Play & Learn has been one of our most popular CDs over the years, and we are now its exclusive distributor. No other Preschool and Early Reader Christian CD comes close to Play & Learn's quality, breadth and fun. We know, we've looked at them all and can carry any of them. We choose Play & Learn Children's Bible CD. Play & Learn is well-written, warmly illustrated, nicely organized, and solidly programmed. Unlike some of its competitors, Play & Learn uses narrated scripture translated into kid-friendly age-level appropriate language. No KJV or NIV for four year olds (please). Play & Learn uses bright colors, and loving illustrations. Narrations are in child friendly voices. No scary pictures and no scary theology. Play & Learn also offers the best "after the story" games of any Christian CD for this age group. The Bible songs sing-a-long are fun.

Play & Learn Children's Bible CD's 50 Stories are organized two different ways in two menus. 1) By Bible Story Subject 2) By Bible Story Values --much the way preschool curriculum organizes Bible stories.       (family, friends, church, etc.) Both menus access the same 50 stories. You can see the menu option here >>

Each story contains SEVERAL clickable screens with read-aloud text (many pretenders to the throne contain only one picture per story). All the stories contain a question for discussion. It will take the average five year old about 5 minutes to get through each story. In my computer lab, I have 2 or 3 students per computer. Each one likes to be the one running the mouse as we go through the story. That means we have to go through the story 2 or 3 times. They don't mind, and we always seem to find something in the pictures they didn't find before. It gives me plenty of "focus time" to talk about the stories too while we go through them onscreen. Each story page contains about 4 clickable hotspots that trigger cute animations. If you're only going through the story once, have children share "clicking" responsibilities. But as mentioned above, each child will probably want to be the one who gets to click everything, so plan on extra time to go through the story again.

There's a lot of content in this CD. With some simple lesson planning, this CD holds a lot of teaching potential. Resist the impulse to use this CD as a break from teaching. Get elbow to elbow with your students.

Here are a couple of Tips and Program Notes:

1. Print this document and keep the list of Play & Learn's 50 stories near your computer.

2. Take some time to match the stories in this CD to your curriculum so that your teachers can use the CD stories as your curriculum calls for them. Post your findings where this CD is to be stored or where the computer is kept so that your teachers can easily find it Train your Preschool teachers in the use of this CD ROM, i.e, how to start it and how its features work so they won’t be afraid to use it.

3. Match the Bible Value categories (see picture to right) to your curriculum and make this information readily available to your teachers.

4. Pick 15 or 20 stories of your choice and chart them on a poster board or bulletin board alongside student names. During a special time in the class, the students can take turns learning their next Bible story and thus moving along the chart. Give special awards for getting to different levels on the chart over a period of time.

5. Consider other activities that would complement and enhance the learning of each story, such as: the use of same story Bible videos, craft projects, and dress-up dramas to help the story sink in at a deeper and different level.

6. For maximum effect, have the kids color and share the Bible paint page that matches the story being learned. (See note on how to print uncolored picture).

7. Use the Game Room typically as a reward. Avoid letting the children browse through the program before and after class. Yes, this seems like an odd recommendation but experience suggests that familiarity breeds contempt. Even the little ones can get "been there done that" -attitude. Find another program for your play times.

8. You could plan to use this CD for a season, all year long, or taught over a two year period depending on your goals and equipment availability. With a little pizazz and publicity you could highlight your Bible literacy campaign, computer use, and preschool program, while promoting attendance.

9. The Coloring Book activity area contains pages to color from about half of the CD's stories. The Puzzle Page contains the other half of the 50 stories.

10. IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE ABC, 123 ACTIVITIES IN THE GAME ROOM:  You must move the ABC's, (or 1-2-3's) by "drag and drop." Click/hold the correct next letter, drag it across the screen to the correct location and release.  If you just 'click' the correct one, it will say 'wrong.'

Here's more good advice from fellow educators using computers and Play & Learn with preschoolers...
If you are going to have a computer in the preschool room whether permanently or temporarily, be prepared for the crush and rush it will create! With a little ingenuity and organization, you can meet the emotional and educational needs of each child without causing frustration and anxiety of seeing a computer but having to wait for a turn. Perhaps you can isolate the computer in a corner out of view of the rest of the class. How about a “computer tent?” Young children and computers don’t necessarily need tables and chairs!

Many churches find the addition of teenage “Bible Lab Buddies” or “Computer Buddies” essential to the use of programs like Play and Learn. A teaching assistant can help extend the content of the software through discussion and interaction. Teenagers are great helpers with a defined task and a little training. Write down simple “Teacher Talking Points” for them to cover with their students. Consider having your older kids “teach” stories with Play & Learn to your younger ones. Have them preview parts of the CD and prepare a simple lesson plan. Older kids can learn from Play & Learn if they think it isn’t for them.

View our Jesus Cross Reference Document in the Teaching Tips section of www.sundaysoftware.com. There we've cross-referenced Play and Learn's Jesus stories with other Jesus software that tells the same story. In some cases, older children's software about Jesus has elements that can be used with preschoolers and early readers. Discovery’s Life of Christ, for example, has some lessons and quizzes that match up well with Play and Learn's content. Other lessons in that CD are NOT age appropriate. Many of the multimedia elements (videos, etc.) in the Interactive Kids Bible Series CDs (Life of Moses, David, etc) can be used in conjunction with Play & Learn's stories. Outlines of the CDs in this series can be printed from the Teaching Tips section of our website.

Create a quiz about stories from Play & Learn using Fall of Jericho (also found in our catalog). The younger ones like to have the quiz questions and answers READ to them and see their player advance on the screen when they get it right.

Have children do some creative writing and drawing about the stories they’ve seen in Play & Learn. Of course, writing complete sentences may be hard, but many children can learn to write key words on a page and illustrate it. For example: "Love."

Some Second Graders may feel this program is too young for them. Older students may get over this by reading the stories aloud. Turn down the volume or select "no" when prompted for the read aloud feature.

The Roundabout Way to Print the Coloring Pages

There is no print button in the program (this is probably a good thing considering the cost of color ink and the frequency with which youngsters like to print things!) In Windows you can print the coloring pages from Play & Learn by pressing press your PRINTSCREEN button on your keyboard. This copies everything on your screen (mouse pointer and all) to your invisible Windows clipboard. After pressing this key, open up any wordprocessing program, such as Wordpad which come with Windows, and click PASTE. (You can also open up a 'new' document in Windows Paint and "paste" from the clipboard onto the new bitmap.) Then print your page. This method is ONLY good for capturing black and white graphics such as unpainted coloring pages. It will probably distort the colors in already colored pages.