JumpStart World 1st Grade

Other products by Knowledge Adventure

Product Features

• The smart, fun way to achieve success in school
• Personalized learning that responds to your child's pace so that kids stay challenged and motivated
• Interactive learning design provides new play experiences every time your child signs on
• Parents get activity tips, helpful ideas, and progress reports
• Unique 3D design and immersive play

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000I84DTS
• Item model number: 20223
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 7, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,384 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Welcome to JumpStart World 1st Grade, a series of 12 Adventure Packs or learning units that actually progresses in response to your child's own learning pace. It's super-personalized, wildly imaginative and really fun, but don't let that fool you--it also teaches critical skills correlated to state standards so kids get a real jumpstart in life.

The World changes with the seasons and holidays

Over 80 learning games and missions

Unique 3D design and immersive play

The Smart, Fun Way to Achieve 1st Grade Success
Your Child will make new friends, visit the learning arcades, art and music studio and complete fun missions to earn their first two Leadership Keys.

Stay Connected
As part of your JumpStart World experience, we've designed a Parents Corner where you can get additional tips and ideas to help your child enjoy learning even more.

• Get educational tips and creative ideas from our monthly gurus and experts.
• Search hundreds of Parent Tips to help turn everyday moments into learning opportunitites.
• Get instant access to tips and activities that reinforce your child's learning.

Reward Your Child
Studies show that children learn better when parents are involved. The Super Gem Reward Store allows you to reward your child's performance with customized certificates.

• Delight your child with rewards that only you can create.
• Create Rewards that your child can redeem: A Trip to the Park, Going Out for Ice Cream, Going Ice Skating, and many more.
• Use our simple tool to create your own rewards to honor your child's learning achievements.

Get Your First 2 Adventure Packs Today:

• Over 80 learning games and missions that teach more than 40 skills

Subscribe to Keep the Adventure Going:
Get a new Adventure Pack automatically downloaded to your computer for just $7.99 each. Based on your child's progress--at least one each month. 12 total Adventure Packs per grade.

Each Adventure Pack Includes:

For Kids:

• Over 40 learning games and missions
• Over 20 skills
• New areas of the world to discover
• One new badge to earn

For Parents:

• Progress report e-mails and Parent Tips
• Access to the Member's Website and online access to educational experts
• Access to the Super Gems Reward Center

See what your child can learn in JumpStart World

At the heart of the JumpStart World is the Learning Curriculum containing hundreds of lessons around key skills to help your child advance progressively.

Take a tour of the specially designed 3D world

New studies show that children who learn in rich media environments retain knowledge longer. JumpStart World surrounds your child in a 3D world with learning and fun, as it rewards and recognizes each achievement along the way.

Key Features of JumpStart World:

• Children pick a character and explore a world full of exciting places.
• Unique 3D design and immersive play make kids feel like they're inside a world of adventure and learning.
• Challenging missions teach math, reading, spelling, vocabulary, science, art and more.
• Kids can import photos to decorate their world. They can create billboards, cards and special pictures.
• New lands and new challenges open up according to your child's progress.
• Includes Sing-Along music videos in the Art and Music studio that teach phonics the karaoke way.
• Kids earn Super Gems at the Math and Reading Arcades. They can then trade in their gems for special rewards.
• Kids earn Keys on their way to becoming the Ultimate JumpScout Leader.
• The World changes with the seasons and holidays using a real-time calendar.
• Parents receive personalized progress reports and activity tips.

Ages

• 5-7 years

Skills Taught

• Math: Addition, Subtraction, Telling Time, Fractions, Picture Graphs
• Reading: Phonics, Consonants, Vowels, Sentences, Comprehension
• Critical Thinking: Problem Solving, Patterns, Attributes, Classification
• Social Skills: Friendship, Knowledge, Dedication
• And much more!

Benefits

• Empowers Children to Succeed
• Builds Confidence
• Rewards Achievements
• Enhances Social Skills
• Stimulates Creativity
• Engages Parents

Research: The Building Blocks of JumpStart World
Research has shown that children's "play" can encourage and improve their ability to learn. JumpStart World keeps children motivated to "play and to learn" because JumpStart World recognizes each achievement along the way. The result is non-stop play and learning that will involve the entire family.

	Children and Technology White Paper (.pdf - 84k)
	JumpStart World White Paper (.pdf - 124k)

Product Description

JumpStart World is the smart, fun way to achieve success in school! Kids' educational games are designed to instill confidence, joy and excitement around learning. Welcome to JumpStart World First Grade, an evolving 3D learning environment full of whimsical lands, lively activities and friendly characters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must buy, really great software for kids on summer vacation!, August 1, 2007

By	Kiddos mom (Seal Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I went ahead and bought this software after reading a review of this software in the Houston Chronicle (you can probably find it online) which gave it the highest praise. After watching my son "play" his way through the first unit for the past couple days, I am recommending it without reservation. He's about halfway through with the first unit and although it's another $60+, I intend to go ahead and purchase the extra 10 "units" for this. I will update this review when I have information on the quality of the extra-cost units.

