I always seem to be complaining about the poor variety and quality of educational software in this column, but now I've found a series of early learning programs which I can be totally enthusiastic about. The Learning Box program written by Five Ways and published by Arrow, is an outstanding series which encourages young children to develop basic letter and number skills.

Five Ways have put a great deal of thought and effort into the programs, and have realised that educational package should include not just the computer tape, but also other materials such as books, together with clear guidance on their use. Each of the programs in the Learning Box series follows the same format: the attractive plastic case contains the tape (which has the program on one side, and a story or rhymes to listen to on the other); a beautifully illustrated story-book to accompany the audio tape; a parents' book containing step by step instructions for all the learning activities; and an overlay which simplifies the keyboard for even the youngest child.

The programs themselves all feature a carefully structured range of activities designed in a clear sequence so that children can work from the easy to the more difficult. This logical structure of subject matter is extremely important for effective meaningful learning. The inclusion of detailed guidance for parents ensures that the foundations on which a new learning activity rests can be introduced before the concept is presented using the computer.

For very young children, learning material must be bright and attractive, and the colourful screen graphics of The Learning Box series are quite excellent. Sound is also used to very good effect, and it can be turned off if required. Other extremely useful touches include the facility for exiting from an activity at any point and return to the menu, and well as pause facility. The control keys for all of these options (caps shift/break and the appropriate number key) have been carefully selected to make it virtually impossible for the child to carry out any of these actions accidentally.

It really is hard to find any criticisms of these programs - the only real snag that arose concerns the overlay which doesn't fit the Spectrum Plus and could possibly have been a bit more robust. The main thing, though, is that in terms of their educational value and the enjoyment they offer, the programs are streets ahead of most other early learning software. Daniel (as you know, he's my five year old tester) loved the series, even demanding to see them again as soon as he woke up in the morning - though at that early hour, his father could perhaps be forgiven for being less than enthusiastic!

THE NUMBER PROGRAMS £9.95 EACH

Mister Mac's Money
Age Range: up to 6
Educational Aim: telling the time

Nine Currant Buns
Age Range: up to 6
Educational Aim: simple sums

The Magic Shop
Age Range: up to 6
Educational Aim: using money

Five Little Ducks
Age Range: up to 6
Educational Aim: counting

The most simple of the number programs for the younger age group, Five Little Ducks, begins by teaching sorting and matching skills, then develops the concept of counting using the numbers 1 - 5. There are ten activities in this program and, again, all of them are nicely related to the rhyme of the Five Little Ducks in the booklet and on the listening tape. The most outstanding feature of this program is the way in which it relates the number of objects represented pictorially on the screen to the figure symbol for the number.

This relationship is also used to good effect in Nine Currant Buns, which goes on to the next stage and introduces the numbers 6 - 9, before giving practice in counting, adding and subtracting using 1 - 9. This time there are, would you believe, no less than seventeen activities arranged in graded steps! The simple sums using plus and minus signs are very clearly presented. This is exactly the kind of approach which brings arithmetic to life for young children.

Mister Mac's Day, the telling the time program, is a very clever way of teaching children a very complex skill. When you consider the variety of types of clock available these days - analogue, and both 12 and 24 hour digital - and the different ways of expressing time - five thirty, half past five, seventeen thirty - you'll begin to realise how difficult it can be. The designers, though, have thought of every eventuality, and have created a charming story to form the background for the activities. Children will love reading about, and listening to, Mr Mac's Day and then helping Mr Mac drive his train so that it arrives at the stations on time.

Using money is another skill that children must master, and in The Magic Shop the child has to buy the ingredients to make magic potions. The coins are pictured on the overlay, so the child can press the appropriate keys to count out the money needed. Once the youngster can manage to count out the exact sum required, guidance is given on counting out the nearest amount of money, and then checking that the correct change is given by the shopkeeper. The parents' guide stresses the importance of practising with real money, and offers some helpful advice. One child of seven who tested the game for me spent over an hour, totally engrossed in it. He particularly enjoyed the Making Spells activity, where the child chooses from the spell book and makes a potion by using the coins to buy the ingredients needed. (My tester usually began with "squirt of anti-spook spray"!)

