Play for fun in the summer-time. Later in the school year, there's enough subtance here, for a nice school report. The Development Laboratory is a continuation of the Reader Rabbit Interactive Journey Series, with your onscreen pals, Sam the Lion and Reader Rabbit. There are two CDs in the new series. Each contains two stories.
Kids enjoy experimenting with the variations.
The emphasis is on reading, observation and comparison. It will not function well as an electronic babysitter. The variables are quite humorous. One of my child testers enjoyed the stories so much that he chose to re-write them in his own words, complete with illustrations. The Learning Company has found a clever way to get kids to manipulate and manage information.