Customer Reviews

JumpStart Kindergarten Deluxe 2 CD Set

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the second title we purchased from Knowledge Adventure. The first, JumpStart Spanish was a good investment, and loved by our boy.

JumpStart Kindergarten is another solid effort. Our son thinks that he is playing games, but he is really honing his skills. Basic skills, like counting, phonics, and telling time are included. These skills are critical building blocks for any child's future academic success.

The interface is typical for this type of program. Kids enter a virtual "schoolhouse" and click on items that represent the activities to hone/learn particular skills. For example, users click on a clock to go to the telling time activity.

One thing we appreciate about the game is that it teaches a skill that we may overlook at times. It is very important for the child to listen to instructions prior to undertaking many of the activities. For example, in a game that teaches counting, users find themselves in a garden with Hopsalot, the rabbit who is the guide. Hopsalong tells users that he needs a certain number of a certain item growing in the garden ("I need 7 red roses."). Initially, our son was not paying attention, and he would be caught off guard when the game started. We kept telling him that he had to be quiet and listen to the instructions. He now listens attentively so that he can complete his task correctly.

We will definitely consider purchasing other titles from Knowledge Adventure. We've been pleased with the 2 products we own thus far.

My daughter loves this cd-rom, it has many different learning games, and includes phonics, matching, letters, sounds. It's a wonderful program and also entertaining for the parents. You child will love it. There is a report card area that shows the parent how well your child is doing in the different skills. I was at little unsure about buying this program, but now I realize it was well worth it.

Since my daughter really enjoyed the older preschool version, I was excited about getting this cd rom. The difference is drastic. There isn't a reward system like the older version. Some of the activities aren't clearly explained. The '99 version for preschoolers was much better. My daughter rarely uses this version.

I thought after having a fantastic experience with Leapfrog's Talking Letters Factory et al. videos, that the kids would really benefit from a progressive learning system on the computer. But, nobody in the software industry has really figured out how to do that, yet. They're always presenting multiple choice questions which of course lets the kids hack at every answer until the right one gets them to another brief poorly produced game. --Usually a thinly veiled Tetrus, or wack a mole. --Instead of the usual items to attack, you attack letters. If that had educational value it would be great but it has zero educational value. It's stupid and useless.

It doesn't have to be like this. They could have consulted a teacher or something. They could have tested it on a normal boy to see how they'd punk the system. So, it's off to Kumon if you want to have serious help, or you can teach your kids yourself.

That being said, I think there is a real opportunity for a great piece of progressive learning software to become a huge seller. Parents want it, kids want it, teachers want it. It just requires an entrepreneur with normal kids, who has spent a ton of time trying to teach them, and has tried out a few of these lame efforts like JumpStart. I think that individual entrepreneur would stand a good chance of seeing what the kids need, and would not produce something that kids can't hack through without learning a thing.

Additionally, too many of these educational games were built for Win 3x. They are el lame-o on Vista, Win7, etc. Maybe they work on XP? At any rate, these aren't real Redmond/Silicon Valley/128 types.

Ned

Hello. I am StoryMaker, a kid reviewer. I reviewed this game a while ago when I was younger, but it wasn't really the best review - it was too focused on gameplay and other areas that 90% or more of readers don't really care about. So, I'm making a better one.

First of all, JumpStart Kindergarten (Deluxe version) was my first JumpStart game ever, and ever since I got it, I've enjoyed JumpStart games. I don't remember it from my kindergarten days very well. However, I do know about its "kindergartener appeal" because of this young girl I know. When she was in K, I got to play with her sometimes. So, I let her play JumpStart Kindergarten (the first disc). She turned out to like it very much.

I'll be mostly talking about the first disc (the one BESIDES the Around the World thing) because I've had the most experience with it. After all, there's more to say about it anyway.

In the first disc, Hopsalot the rabbit, a friendly animal school-teacher, introduces youngsters to a Kindergarten schoolhouse. The schoolhouse is full of games and activities that are intended to teach Kindergarten subjects. They seem to be more entertaining than educational, but are good for a little bit of educational fun - even if it's not the world's most educational thing. It seemed like the girl I know found all the subjects fairly easy, but hey, maybe she's just smart.

