Customer Reviews

Jumpstart Learning Games Music Ages 5-8

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

 

 

Between the character Sir Sour Note actually frightening my child and the goat which leads the rhythm section insulting my child's attempts ("That's BAAAAADDDDDD"), I was very disappointed that Jump Start would release such a product. What should have been an enjoyable introduction to music was actually a very negative experience. By the way, the goat also reprimanded my attempts to repeat his rhythms and I've been playing the piano for 30 years! Imagine a 5 year old thinking they can't get it right and giving up. VERY DISAPPOINTING piece of software.

JumpStart Music is a great program. I am a piano teacher and I use this program as supplementary learning. I have students of all ages and they all really enjoy JumpStart Music. It teaches them to follow rhythmic and melodic patterns at a level they can understand and the animation is great. I recommend this product to all children who have a liking for music.

My 5 year old is using this program, but he won't put it in and go on his own. I have to keep after him to do the rhythms, would rather just go on and explore. Doesn't hold his interest at this stage, more like school work. I see a lot of merit in it, however, and am using it as part of his homeschooling curriculum.

My 5-year old was frightened by Sir Sour Note, and to this day (over a year later) she refuses to play this software. Now my four year old won't either because of the first child's fright. It is a shame that Jumpstart couldn't find a way to encourage a child's exploration of the wonders of music without this 'Hollywood' gimic of good and evil. Shouldn't an introduction to music be a joy, not a traumatic experience?

We checked this out from the library time and time again. The kids have asked for their own copy for Christmas. My kids were 4 and 6 when they first found it; now 5 and 7, they still dig it! The older one takes piano lessons and this helped supplement her initial learning. I strongly disagree with the unfavorable reviews.

Pros: I am a K-5 music teacher at a school district in Texas and have used Jumpstart Music with ALL grade levels with much success. The Kindergartners must have prior instruction with the rhythms before attempting to use this. However, after a few lessons to prepare, they were very successful. I recently allowed by 4th and 5th graders to use it and they were completely happy with it. Even though they saw it only goes to third grade level when first putting your name in the system, they realized pretty quickly that many of the rhythms go beyond 3rd grade level. They were challenged and for many who came from another district and perhaps had no prior music training, it is a great way to get them caught up with the class.

Cons: The only negative thing I can say about this has to do with the sounds they make for the rhythms (i.e. ha...haha....for quarter note and two eighth notes). However you CAN turn the voices off and remind the students to say the rhythms the way they were taught in class.

Great program!! I highly recommend it!!!

Dallaslady

UGH. We got JumpStart Music as the second disc in the JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade 3 CD Pack. It is the worst of the 3 CD's and we suggested mom to sell it on eBay.com. I don't think she's doing it because she said it's an "incomplete set", but anyways, WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE HOPSALOT? I mean, this is for like, Toddler to 3rd Grade, but Hopsalot is a Kindergarten character. (I also think this software is veeeeery old. Too old for the new advanced series.) With old JumpStart software, it is always only one grade level's worth of characters. Once, I saw a game online with the Kindergarten character (Hopsalot) and the 1st Grade character (Frankie) and it was old, but I only found it on that site and there was no discription, just the box and the title. The box had both characters. But anyways, in JumpStart Pre-K there is only the preschool characters, no "K" characters. Anyways, also, one of my sisters in nicknamed Russian Blue Witch (I'm nicknamed StoryMaker) and she just entered 5th Grade and uses 3rd Grade as her grade level cuz' that's the highest in this, but anyways, this is a big UGH. She tries the beat thing, but the characters say it is wrong. They are not pleased. They don't understand you're right. So you have to to the right beat over and over again for the character to be pleased? What? I enjoy cataching the sour notes and the things they say are funny, but I don't think you will like it that much. Try it if you want, but it might not be very good software. Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"

This product works very well with my Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 students (ages 5-8). It holds their attention and they work independently. The hardest part for the younger children is to collect the flying sour notes which requires you to click on and hold, while you drag to the rabbit's sack and release. The rhythms can be difficult if you do not match the tempo as well as the pattern. Overall, a well liked program by my students.

Our game arrived last night. For the most part my [...] loved playing it. I thought the variety of musical activities and the story line made the program fun. She takes violin lessons and it reinforced a number of the concepts she had learned. Sir Sour Note is a bit creepy but she didn't seem to mind.

She especially liked the area where she could make her own music and listen to what she had created. I was impressed by how quickly she picked up the various activities. And yes as one reviewer said I needed to stay in the room with her. But I don't see that as a negative.

The only down side (as others have mentioned) is that the rhythm areas where you copy an animated character's rhythm are a bit too challenging to mimic with a space bar. The space bar is too sensitive for little fingers and makes extra beats. The software is old generation, but not dated. It is inexpensive so worth the money. Hopefully it will be updated because it is hard to find good music software for children!