The software runs smoothly and looks good. There are fun sounds and activities wherever you turn. And, it actually looks like my child is getting a great review of things he learned in kindergarten and if his interest stays as keen as it has been for the last three days, the software should have him ready to start the school year with a little headstart.

By the way, I volunteered every other week for the past year at my son's kindergarten's media lab and helped the class with software such as KidPix and M.I.N.D. Institute software. At the time, I wished there was a way to bring these software packages onto my home computer (but they cost thousands of dollars so that just wasn't an option). This looks like the software I was wishing for at the time. It is aligned with the types of things in school curriculums, and is set up for running at home.

And, it runs great on a 4-5 year old Windows XP computer. Absolutely no issues with installation, although there were more steps than usually required so that I, as a parent, could configure the setup. I think the configuration was time well spent as I can now open my parental version of the game and have a dashboard that shows me how my child is progressing.

My six year old son (finished kindergarten two months ago) has been engrossed since we started it up. In prior years, he has played all the usual kids games since starting on the computer at age 3-4 so he's not new to the computer. He's a smart kid (I think) but pretty much right at grade level in all areas as far as his achievement in school. These games are challenging enough to keep him entertained but he has not yet gotten frustrated. It's great that he now has a game that reinforces reading and arithmetic skills in a fun and motivating way. Also, the software designers have done a great deal of work in tailoring rewards and trophies that keep things interesting and motivate kids.

So far, over two days, he's spent about 2 hours each day working on the game, and this morning he was up at 630 am and sitting at his computer in his pajamas to keep trying to win his first "key".

Updating Nov 20, after 3 1/2 months. Still loving this software. The important fact in this update is that after completing 7/12 of the game, I am still completely satisfied with the quality of the modules that are coming through download. This justified, for me, the additional cost for adding in the optional modules (I bought all of them instead of a monthly subscription). I far prefer this game to any other gameboy/cartoonnetwork/gamecube/pc game my son has. It's also the most expensive but after 3.5 months he's only about 7/12 of the way through the modules for first grade. The reason I like this software is because it drills and teaches MATH and READING skills. This has been a much better learning tool than the homework assignments he finishes in 2 minutes every day. Disadvantages: The computer crashed and we lost the hard disk storage of his progress. When we reinstalled we had to start over from the first step of the game. That was tedious and I had to sweeten the reward incentives (built in to the game with parental controls). The offer of a Laser Tag outing after a certain level of progress was necessary to get him moving on it again.

In summary, once 1st grade is completed, I think I'll be buying 2nd grade.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expensive but worth it...., March 11, 2008

By	Kiki's Delivery Service (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

First off, let me say that commonsensemedia.org gives a nice overview of the JumpStart World software. Second, after reading all the reviews I did not first purchase this disk, I bought the full download on the Knowledge Adventure website for a whopping $74.99, but we got all 12 units at once (although you must finish a unit to proceed to the next). I was getting tired of the non educational aspects of Webkinz and similar virtual worlds (littlest pet shop and myepets) so we gave this a try. Although my child is in Kindergarten, the year is almost over so I took a chance on the First Grade version and I'm glad I did. The game starts out pretty easy with pattern recognition, simple math, and letter sounds in Unit One. This unit took my child about 10 hours to complete. The second unit has her reading charts/graphs (something she has not had to do in Kindergarten so it's a little tough), solve word problems (that are read aloud), recognize math fact families, and tell time. Once in a while she does need help or for me to read something to her. So the games are appropriately challenging for my nearly 6 yr old and the "world" is fun...you can choose your character, dress it, and buy and care for a pet, create artwork anytime you want and have a parade. You can flip between exploring the "world" and playing the games as much as you like. Most activities are mouse-driven but some do use the arrow keys like a tricky tetris-style game. Kids are motivated to go back and play the games repeatedly b/c doing so gets them more jewels to buy stuff for their pet and virtual home. It's all very well done: the graphics are good, so far the music isn't too annoying, and it runs perfectly on VISTA (although we had one bug installing it that my husband had to google a fix for). All in all I asked my daughter, who has played a zillion computer and leapster games why she likes Jump Start World and she says "it's just awesome!".

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for kids, not for parents, August 16, 2007

By	Jill A. Padilla - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My 6 year old son has not put down this game since I bought it for his birthday. He can play for two hours at a time. As far as the game goes, it is excellent.

But there are down sides to this game. No where on the packaging does it say that the game CANNOT be played without an internet connection. The manufacturer will not give me a straight answer as to why the game has to be connected to the internet to play. So I cannot take this game with us on outings or in the car because it will not run outside of our home.

Also, I spent $20 for the game. Now if I want the "entire" game, I have to dish out an additional $8 per month to get the rest of the game. That seems quite unreasonable for a game for a 6 year old!! I thought I was buying the "entire" game when I bought the CD.

The description also says that the parent will get emailed progress reports on how their child is doing, which is true, for the first few months. Then comes the $8/month email to keep it going. I just think that this is a bit much to ask.

So my son will play this game until it runs out, or whatever happens after two adventures.