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With a general election clogging the T.V. channels at the moment, education is likely to be high on the agenda. And quite right too, but teaching can seem to be a little too clinical these days what with financing and budgets etc. Thus it's good to see a little bit of gun injected into the learning process because, as we all know, it's much easier to learn if you're having fun.

The fun school series first began back in the mid eighties with Fun School 1, published by Computer Press. With Fun School 2, released in 1989 and Fun School 3 in 1990 selling impressively there was obviously a market for this sort of product, so now the much awaited Fun School 4 has been launched. It consists of three packs, each dedicated to a particular age group, each following current national curriculum guidelines and each retailing at the same price point. Parents take note, you might learn as much from these 'games' as your child.

All of these educational packages are well presented and have good graphics which helps greatly, guiding you colourfully through the different learning stages. Bleeps and squeaks are merrily animated indicating whether you've got things right or wrong but sound isn't really over impressive. In general though Fun School 4 is an interesting educational aid.

Julian Watsham

FUN SCHOOL 4 FIVE TO SEVEN

You're now entering the magical world of Freddy Frog (ribbit!). First up is a little lesson on how to learn your alphabet (quite handy when trying to read a review!), down at the library while visiting Terry Toad, who's behind the counter. There's a pile of books on the counter that need sorting out in alphabetical order. Terry hasn't got enough time so you've kindly offered to do it. Simply sort them out by looking at the first letter, placing A before B and M before N etc. It's really all very easy, but useful too.

In level two things get a but harder, words such as hat and hard appear. So now you have to look at the third letter to sort them all out. The next day Freddy goes to a basketball game, but things are all very confusing there too! Five people sit in the front row holding up a selection of score cards. One has a question mark on it, can you guess what it's supposed to be? If you can, you score a basket. There are four levels to go through with each one getting increasingly harder.

The next day sees Freddy handling money, both as a shopper and a shop keeper. First, you have to work out what you can afford to buy, then, as the shopkeeper, you must work out what people have spent on items in the shop Then visit your holiday cabin. Here you must use maths to figure out where to put logs in the cabin. Like the basketball, there's four levels that get progressively harder.

Now Mrs Frog (who?) wants to go swimming but as she approaches the diving board a farmer comes along in his tractor who won't let her use the board until she answers some 'opposites' questions. Simply hop around on the lily pads choosing the right words - and remember they're all opposites. Finally, Freddy decides to go for a walk across, would you believe it, crocodile infested waters and yet again he must answer questions order to cross the bridge.

Label: Europress Software Memory: 48K/128K Price: £12.99 Tape, £16.99 Disk Reviewer: Julian Watsham