As the host of Buzz Lightyear 1st Grade (Disney), Buzz, in his usual self-important style, invites kids to have some fun in Andy's room while Andy and Woody are off at cowboy camp. In Andy's dark closet, Mr. Spell offers a word search game by displaying pictures or word endings and beginnings and having kids find the correct letter to match by shining a flashlight on it. Then Buzz zaps the letter with his laser, although this slows the game down to a snail's pace, which some young kids found tiresome. Jessie constantly sneaks in to change it, but kids only correct the digital clock, never the analog one (the old fashioned kind with hands). The best game on the disk is an observation game using Lenny the Viewmaster toy as a set of binoculars. Buzz gives kids text and verbal clues as to what he is looking for. This is very clever and a great way to practice those tricky listening skills. Make sure you read the directions for Jessie's Number Race. Kids drive a car around a floor mat marked off like a highway to find numbers in a numerical sequence. We had to play it five times before a young child finally figured out what we were looking for. The driving part is fun-a bit like the Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disney World with all kinds of twists and turns. One of the big differences between this disk and it's competitors is that the activities are not integrated into a quest in which kids are collecting points or objects. Some kids will not miss that kind of motivation, but others may need it to spur them on to use or complete all the levels.

While Andy and Woody are off at school for Show and Tell, Buzz Lightyear hosts an exploration of Andy's room and beyond in Buzz Lightyear 2nd Grade (Disney). There are some very clever activities on this disk, but it should be noted that three of the activities are much the same as in the first grade version. Very inventive is Doodle Challenge, in which kids play a kind of classic Hangman game by guessing a word from a clue and picking out letters from the alphabetic list on the frame of the doodle pad. As they guess letters correctly, a drawing begins to form-a fun way for kids to build word building and spelling skills. Kids must pick the right targeting device at the bottom of the screen to blow up the asteroid. and they learn a lot about the concepts of halves, thirds, quarters, and more in the process. Jessie hosts a most ingenious marble roundup in which kids must create the correct maze using double and triple digit addition and subtraction problems. Make sure kids realize that their estimation skills are being honed here more than their computation skills, and they'll have a blast creating the right tracks.