The Treehouse
From Small Acorns, A Mighty Oak Shall Grow!
A Review of The Treehouse
Rich Cunningham
During a recent business trip to New York, I visited Hyde Park, the home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. My children had asked me to bring them back some souvenirs, something different than the usual T-shirts or books. So while I was at Hyde Park, I gathered some acorns that had fallen to the ground in front of the Presidential library, about 40 of them. Upon my return home, we planted them and hopefully, in a few years, we will have some trees that started life on the estate of a U.S. president.
I was thinking about how such huge trees can grow from such a small thing like an acorn. They multiply in size many, many times over. Such are the mysteries of nature. The human mind is similar to an acorn in many respects. We start life with basic skills, such as breathing, eating, and crying, and increase the amount of knowledge contained as we grow older. Although the physical size of our brain doesn’t increase in the same proportions as an acorn does as it ages, the amount of knowledge it contains does. It increases in many ways. Life experiences account for some, maturing of instincts help, and formal education provides yet another way that knowledge increases. Part of the formal education process include developing basic skills in counting and the alphabet, as well as an understanding of what goes on in the world around us. Help with parts of this process are made easier by a program from Broderbund Software called The Treehouse.
The Treehouse is, as the title implies, about a treehouse. It is located in (where else) a tree. But it is a special place, made even more special by hosts Casey and Lloyd the Lighting Bug that greet and guide visitors during their stay. The Treehouse is a place that is designed for first and second graders to explore language, math, science, and music, in a series of activities that are designed to help young minds increase their knowledge. According to Laurie Strand, Executive Publisher or Broderbund’s Education Studio, “The subjects introduced and skills developed in first and second grade are essential building blocks for continuing education. This … title helps reinforce vital skills among this age group.” By introducing and reinforcing these skills, it helps to increase the amount of knowledge that these children have, and the amount of knowledge starts to multiply.
The program starts with Casey and Lloyd leading the player through their backyard and into the treehouse. Once in the treehouse, the activities are selected by clicking on an associated item in the treehouse. For example, to start the Treasure Quest game, one only has to click on the map, and then is taken to the game. There is background music, as well as some hidden spots that cause the hosts to interact with the player. The activities that are included in the program are:
Amazing Book of Facts: a potpourri of interesting, age-appropriate facts for children;
Music Studio: an area to explore pitch, rhythm, music styles and sounds;
What’s My Animal: a game where players are given clues and try to guess the animal;
Lloyd’s Lab: fun and safe experiments to play with, and then practice around the home;
Treasure Quest: a counting and adding game to introduce money concepts;
Bug Theatre: learning to construct sentences using who, what, when and where.
Each of the programs have an educational goal, simple enough for children to understand, yet complex enough to hold their attention and stimulate the though process. For example, in Treasure Quest, the setting is a board game with a pirate theme, where a player must move their pieces and buy their way to hidden treasures by spinning a wheel. The goals of this game are to introduce children to handling money and understand the size, value, and appearance of coins.
The use of multimedia makes this a very good program. There are ample amounts of introductions, instructions, and help along the way. Rather than just presenting a display and moving between areas of the game, sound and animation are used to bridge the segments. In Treasure Quest, selecting the playing pieces are made with the help of an animated Casey, rather than only audio instructions over a non-moving screen. The artwork is very good, very colorful, and complements the game, rather than distracting from it.
There is a very good manual included with the program, with very complete installation instructions and troubleshooting guide. There is also a section for parents/teachers, with details on how to best utilize the activities to get the most educational value out of them. There is also a skills matrix that suggests grade ranges for the various aspects of each activity. These are only suggested ranges, and the skill level of the child should determine what is appropriate for them. Installation was accomplished with no problems on the Windows 95 version. Broderbund has a solid reputation for quality software, so I would suspect that installation on Windows 3.1 and Macintosh machines would give no problems to the installer.
This title is the seventh one in the Active Minds Series from Broderbund. This is a series of programs that are designed to help motivate children to develop their educational skills while having a positive experience in a non-threatening environment. Learning while having fun is, in my opinion, the best way to learn. This program accomplishes that goal in very fine form. It goes a long way in helping young minds increase their knowledge. It goes a long way because it is a good program.
School House Scorecard
| Product: | The Treehouse |
| Company: | Broderbund Software Inc. |
| Cost: | $40.00 |
System Requirements:
Not Available
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 3
Learning Value 3
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 3
Sound 3
Overall Score:
(* 0 rating, 0 votes)
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