Subjects taught include: ABC order, 123 order, patterns, matching, shapes, bigger & smaller sizes, early phonics, colors, (reading??) comphrehension, and more.

Playing enough games will earn kids the right to go to a petting zoo, taking a picture of an animal, and putting it in their scrapbook. The animal photos do silly things when clicked.

One part with a high kindergartener appeal was a place where all you really do is watch people eat grapes (no kidding!). It's not really educational, but if kids need a break, they can go over and watch this one kid eat grapes and being really messy about it. It'll have kids laughing out loud.

Overall, I'd say the first disc is good for some mildly educational fun. It can be easy sometimes (I'd say by Age 6, it will be a piece of cake), but for entertainment with a spoon of learning mixed in, it does well.

However, the second disc, Around the World...not as good. First of all, I have absolutely NO IDEA of the kindergarten appeal of Around the World. This is because, as a youngster, after I installed it, a window popped up telling me that I had to insert the regular JumpStart Kindergarten disc. In truth, this means that you boot it from JumpStart Kindergarten and the 2nd disc is just for installing it. However, my pea-sized kindergarten mind assumed that it meant I had to "finish the JumpStart Kindergarten game" (get a full scrapbook). So, I never played ATW (Around the World for short) when I was in K, and once I found out how to work it (far after I was in Kindergarten), I didn't show it to the girl I knew when she was in K. So, my opinions on fun & such will be from an older kid's appeal.

OK, so anyway, about Around the World. In short, BARELY EDUCATIONAL. There are three educational bits: 1. To earn tokens, you must play a Pacman-styled game that teaches patterns and 2. When traveling around the world, kids can get a little head start on geography & such and 3. When you get stuff for your scrapbook, some stuff (like the fun fact card) teach you a wee bit o' geography, culture, history, etc. However, other than that, it is just arcade games & video. Maybe for fun, but not a teaching tool. Also, the Pacman game gets boring and annoying sometimes.

Overall, JumpStart Kindergarten is good, but not the world's most educational. Buy it mostly for fun. Also, I think it's best for ages 4-5, 6-year-olds will probably find it pretty easy. Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"

After using the Jumpstart Preschool program very successfully to teach my autistic grandson basic skills, we looked forward to the Kindergarten version. We were not prepared for the radical change in format and teaching style, and the lack of an enjoyable "reward" after successful completion of task. While it may be an enjoyable program for some children, I wouldn't recommend it for any child that requires a lot of stimulation. Two other children (a kindergardener and a slow-learning first grader say it is boring.

The video that came with it, however, gets raves and the attention of all the children.

My child loved this cd program. He can't get enough of it.

Rather than approach learning as an enjoyable experience, this cd presents a structured environment that screams of lessons not games. This cd is successful however, in presenting a balance between pressure, judgement and success vs. failure. Additionally, the skill level is more for preschoolers. Edmark Millie and Bailey Kindergarten is a much better route to take for your childs enjoyment.

WOW! JUMPSTART KINDERGARTEN! OUR FIRST! But yes, I WILL complain.
The good side: IT WAS OUR FIRST! YAHOO! (And it's fun even if you are not Kindergarten)
The bad side: Long introductions and Around the World.
Goodness! Here's goodness to the product: FUN! YAHOO! AND VIDEO! YAHOO! AND FIRST-WE-HAVE-EVER-PLAYED! YAHOO! Fun activities that teach kindergarten subjects. I like the balloon ABC game and they tricycle speedway is quite enjoyable.
Badness! Here's badness to the product: Shame on the long introduction cutscenes you cannot skip through. It works very badly on one of our computers and it saves data each quit but it works bad and we must Alt+Ctrl+Del to quit and sence we used the wrong quitting style it does not save progress and if we started a new user we need to here the looooooong intro AGAIN.
Around the World: I hate ATW! After installing it says to insert disk 1 and that was hard to understand so we haven't played it ever since I was in Kindergarten untill now. It's also boring, barely educational and almost no games except to get more travel tokens and the "How would you like to go to the location?" games. We hate Brady Bear and make him the bad guy in our JS stories. In our stories he sells the gang's houses to get money for traveling. Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"