At last...

Lift Off With Numbers is a collection of five programs — one of a series of software packages from Shiva on numeracy and logic designed for children aged five to eight years. To say it is excellent doesn't really do it justice — you won't really appreciate how good it is until you use it.

It does make you realise just what standards we should be able to expect from BBC Micro software. The five taped programs are Washing, Cakes, Rockets, Bingo and Ladybirds. All make good use of colour and graphics, and each has useful documentation.

In Washing a shirt is displayed on the screen and the player has to hang it on the line in the correct position. The washing line appears in the form of a five by four matrix, with the four colours red, green, yellow and mauve along the top and five patterns down the left side. The patterns are an X, a circle, three horizontal lines, two vertical lines and two thick horizontal lines. p> The speed of play is selected and a black arrow appears in each element of the matrix in turn, starting in the top left corner in the area for the yellow shirt with an X on.

The arrow moves along and when you think it is the right place for the displayed shirt you press the space bar to stop it moving.

If the arrow is stopped in the right place the computer responds with "Well done!" and the shirt is "hung" in the right place on the line. A mistake generates the response "No - try again". p> Once all the shirts are out on the line then the message appears: "Well done! You hung out the washing in ... tries". The second program, Cakes, deals with ideas about numbers.

It is a game for two players who each enter their name at the beginning of the program. They also agree between themselves on the speed at which they will play and enter this.

The screen display is divided into two and each player's name appears with a row of six cakes and twenty candles underneath. A die appears on the right of the screen for the first player and the display indicates whose go it is. p> As a black arrow moves across the screen at the selected speed, the player has to press the space bar to stop the arrow under the cake with the same number of dots as is shown on the die.

If the arrow is stopped in the right position then the dots on the cake are replaced by candles from the line and the candles are lit up. If the arrow is placed incorrectly however, then the computer bleeps and responds with "Wrong cake!"

The players take it in turns to match the number on the die with their cakes. If the number is for a cake which already has candles lit, then that player misses his go. The first one to have all his cakes correctly lit up is the winner. p> The third program, Rockets, is again about one to one correspondence and ordinal aspects of number. It is a simple and attractive program in which eight different sized rocket outlines appear in order of size on the screen.

At the selected speed, an arrow moves along the rockets, and the player has to match a rocket at the bottom of the screen with one of those in the line, by stopping it in the correct place.

If it is stopped in the right place then the outline is coloured in, otherwise the response is "No - try again!" Once all the rockets are in place, the number of tries is displayed and a countdown begins from this number down to zero. p> When zero is reached, a large rocket blasts off from the bottom of the screen accompanied by suitable sound effects.

The fourth program in this collection is Bingo, which covers the concepts of recognition and understanding of num bers from one to six.

The game is for two players who again enter their names and the speed of the game, and each is then assigned a colour, either red or blue. A display of squares containing groups of dot patterns similar to a die is shown on the screen in five lines of five squares. p> Each of the players takes turns to match a number appearing on the right of the screen with one of the squares in the grid having the same number of dots. The squares in the grid light up in turn and the player presses the space bar to select a square when it lights up.

If a correct selection is made, the chosen square is coloured in with that player's colour, and the first player to make a line of squares in their colour is the winner.

If, after 14 squares have been coloured in, neither player has made a line then the game changes to 'board control' in which each player takes it in turn to colour in squares to try to com plete a line of their colour. If neither manages to make a line when all the squares are complete, the one with the most squares is the winner. p> The last program in the collection is Ladybirds. This is a beautiful two player game about numbers in which ten spotted mummy ladybirds appear on the screen, five for each player.

A baby ladybird appears for each player in turn and that player has to match up the baby with one of the mummies so that the spots on their backs add up to ten.

If the player chooses the wrong ladybird though, the message "That's not my mummy!" flashes onto the screen and the computer bleeps. p> It is probably obvious from the description of these programs just how much thought and design has gone into them. They are easy to use as well as being graphically immediately attrac tive - surely a priority for educational software designed for this age group.

As well as this, the ideas behind each game are original and appealing, unlike so many other educational programs which just turn a boring idea into a boring computer adaptation. This tape provides educational and structured programs presented in a fun-to-learn way which must certainly represent remarkable value for money.

For everyone out there who's got a BBC Micro and has been waiting patiently for the day when software to do it justice appeared, wait no longer.

Jane Jackson