1. Religion & Spirituality
Product Review - Jewish Educational Software
Avner & Brachot

Avner & Brachot
Guide Rating -  
Pros  •  Effective way to teach children about blessings
•  3D interactive games are fun and challenging 
•  Attractive graphics, animation, action and sound
Cons  •  Navigation could be simplified 
•  Transitions between different parts of the game could be smoother
•  Introductory directions (movie) could be shortened
The Bottom Line - A fun and effective way to teach children about brachot (blessings). The children will have so much fun playing the games, they won't realize how much they are learning. 

Manufacturer's Page
 
Key Features
• Blessing Menu is a helpful review of blessings - how to say them, what they mean, over which food to recite them.
• Adventure Game is great fun, but demands the child stay put. Parental help would make this a better and more effective learning experience for the child. 
•  Computerized Brachot Guide reenforces what the children learned through the adventure game via a quiz-like format. 
 
Manufacturer's Page
 
Guide Review
Learning Blessings is Fun!

Children will learn which prayer is said before eating bread, drinking wine, eating fruits, eating vegetables, and enjoying other foods. The meanings of the blessings, how to say the blessings, and why Jews say blessings is also taught. In addition, children learn about different food groups.

In this software program, the child is asked to join Avner in an adventure and find all the blessings. The adventure consists of 10 fun, 3-D, interactive, action-packed games. After the child wins a game, he/she must view a movie about the blessing that goes with that particular game (the wheat field game is followed by the prayer over bread, the vineyard game is followed by the prayer over the wine, ...). The movies present information about the blessing in a captivating way. After viewing the movie about the blessing, the child can advance to the next action game.

The program also includes a computerized brachot guide. This is a data bank of over 200 food items that are matched with its blessing. This guide is a good way for the child to test his/her actual grasp of which blessing is said over different foods.

All in all, children will have so much fun playing the fun games, they won't realize how much they are learning about the blessings.

   
Manufacturer's Page
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