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Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
(2004, Smart Toy - Educational, Rated E)
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings(Flash is loading. If this text does not disappear you need to install the latest flash version)
Not age appropriate for kids under 6, age appropriate for kids over 7; suggested age 7. -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
Reading games are much more fun than movie.
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 7 and Up
The good stuff
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Educational value:
What to watch out for
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Violence & scariness:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
What Parents Need to Know
This review of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat was written by Jinny Gudmundsen
Parents need to know that while this product has a commercial tie-in to the Cat in the Hat movie, it's fun to explore, regardless of whether your kids have seen the movie. It offers a wide variety of engaging games that impart good reading skills.
Families Can Talk About
Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help
- Families can talk about the different manifestations of the Cat in the Hat. How do the book, the movie, and the game compare? Does the Cat in the Hat's character seem consistent in all three? Which do you enjoy most?
More on Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
What’s the Story?
Playable on the LeapPad, the LeapPad Plus, or the Quantum Pad, DR. SEUSS' CAT IN THE HAT creates a fun environment for strengthening second-grade reading skills. While reliving the story of the movie, kids play learning games that cover contractions, verb tenses, parts of speech, syllables, antonyms, synonyms, homophones and homographs, compound words, sentence structure, phonics, and logical thinking.
To learn verb tense, kids play with typical Seussian rhyme. They must select the correct verb in the rhyme: "They heard/hear a loud BUMP and they jump/jumped from their chairs. Yes, they jump/jumped from the BUMP that they heard/hear from upstairs." In an activity involving the "phunometer" (a wacky contraption that supposedly "reads" a child's personality), kids learn about adjectives and adverbs. For the phunometer to work, the Cat in the Hat asks the reader to respond to three questions by choosing from 20 adjectives and adverbs displayed on a grid.
CloseIs It Any Good?
While the movie received mixed reviews, the Leapfrog software/book based on it is worth exploring. The activities and games are extremely clever and great fun to play. Because the subject matter is so whimsical, the developers wisely incorporated a zany playfulness in the learning games. The games are engaging, regardless of whether your kids have seen the movie.
ClosePublisher’s Details
Released on 01/09/2004, price $14.99, not online enabled
ESRB rating: E
ESRB rating: E
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