Amazon.co.uk Review
Gentle jungle murmurings overlaid with Robert Guillaume's gleeful voice give the solid, well-conceived typing program,
Adventures in Typing with Timon & Pumbaa, an unusual degree of appeal and staying power. While the program will have your child smacking bugs, catching grubs and scampering away from dangerous enemies, children are actually practising the same fundamental skill-based keyboard activities as covered by such adult titles as
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.
Some terrific components of this program include shadows that display which finger should be used to hit each key, a timer that counts the seconds in each two-minute game and the blissful fact that hitting the space bar will fast-forward you past the opening and closing credits. The mysterious, leafy jungle setting is delightfully alive, yet you'll probably need to turn the brightness on your monitor way up to see all the vital buttons hidden in the dark corners of the scene. Be forewarned: to truly conquer touch-typing, you need to drive those keyboard strokes deep into the body's muscular memory. Endless repetition is the only proven method for this. That means that while this program boasts five unique activities (for example, Rafiki gives "lessons" while Timon and Pumbaa play "games"), it is all keyboard practice, again and again. Kids receive encouragement with an enticing visual environment, progress reports, certificates and frequent enthusiastic comments from Guillaume but it is ultimately going to fall upon the parents to see that their children continue with this when the going gets, well, boring. Don't expect your child to see this through without your support. Stay involved and they will. (Ages six to 10) --Jean Lenihan
Amazon.co.uk Mums' Committee Review
Timon and Pumbaa are heading for trouble in the treacherous jungle, and it's up to you to help them out by playing games that will guide them safely home. Rafiki will give lessons before you begin; there are 15 lessons from Rafifki, five daring games with Timon and Pumbaa and a lot of wisecracking. You'll learn to type and be challenged over and over again, as the difficulty increases along with your skill level. You have to complete each typing activity to get to the next and Rafiki makes it easy to learn by offering lots of hints and feedback on your progress. After signing in, you will automatically go to a lesson screen. You are shown how to sit and position your hands correctly, and how to locate all the keys from the home row. You start by focusing on accuracy and then incorporating speed into your typing. Games played along the way are: Smack a Bug, Savannah Water and Power, Grub Getaway, Carnivore Cave and Traveller's Tale. You can view and print the certificates you earn along the way and view scorecards that include typing accuracy, words per minute etc. My son is five and so slightly under the age range, but surprised me by how well he picked up the lessons; he wasn't even looking at his fingers after a while! He loved the games, especially Smack a Bug. It was an easy game to play and to understand; it also had educational value, as he was learning to spell words. It was fun and would make a very good gift for all sorts of age ranges. I even relearned my own typing skills playing this game. A bit too hard for a five-year-old in the last couple of games as it involves typing long sentences, but my son will go back to it over time. --Hayley Pink
This CD, which is for Microsoft Window 95/98/Me/XP, needs Pentium-class processor 90 MHz or faster, and has the advantage of running on both PC and Macintosh systems. It comes with a User's Manual, which takes you through all aspects of the CD, from installation, to the lessons, to troubleshooting. Using some of the characters from the magnificent film, The Lion King, it consists of 15 lessons from Rafiki, and five fun games with Timon and Pumbaa. There are many extras, which crop up unexpectedly, always with the wonderful sense of humour associated with our favourite meercat and warthog. As you progress through the screens, the difficulty increases, and, as each typing activity has to be completed before you can proceed to the next, your skills improve too. Rafiki has a few tips, and suggests how you can improve during this wild typing adventure, which requires helping Timon and Pumbaa through the jungle. The first exciting challenge is to assist Pumba to smack the bugs. There are little holes in the ground, positioned as the letters of the keyboard. When a bug emerges from its hole, you have to press the correct letter (without looking at the keyboard), and it gets a "splat" from Pumbaa's bamboo berry-shooter. This has to be achieves within the time limit. As you improve, Rafiki keeps track with a Progress Report, awards customised certificates, up to five in all, and you can even earn a Typing "Diploma". This calls for concentration, but perseverance pays off as each task becomes easier with practice. Adventures in Typing with Timon and Pumbaa would be a worthwhile purchase for any child who has a computer at home or at school, as more emphasis is placed on keyboards these days, and the sooner you learn to touch-type the better. With superb graphics, this is definitely a "learning with fun" product. --Charmaine Brown
Using a keyboard has become an everyday activity for children in the classroom and at home, be it for homework or for leisure. Most have enviable speed when using the keys dedicated to moves in an interactive game, but are more likely to restrict themselves to two fingers when typing text. Learning to type proficiently is to acquire a skill that will have life-long benefits. Disney employs two very popular characters from The Lion King to make learning to type fun. Guided throughout by the gentle and encouraging Rafiki, Timon and Pumbaa help bring the keyboard to life with exciting and challenging games. It is so successful that it is possible to achieve speed accuracy almost without noticing. The lessons are arranged into five activities, providing plenty of practice and challenges that will be familiar to a child who is used to playing computer games, but which are engaging enough for a novice. Each lesson contains step-by-step instructions that help to progress from complete beginner to advanced levels and reinforce good typing habits throughout. My eight-year-old son took to the challenges with enthusiasm and managed to make real progress in a very short space of time. He took great delight in trying to beat his own score for accuracy and speed and soon reached a level of proficiency that surprised us both. There are progress reports and printable certificates as an extra motivation and it is possible to focus on areas that need more work. We were delighted with the entire programme and have no hesitation in recommending it highly. --Denise Drake
This is a Disney interactive-software package, suitable for windows. The concept of the package is to assist a child to learn to type, without them realising it, through simple typing games. As a mother who uses two fingers to type with, the thought of my eight year old child being able to type better than me is slightly worrying! The downside to this package is that it is based on characters from The Lion King, which is not one of the most recent Disney films, and so may not appeal to children as much as if it were based on more recent characters. The whole package is excellent, although in order for a child to really succeed there is a lot of repetition required. But when they have achieved success there is a certificate to print out. This would make an excellent gift for a child who has dyslexia or a child who has problems with handwriting, as it would boost their confidence greatly. I'm sure most children would benefit without realising that they are actually learning. --Jane Tari
These days children start using computers when they are just out of the cradle. Adventures in Typing with Timon and Pumbaa is a CD-ROM from Disney Learning. The concept is simple, learn to touch type, but, make it fun. Timon and Pumbaa, who first met in The Lion King, are off on an adventure; old wise Rakiki explains that you need to help them using a typewriter, but you can't help until you learn to type. You are then taken through five stages. There is practise typing, using a few keys at a time, and this slowly builds up to using all the letter keys and a few punctuation keys. At each stage you play a game to achieve scores. You are scored on two cards, one on hits, i.e., keys struck and another on words per minute. When learning each new set of keys and practising, Rakiki's fingers appear over a keyboard on the bottom of the screen, you are encouraged not to look down. This CD-ROM is recommended for children aged six years plus and this is a good age guide. Adventures in Typing with Timon and Pumbaa works well if your child is ready to accept that this is not a go-in-and-score game, but a series of challenges that require practise before you can move on to the next level. At the end you lead Timon and Pumbaa to the Promised Land and you can replay any of the games you like and follow your improvement on a progress report. --Lucinda Austin
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home