After hearing about it on PBS Kids, my daughter and I decided to try out the program ABCMouse.com. You can try out a few games before you buy, and you might even qualify for a free month’s service, as we did. (I am betting that most people will!) So we are using it in our day to day adventures, and so far, I have mixed reviews about the program.

It’s a fun program that allows my daughter to have full control of her gaming experience, and there are plenty of things for her to do, from math games and puzzles to books to read, paintings to do, and more. As a fun activity, I am fine with the game, except for the strange addiction she is developing with it, which leads me to my problem with it: its ticket system.

The kids earn tickets for every activity that they do, which they can then turn in for gear to decorate their rooms, buy pets, and buy other junk. My daughter is sort of obsessed with this, and during her very first day of playing the game, she realized that she could do it. I am subsequently pretty sure that she’s not playing out of enjoyment, but in order to win tickets with the reward system, which I am wholly against. I don’t like this and have encouraged her to only do the activities she enjoys rather than the ones that earn the most tickets; if she doesn’t enjoy the games themselves, I won’t be subscribing.

I also don’t like that the teacher is female; in fact, all of the voiceovers that I have heard are female, too. Why isn’t there equal representation? There is only one short haircut for the girl avatar, too, and my daughter’s hair isn’t like it at all. I also don’t like that it’s advertised as a complete curriculum, when it really doesn’t seem like there’s sufficient social studies and science for it to qualify. I’d also love for it to have more outdoor elements, such as clicking on the window to do an outdoor experiment or find a bug or flower, or something to that effect.

If we do decide to stay with ABCMouse.com, it will cost around seven or eight bucks a month (I can’t remember for sure). Anything that my daughter enjoys this much would definitely be worth it; I’m just not sure that I agree with the methodology of the program, nor if it is good for her or not to continue playing the game so often.