Jumpstart Reading With Karaoke

by Knowledge Adventure

Product Features

• Effective way to help children develop important learn-to-read skills
• 200+ early reading words; 24 original read-along Karaoke songs
• 8 unique learn-to-read activities; progress reports to track reading success
• Additional songs and videos available at www.jumpstart.com
• Easy-to-use microphone included

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000A7MFN8
• Item model number: 20033
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 31, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,652 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #43 in Software > Children's Software > Reading & Language

Product Description

Product Description

JumpStart Reading with Karaoke is a new and effective way to help children develop important learn-to-read skills. Val, the lovable JumpStart cat, encourages children to speak each new letter, sound, and word out loud and provides instant feedback and encouragement – just like learning with mom! Children master new words and use them to read and sing more than 20 original Karaoke songs in the interactive Karaoke Clubhouse. Along with Val and favorite JumpStart friends, children enjoy eight beginning reading activities, helping them become enthusiastic and confident readers.

Ages: 4 - 7 years

Highlights

• Easy-to-use microphone included
• 8 unique learn-to-read activities
• More than 200 early reading words
• 24 original read-along Karaoke songs
• Progress reports to track reading success

Skills

• Learn the alphabet
• Recognize and match uppercase and lowercase letters
• Gain phonemic awareness
• Identify consonant sounds, vowel sounds, digraphs, and blends
• Blend letters together to sound out words
• Read word families and sight words
• Explore beginning spelling
• Build vocabulary
• Read sentences
• Practice comprehension
• Practice reading aloud
• Read and sing simple songs

Product Description

In JumpStart Reading with Karaoke is a fun, exciting and interactive tool for teaching children how to read. They'll love reading along with Val the cat -- they'll get instant feedback and encouragement for each sound and word they say. When they master new words, they'll head over to the Karaoke Clubhouse to showcase their new reading skills with read-along songs and videos. Sing it! Kids use their new words to read and sing 24 original read-along Karaoke songs 8 Unique learn-to-read activities More than 200 early reading words Progress reports to track reading success Minimum System Requirements Operating System - Windows 2000/XP Intel Pentium II (or equivalent) 400Mhz DirectX 9.0 compatible video card w/ 32 MB memory 128 MB RAM 24x speed CD-ROM drive 300 MB available on hard drive 16-Bit color @ 800x600 DirectX-compatible full duplex sound card DirectX 9.0 Microphone (included)

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun ways to learn to read, December 13, 2005

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Jumpstart Reading With Karaoke (CD-ROM)

I was amazed first at the sound quality of the songs on this software package - there were two dozen songs, in addition to the general background music and sound effects, and they were all very catchy and fun songs. I'm still humming the Reading with Karaoke version of the A-B-C song, which has an innovative second verse that introduces the sounds (rather than just the letter names) that many of the letters make.

The graphics are very sophisticated and well done - this is like watching a television-quality animation programme, which is what is often needed to catch the attention of the target audience for this software (4 - 7 year old children). However, this can be presented to the children as television with a difference - a child will enter his or her name into the computer, and Val, the host cat, will interact directly with the child.

Thanks to the use of the microphone and more sophisticated analysis software, the interactivity becomes very personal, as the child speaks words into the microphone, and the computer then gives feedback. This feedback even incorporates the child's own voice repeated back. The Karaoke portion is done in a café, where the child can sing along with the music and follow along on the screen, just like a regular Karaoke machine.

This is a very good system for teaching basic sight words, pronunciation with letters, letter combinations, words that rhyme, word families, beginning spelling for simple words, and basic vocabulary for younger learners. Adults working with children will also find the animations and the songs entertaining.

The truly wonderful part of the technology here has to be the interactivity provided by the microphone and the graphics that respond to the sounds using the child's own voice. I can imagine that this will be something that can capture and hold the attention of children for hours, and they won't feel like they are being forced to learn anything (which is never a good way to teach). Their success in learning the words will help them with their singing career on the Karaoke machine.

Knowledge Adventure follows this with software for later ages, too, so as the child grows, so can their involvement with similar types of software. I have seen the Knowledge Adventure 'Math Blaster' software, too, and that is also an excellent tool for use with kids to learn another difficult subject.

The software was incredibly easy to install (no fuss at all), and runs smoothly both on a Dell and HP pc using Windows.

Five stars (more if permitted)!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Kids Reviews, December 20, 2005

By 

Max Martin "Krista M Martin" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Jumpstart Reading With Karaoke (CD-ROM)

JumpStart Reading with Karaoke starts with the basics - letters and sounds - and moves in a logical progression through phonograms and word families (e.g. cat, bat, mat, rat), letter blends and digraphs (e.g. tr and ck), sight words, and simple sentences. The program uses repetition, feedback, rhyming and rewards to reinforce the subject material through a series of 7-8 exercises and games repeated for each of 24 songs. All along the way, users are actively challenged to read, listen, speak and repeat new sounds and words.

Kids Appeal:
Our young testers generally liked JumpStart Reading with Karaoke. They liked it's interactivity, short exercises and variety, and they loved listening to recordings of their own voices. However, some of them exhibited difficulty with the karaoke portion of the program, because the songs were previously unknown to them, and as beginning readers they could not easily follow along with the lyrics on the screen.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jumpstart Reading With Karaoke, October 7, 2005

By 

R. Morinigo (Mint Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jumpstart Reading With Karaoke (CD-ROM)

I have a 5 yr old and a 7 yr old who enjoy playing the game. The microphone is a big hit, and works well. Both my boys sang along at least five times when they got their first song on the jukebox. Listening to their voices made both of them really speak up, loud and clear. I was personally amazed that my 5 yr old spoke so clearly into the microphone. I feel the software was nicely made. By the fifth time they ask to complete the activity, I'm feeling like they are going to lose interest but they didnt, and my kids continued on.