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Spinnaker is a successful educational software house from the United States. BBC and Electron owners can now benefit from some of its very interesting packages.

Kindercomp is probably the simplest and most straightforward learning package for the Acorn computers. I think that children within the stated age range of three to eight will all be able to get something from the variety of "games" supplied on this cassette.

Simplicity and clarity are the keys to success with children who do not wish to be confused by any operations irrelevant to achieving their drawing, or matching the groups of objects, or finishing off the sequence of numbers.

There is plenty of colour and sound, some nice tunes, large lettering, single key press entry (with all irrelevant keys disabled), and consistency in use of ESCAPE to return at all times to the menu. There is no doubting the basic educational value of the exercises, but of course they are fun as well, a challenge for a young mind.

The simplest exercise involves typing a letter or number and then watching it printed with sound onto the screen. An extension of this is the "find a keyboard character" exercise. Success is rewarded with the bit by bit drawing of a friendly character (who winks at you!) or a yacht or other object.

The most complex exercise allows the child to draw freehand on the screen, with single key changing of foreground colour. It's easy to use which means quick and impressive results, and encouragement to experiment further.

Kindercomp proves to be a marvellous educational plaything and introduction to the computer for kids.

Mike Kent