THE LEARNING TO READ PROGRAMS £9.95 EACH

Red Riding Hood
Age Range: up to 6
Education Aim: reading words

Goldilocks
Age Range: up to 6
Education Aim: reading sentences

The Enormous Turnip
Age Range: up to 8
Education Aim: building words

Hansel and Gretel
Age Range: up to 8
Education Aim: spelling

Based on well-loved children's stories, these programs are a superb example of how computer assisted learning should be integrated with other methods of learning. The Red Riding Hood tape contains eight graded activities moving from various matching pictures games to matching letters, then building up to matching words. The children's book contains beautifully illustrated pictures of characters and objects from a story, each one clearly labelled, and children will love listening to the story read on tape by Toni Arthur.

Goldilocks goes on to the next stage of learning to read, which is decoding sentences. Again the skills are broken down, this time into five graded activities, and, as with the programs, clear instructions are given to the parent as to how best to help the child. The fourth activity, for instance has been especially designed for the child to play alone (though the parent is advised to be on hand to help if necessary). The random ordering of sentences in this game ensures that the words have to be read rather than memorised.

For children up to eight years, The Enormous Turnip is a very clever way of teaching letter sounds, word making and spelling. The various computer activities are closely related to the story of the old man who has to rope in all his relatives in order to pull up the huge turnip, and the graphics are superbly entertaining. I particularly liked the mouse which does a somersault when the child gets the answer correct!

Hansel and Gretel is the most difficult of all the reading programs. It introduces some of the more complex letter combinations (words beginning with sl, pl, br) and vowel sounds (as in kite, bone) and gives the child practice in spelling words from the story. This time, the child moves on from using the overlay to spelling the the letter keys.

GENERAL RATING

All of the programs succeed remarkably well in their learning-through-play aim. They are interesting and imaginative enough to hold a child's interest, and the variety of carefully graded activities ensures a steady progression of tasks as the child learns. The listening tapes are of a very high quality as are the children's booklets, and the screen graphics are quite excellent. The guides for parents are both comprehensive and informative, giving detailed support to those who are unsure about how to help their children. A great deal of thought has gone into the design of these packages, and they are by far the best series of early learning programs I have seen.

Highly recommended!

SPECTRUM LESSONS

Mike Edmunds gives learning programs the final exam!

The Learning Box Series
Spectrum 48K
£9.95 each
Arrow, 17-21 Conway Street, London W1P 6JD

When home micros first began to appear, one of their major selling points was the fact that children would be able to continue their education at home. In reality, this claim proved less than accurate, not because of hardware limitations but because the software available did little at the time to inspire prospective buyers. Happily however, this situation has changed and although a lot of mediocre material still manages to get published, a few names are earning a reputation for quality educational software. One such is Fiveways Software whose latest offering for the home/educational market is 'The Learning Box' series published by Arrow.

The series consists of eight titles, each based upon a familiar story or nursery rhyme. They are designed to help children develop and extend upon basic reading and number skills. Four of the titles: 'Five Little Ducks'? 'Nine currant Buns, 'Goldilocks' and 'Red Riding Hood' are for children up to six years of age. The remaining titles, 'The Enormous Turnip', 'Hansel and Gretel', 'Mr. Mac's Day' and 'The Magic Shop' are for children up to the age of eight.

Each program costs £9.95 and, for the price you get a durable video-style cassette box which contains a storybook, parents guide, keyboard overlay and a tape which has the story on one side (narrated by Toni Arthur) and the program itself. The main emphasis throughout the series is one of structured progression and the activities are intended to be worked through over a length of time rather than as a one-off, repeatable activity.

Each program offers a wide range of options, with anything from four to seventeen activities. These are intended to be used initially with the parent sitting alongside the child, but are structured so that even the youngest child should, quite rapidly, be able to work unaided. This aspect is reinforced by use of the double-sided overlays, which divide the keyboard into coloured sections, thus avoiding the need for the young learner having to search for specific keys.

