Didi & Ditto: Kindergarten Win/Mac

Kutoka Interactive bills itself as an edutainment software developer for children’s titles and I have to agree with their own assessment. My grandson Preston, who will be four in August of 2004, has been highly entertained, sitting once for over two hours mostly by himself navigating through the various activities. For an almost four year old with a limited attention span I would have to conclude that the software developers do indeed know how to keep children’s attention focused.

Didi and Ditto is an adventure game, where the players must complete a learning activity in order to add a fruit or vegetable to their carry sack. At the beginning the child is instructed to choose whether he wants to play as the female character (Didi) or the male character (Ditto). The game starts with a very well constructed flash movie where Didi and Ditto are playing Turnip Tennis. Along comes Zolt the Wolf who is very, very hungry. Zolt tries to steal the turnip, but through a series of mishaps involving, Didi, Ditto, and HipHop the rabbit, the turnip rolls into a tunnel. Zolt is a vegetarian wolf who would much rather eat fruits and vegetables than a beaver, so it’s up to the player to complete the learning activities and gather the food to save the sibling held captive by Zolt the wolf.

Learning activities include lessons in math, literacy, music, thinking skills and creative/artistic. The game is played on one of three levels; easy, medium, or hard. In addition to the learning activities there are activities which are there purely for entertainment. Characters such as Couki the dog, Hootdini the owl, Grumpy the bee, and Venus the chicken pop up in areas where they are not the main character, to add a certain silliness appropriate for this age level.

Didi and Ditto has been written specifically to reinforce what children are learning in kindergarten and as such much of the material is over Preston’s head. Even so, the software provides a great teaching tool for me as a grandparent. By sitting with the child through the activities I’m able to help advance both his cognitive skills and his computer skills. With three levels of difficulty from which to choose, some of the learning activities are still too advanced even at the easiest level for Preston, while others are within his skill range. Because there are so many activities in this software, and with the entertainment value it provides, I can easily see him using this program over the next two years to help him be well prepared for when he does finally enter kindergarten.

With all the interactive toys in today’s market, children these days are quick to learn. Preston has learned how to load the CD, start the game, and navigate to his prior game or choose a new one from his very first sitting. He has also learned functions on the iBook such as click and drag, which was rather daunting the first few times he tried it. Trackpadding requires a different skill than mouse clicking. So the other indirect benefit of this software is teaching my grandson computer skills.

There are a couple of very minor aspects of the software that I believe could be improved. In one of the games, the player is asked to spell a word which appears in the center of the screen. The letters are lowercase and, to my eye, very stylized. If a child is just learning how the lowercase letters look, this may be difficult for them. The other change I would suggest is that the developers make a separate English version for the US in which the letter Z is called “Z” and not “Zed”, as it is in the present version. While Zed is common usage in countries that speak “British English”, it is not the common form used in the US.

Didi and Ditto Kindergarten in a hybrid CD-ROM that is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh computers. Minimum system requirements for Macintosh are System 9/OSX; 300 MHz G3 or above processor; 128mb RAM; 800×600 and 24-bit color; and 280 MB of hard disk space. Flash 6 is also required. There is a well-written instruction guide for adults that explains how to navigate around the game.

I’m not a professional educator so my evaluation of this software is based on my grandson’s reaction, and he likes it very, very much. So much so that he asks to play it every time he is here. To ignore his videos and toys to play a fun learning game says a lot to me about the appeal of Didi and Ditto to the age group for which it is intended.

MyMac.com rating: 5 out of 5.

http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=1775

Rating: 5 / 5

Finally, fresh new characters which are adorable. I am a converted Kutoka buyer as I have now bought a 3rd item from them. I was so impressed with the Mia Reading and Mia Language that I wanted to try this multi-subject game for my twin girls in kindergarten. This game is a great compliment to mia reading as it reinforces literacy and other subjects like math and problem solving. We haven’t played with the art part yet but I still think it’s a great value for the other subjects. I’m really impressed how it helps to develop their cognitive skills and patience as one of my girls has a problem with concentration but found through the problem solving activities that she is overcoming these difficulties. Great product. Even my neighbours kids come over to play it!
Rating: 5 / 5

My 4 year old son received this as a Christmas present. He has really enjoyed playing it so far. He can do most of the activities without help. There is one part where you have to ride a cart down a mountain and click buttons to duck or jump, which I think is pretty hard for little ones (it actually took me a couple of tries to make it down the mountain). There are many different learning activities: matching, memory, shapes, size, etc. We did not have any problems loading the game on our computer as another reviewer did. We have a new Dell computer running on windows XP.
Rating: 4 / 5

I guess I’m spoiled by the I Spy games I’ve purchased for my children. This game has an enormous amount of “story”…it’s almost as bad as sitting your child in front of the television. Interaction is confusing and frustrating. I’d rate this lower but it’s clear that a lot of work went into the animation, which is top notch. I just wouldn’t classify this as a learning game.
Rating: 2 / 5

I purchased this game for my 3 year old who already reads a little and knows her numbers well. I hoped this game would help her learn addition. She loves to play it, but several of the games require hand coordination beyond her ability (the hand cart one in particular, as noted by another reviewer), and catching bubbles. It was frustrating to me because she knew the proper answer but could not “execute” because her movements were too slow. Over time, she has improved enough to play most of the games on level one. The game is very engaging ang the graphics well-done, but the educational part is under-emphasized. The game that “teaches” addition involves frogs jumping to lily-pads and my daughter is so focused on the frogs that the addition lesson is hardly noticed.
Rating: 4 / 5