Trudy's Time and Place House 
by Larry Grosskopf, Alamo PC

This is a multi-format CD, for Windows or Macintosh systems. Recommended requirements are for Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, with at least 8 MB of RAM highly recommended, a double speed or faster CD-ROM drive, 486 DX 33 mhz, Super VGA, 640X480 and 256 colors or more, a hard drive with 2 MB free, a mouse and a Windows compatible sound-output device. I installed this program on my 486 DX2 80 mhz machine with 16 MB of RAM, Windows 95, quad speed CD-ROM drive, 16 bit sound card and SVGA graphics card. The process went very smoothly, as I simply followed directions and made a few mouse clicks. It was surprisingly easy to install.

Once installed, the fun begins! What's inside Trudy's house, you ask? Come on in and let's explore. You start out with Trudy (a friendly alligator) introducing herself. In Trudy's main room, you have five options to choose from. You can click on the Time Twins, the Calendar Clock, the Earth Scout, go on a Jellybean hunt or play in the Symbol Sandbox. Each of the choices has educational content built into the activity that will pique the interest of a youngster.

 Each screen is colorful, uses sound and animation and demands some interaction from the user, which stimulates the child's attentiveness. If you click on Earth Scout, you get to discover relationships among the Earth, a globe, and a world map. The Time Twins are Analog Ann and Digital Dan, clocks that are helpful tools to the child trying to master time relationship concepts. The Calendar Clock allows you to move forward or backward in an animated movie by months, days, hours, minutes and seconds.

My three year old daughter's two favorites are the Jellybean Hunt and the Symbol Sandbox. Jellybean Hunt is a fun way for the child to begin to learn about directions. In the symbol Sandbox, a menu of symbols allows the child to pick a symbol and then place it in a sandbox and watch as it magically transforms into a hill, road, river, lake or city. Once an activity is chosen, there are different modes of the activity, such as Explore and Discover or Question and Answer, with each mode helping the child develop and practice different skills.

As a parent of a three year old who loves the computer and loves to learn, this program is a winner and supplements the other programs in this series quite well. Not only is it entertaining, but she is learning constantly and practicing previously learned skills each time she "plays" this program. The combination of being fun for her along with providing ample learning opportunities is too great to pass up. I would encourage anyone with small children to consider this program for use as a supplementary educational tool.

Documentation provided with this software adds to it's strength. The book that accompanies the CD has detailed sections on each activity, including the purpose for the activity, explanations for parents on learning opportunities for the child, and a Together Time section on each activity that provides suggestions for things to do with the child to further enhance the educational value of the program.

Adult options included allow the parent to customize the program and even set up single switch options for children with special needs. Troubleshooting tips are provided as a first step should one have problems using the program. A fax number and an online technical support e-mail address are provided along with a technical support telephone number. It is not a toll-free call, however and the telephone support is only available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.

The Edmark Corporation Customer Service number for inquiries or ordering of products is (206) 556-8484. The software program can be obtained locally, as well, at many retail stores or major computer discount stores.

Larry Grosskopf is a Clinical Psychologist at the San Antonio State Hospital.