Marshall Anderson gets on his marks with a conversion of an educational package

Freddy Teddy from Topologika is their second package based on programs originally designed for the Nimbus by Northamptonshire Computer Education Centre. It is aimed at lower infants and provides three language-free activities looking at colour matching, visual discrimination and sequencing skills.

The first game has our hero on his skateboard rolling across the screen. Above him is a balloon with a coloured basket. The idea is to spot when the basket is the same colour as Freddy's jumper. Press a mouse button or spacebar when they match. If you get it right you'll get a nice sampled chuckle and Freddy flies off in the balloon.

Freddy's Factory is a place where you must fill glass jars with the correct size square. The program selects the jar from three sizes and you select the square that fits. The animation here is really nice with a conveyer belt, windy pipe, glass crusher for incorrect tries and Freddy pulling levers.

My only reservation is that the animation you get when you make an error is almost as interesting as that for the right answer.

In the bakery we have to make cakes for Teddy. There are two games here. The first involves copying three cakes one at a time. You start with the base and then put on the icing which must be coloured to match Freddy's cake. You then do the same with the cherry.

The second has you doing the same sort of thing but this time you have to do six cakes at once. The four year old I had trying this found the second game a little confusing, as the cakes you make are not laid out in exactly the way the cakes you must copy it's much more challenging.

This is an excellent little package for early learners at home and in school. Children will be very entertained and educated by Freddy Teddy's antics.