (2) Music. Julie taps a tune on a xylophone and your child repeats it. Difficulty levels vary the number of notes (1, 3 or 5). (3) Cloud Shapes. As the three watch clouds float by, click on those that have a distinctive shape. Difficulty levels vary the number of clouds and whether or not the shapes are partially hidden. (4) Matching. Eight dresser drawers are shown. Match pairs by opening the drawers. Difficulty varies from solid color socks to simple versus more complex patterns. (5) Sing and Dance. Your child can choose from among several songs, then place a dancing Caillou image along the bars of music. When you press 'Play', Caillou dances along to the song. (6) Building Blocks. Use given shapes to construct a toy, then identify the object. Difficulty varies how the object is identified -- by clicking on a picture, overlapping letters of the given name or constructing the name from a jumble of letters. (7) Silly Stories. Determine a story by choosing a character, a place and two objects, then click the 'Play' button to have the story read aloud. Words are highlighted as the story is read. (8) Fly By Butterflies. Catch butterflies in a net by clicking on them. Difficulty level determines whether the butterflies are solid or have a simple or more complex pattern.I like that the game begins with the familiar song and introduction from the television series, that it is very stable and seamlessly incorporates animated and puppet sequences into gameplay. I also like that these scenes can be interrupted with a mouse click. Instruction screens precede each activity and are clear, though too lengthy for little kids to take in. From any screen you can access help or instructions, or easily back out of an activity, and it's easy to change difficulty levels.Little ones will probably learn mouse and navigation skills more than they will learn math or reading from this game, but it is entertaining for Caillou fans. Because the instructions can be lengthy, it's important that you sit with your child and play through the game at first. This title is very similar to Caillou Birthday Party -- identical format, different activities.

Caillou Magic Playhouse is very disappointing. The pictures are cute but the games are not challenging. This item says that it is for a 2-6 year old but all except one of the activities is for a child of 2 or younger. My daughter is 3 checked out all the games and except for a run of the mill advanced reading and math game could do all of the games on their hardest settings the first time. She immediately declared this game boring after the first and only time she played with it. Games like Freddie Fish, Madeline and many others she is still playing with after many months because they have challenges, which grow with the child's ability. For example the matching game in Caillou only goes up to 10 pictures which is 5 pairs. A good game, which is challenging would have more pairs as an option. Don't buy this game.

I bought this game for my four year old who gets bored easly. I love this game and so does my son. I found that I didn't need to help him at all with this game, the instructions where easy. I think the game over all was great. I even found myself wanting to play it. I like how it was also musical. My 18 month old likes to watch my son play this game. I would recomend it to anyone who wants there children to learn and have fun at the same time. Great Game!!!

I purchased this game for my 3 year old. She loves the Reader Rabbit games and is very good at them. I wanted to get her something new so I got her this and its very over her head. It's more narration than playing and the characters do more talking than there is playing. The disc also freezes and has errors and if she hits the quit button which is a bright red stop sign it completely closes the game all together. She clicks it all the time thinking she just wants to get out of the current game she is in. I would not recommend it.

Bought this product for my 3 yr old (who also loves the show). The gaming level is perfect for her. It is teaching her valuable logic as well as computer skills. She has played it for over 10 hours already! Beats a video any time. I am going to buy Caillou Birthday on her birthday.

This was not at all what I expected. My two year old is even bored with it, it has nothing to really hold her interest. Also there are very few games and it is such a process to get to them. I wouldn't even give this CD Rom to someone, I would rather throw it away, I was that disappointed.

This game was vey disappointing for both me and my 3 year old. There isn't a whole lot of content here. The games are poor and my child is bored with them after only one session. The games reminded me of a macromedia-flash game that you would find on kids' web sites. This one was rushed to the shelves.