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Spelling has never been my strong point, as my junior school teecher would no doubt tell you, so I was forced to play the latest Fun School Special by our word-conscious editor. I have to admit I wasn't overjoyed with the idea. After all, Paint And Create was great, but that was all about drawing and fun stuff like that. Words could never be as fun as creating a monster on-screen. Then again, I've always been a sucker for fairs, so, equipped with sum candyfloss I ventured in.

The various games are set in diffrent areas of a fairground. The first one you come across is a word-search game disguised as a coconut shy. All the coconuts have letters on them and it's your job to knock off the ones emblazoned with letters that aren't in the word you're looking for. Hit the wrong nut and it turns around and sticks its tongue out at you. Fun School Special: Learning Manners is obviously still in development.

The second game is set in the circus ring and features some juggling clowns. Their muddled-up balls have letters on them which in the correct order spell out a werd. And, yep, it's your job to swap the balls around until they actually make sense.

A human cannonball signals the crossword section of the game while you need to shove a penny ,[Penny? Wnat year are you living in? They're about 20p now? - Roger] in the cuddly toy grabber to learn about suffixes (the bits that you stick on the end words, like -ing, -ism and, our favourite, -ibly).

The haunted house is great fun. Get a set of questions right an easily-scared family all take a trip on the Early Express and they come out looking worse for wear. The questions involve putting the right words in the space in a sentence. You're given a pair of homonyms (words that sound the same but mean different things, like pale and pail), and you have to decide which one's correct.

The last game is all about plurals. A strongman stands in the middle of fore 'test your strength' machines. Each has a different possible spelling for a plural of a particular word. Your task is to make him bring his hammer down on the right one.

Each game can be set skill different skill levels and you can load in new sets of words to play with. There's a score table that can be accessed at any time a really useful Help option. All these extras make Spelling Fair an excellent program for any kid learning to read. The parents watching over them will probably learn a thing or two as well.

I'll tell you what - I could of done better at school if the spelling tests has been like this.

1. Very easy to use.
2. Takes the pain out of learning to spell.
3. Impressive graphics and excellent sound fx.
4. The text is always very clear and easy to read.
5. A data tape with different sets of words.

1. There's no creative input required.