The Fun School series is something of a phenomenon. It started way back in the '80s with the ground-breaking Fun School 1. This evolved into the hugely successful Fun School 2, the package that turned educational software on its head. Here, at last was learning that could be - gasp! - fun.

The latest - and greatest - incarnation, Fun School 3, comes in three flavours. It's categorised into three age groups: under fives, five to seven and over seven. The tasks vary between the three packages, both in style and direction. This, the five to seven program, is designed for the age where the child has just come to grasp the alphabet and is already competent at counting.

The package takes the form of a series of games, each with a particular educational benefit. Counting, reading and telling the time are included, as well as a couple of shape recognition games. Also included is a somewhat unusual circuit designer. You may think that a child of five or six would have trouble with this concept, but it's actually quite simple and vastly entertaining.

The program tries to achieve a perfect balance between education and fun, because after all, if the child doesn't enjoy the program, then they have no incentive to try hard.

The six games are chosen from a menu screen and most of them use the Space bar, Return key and cursor controls for movement. This simple control method means that the child can use the program on their own, or with a teacher or parent.

You can set skill levels according to your little darling's ability, and it's up to you to structure the way you use the program with the child.

Fun School 3 is the definitive popular educational program. The balance of entertainment and education is perfect. The graphics used to portray the various games are wonderful. Very colourful, very well animated and containing a great deal of character.

The games are all great fun. The educational benefits are obvious and will reap rewards very quickly. There is so much to do and see in the program and the varying skill levels give the package a very long life.

Any reasonable child will be delighted with the program and sensible parents looking for the right package can't go wrong.

Fun School 3 is light years ahead of the competition and makes other educational packages look rather limp.

P. The graphics, sound and presentation are all of a very high standard, while the educational value is unsurpassed.

N. Erm... there is none, except for a slow-ish multi-load on cassette.