Safety Monkey

No Monkeying Around!

A Review of Safety Monkey

Tamara Miller

I wanted to like Safety Monkey, I really did. The idea is wonderful: A

computer

program designed to teach young children lessons in safety in a

non-threatening and safe

environment. My 4 and 6 year olds really tired of it quickly, so I sent it

to my sister-in-

law to try out on her 3 year old son. My sister in law experienced some of

the same

frustrations that I did with the software, so I included her observations in

this review.

However, and this is a BIG however, even though this program will not appeal

to adults

and older preschoolers, it appears that younger children love it! My nephew

played with

the game for hours, ran around singing the songs, and even “saved” his baby

brother from

the “potty” after playing with Safety Monkey. To each his own. Tanner ( the

3 year old )

loved it AND LEARNED from it. What more can you ask? I recommend this

program

on that basis, but hang on, parents, the music is reeeeeeely cheesy. You

will hate the

graphics and the choppy flow, but your toddler will love it and learn from

it. That’s what

counts.

Getting Around Swingland:

* There are three ways to change scenes: click on an object with white

sparkles, click the mouse when the monkey’s eyes are glancing sideways, or

click on an

exit sign. There needs to be one consistent way to do this. The glancing

eyes

are not intuitive for kids.
* The white sparkles made it difficult to read and see some of the objects.
* It is difficult to find all the scenes. There is no way of knowing if you

have been to all of the scenes. In addition, the farm and snow scenes are

not

listed on the box as possible safety locations.

General:

The instructions are vague. A small child will have difficulty navigating

the program. In

fact , the only way a child will get around Swingland is by trial and error.

This produces

some frustration, but a patient child will not mind.

I am a bit disturbed by some of the safety tips. For instance, the telephone

rings and

Safety Monkey is home alone, he says that his parents are home but they are

busy and

can’t come to the phone. This is a lie and some parents would not want there

children to

say this.

Bugs:

* During the room clean up, it says to click and drag the objects to the

proper

place. The screen did not totally redraw. This also occurred during the walk

along the path.
* Also in the room clean up, I had to click, drag, and click again to get

the

object to stay in the proper place.
* When waiting to switch to a different scene, the items with white sparkles

would turn black and the computer would hang for a few seconds.

* The escape key did not work when trying to leave the park, street, and

other

scenes.

I know that this review sends a mixed message, but this program is a mixed

bag. Small

children will love it and learn from it. Everyone else will be bored. My

nephew, loved it

and identified with Safety Monkey. He pretends to be Safety Monkey all the

time now,

and that is at least a bit of a relief from the “Barney” role play. Buy this

program for your

wee ones, but be prepared for some frustration. The benefits do seem to

outweigh the

problems.

Screen Shots

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