QUALITY

An indication of the quality of the programs is seen as soon as the colourful loading page appears - bright, appealing graphics indicate the fun to come! Upon loading, a large-print 'menu-style' option sheet details the range of activities available - Fiveways have designed their own character set and the alphanumerics are large, colourful and nicely formed. This attention to detail is common to all the programs and the standard of graphics, colour and sound throughout is excellent!

For the youngest children the first title is 'Five Little Ducks' which is divided into two sections; Early Numbers and Counting, with five activities in each. Early Numbers deals with grouping, colour matching and one-to-one correspondence. Counting makes use of the little ducks in the title to demonstrate sequences and numbers up to five. Errors are treated with doleful 'quacks' and the child must try that part of the activity again. Variations on this theme should lead gradually to the child's recognition and understanding of numbers up to five.

'Nine Current Buns' is subtitled 'I can do sums' and it provides seventeen activities to demonstrate the stages of addition and subtraction as well as simple sums. A novel feature, which typifies the 'fun to do' approach, is provided by animated '+' and '-' signs. This, combined with many varied objects, such as friendly currant buns or flapping seals, provides an amusing yet effective way of reinforcing the basic concepts involved.

'Red Riding Hood' (I can read words) uses tried and tested educational techniques such as matching pictures, matching letters, word snap and picture snap as an introduction to the recognition of letters and words, thereby providing a sound basis for reading skills. Characters and events from the stories of both Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks are used in an entertaining way and the child can choose to work alone, play against a friend, or play against the computer. The speed of the program in self-adjusting to cater for the differing abilities of the users. This program is full of little surprises and a child cannot fail to be motivated by the sight of Little Red Riding Hood stamping her feet in anger at a wrong answer - to the obvious delight of the hungry looking wolf beside her!

Along similar lines is 'Goldilocks' (I can read sentences! which also has two sets of vocabulary and introduces groups of words and simple sentences.

For the older child is 'The Enormous Turnip', which introduces 'word making' using a cheeky little mouse to help the old man pull up his turnip. Exercises cover initial sounds, sound blends and simple spelling, all of which are designed to encourage the child's word building skills.

'The Magic Shop' is intended to assist in the understanding of money and its use. This is perhaps the weakest of the pro-grams in that the progression of activities is not very clearly defined and initially a lot more parental guidance is required. The 'number line' used is also rather confusing and not as clearly defined as it might be. However, having said that, the program is nevertheless a useful aid for a child to reinforce the idea of buying articles and reciveing change. It is up to date, including the 20p and £1 coins, but perhaps does not fully achieve it's aim even though the idea of buying and concocting magic potions is undeniably self-motivating!

'Mr. Mac's Day' helps the child to tell the time. This is done by, amongst other things, helping forgetful Mr. Mac to do the right things at the right time.... woe betide you if you make him arrive for work in his best kilt! Further activities include 'Driving the engine' (and reaching the destination on time! as well as exercises on Digital Clocks and the 12 and 24 hour clock. This program causes my own (very minor) criticism... there is no provision for adjusting the time backwards in the event of overshooting the time you actually want. (Mind you - I always seem to have the same trouble with my digital watch!) The graphics in this program however more than make up for the minor quibble...they are first rate! - even to the extent of Mr. Mac doing a Highland Fling to the skirl of the bagpipes!

Finally to my favourite of the bunch - 'Hansel and Greta!'. This is a series of graded activities to encourage word building and spelling using techniques such as 'Make a word' or 'Mend a word.' Again the exercises progress gradually and use a wide range of vocabulary from the story to develop word building skills. The final activity is a novel version of 'hangman' which is harder than it looks. However, I must admit that this program is my favourite for the simple reason that it contains some of the most imaginative graphics that I have ever seen in an educational program. (Wait till you see the way that the wicked witch gets stuffed into her own oven!)

Overall these are value-for-money packages with a wealth of activities that will help the learner develop and improve upon basic skills. The Parents Guide also gives plenty of suggestions as to how to help the child and extend upon the subjects covered. This is one of the best sets of educational software I have yet seen for the Spectrum.

Full marks Fiveways and Arrow for some excellent work - to the top of the class!