JumpStart 3rd Grade

by Vivendi

Product Features

• 8X CD-ROM drive
• 180 MHz (or faster)

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TLO0
• Item model number: 71092
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 6, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #588 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #11 in Software > Children's Software > Activities
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

You and Botley the Robot are just in the nick of time! Travel into the past to find 25 rascally robots before they alter history forever. Use all your brainpower on Mystery Mountain to foil Polly Spark and her time-meddling ruffians!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Jump Start 3rd Grade, February 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: JumpStart 3rd Grade (CD-ROM)

I have always been happy with Knowledge Adventure Products. This one however disappointed me when I found my child crying because of the attitude one character in the game possesses. When trying to make the pictures for the character Polly's story, Polly is very rude and disatisfied with my child's wholehearted attempts. Polly says things like "What planet are you from?" and "I said draw cow skulls!" My child's cow skulls looked great to me, but Polly wasn't impressed and her hurtful attitude made my child feel awful. We discovered that it works if we use the premade stamps of the cow skulls in the picture, but the game should not give the child the opportunity to draw his or her own skulls if that is not the point. Perhaps it was an attempt to be funny, but the bratty attitude of Polly didn't make my child laugh. Computer programs should encourage imagination and self empowerment, not always the round peg in the round hole mentality. I was extremely disappointed in that portion of this game.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Pleased Dad, August 22, 2004

By 

M. BUSH (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: JumpStart 3rd Grade (CD-ROM)

My son and I just finished this program and I can recommend it enthusiastically. The folks at Jump Start have done a superb job of wrapping a lot of skill practice and information into an extremely entertaining package. BRAVO!

The premise is that a bratty girl named Polly has sent 25 robots back in time to alter history. Your job, along with Botley your trusty sidekick robot, is to pick up the clues, go back in time, and bring the robots back so that history isn't altered. There are three levels of difficulty that you can set. The easiest is perfect for entering 3rd graders, and the hardest is pretty challenging. Each of the 25 robots is associated with a historical event, and by the time you get all 4 clues needed to "rescue" the robot, you know the who, what, when and where of the event (i.e., the discovery of radium or the first human paintings).

In order to get all 25 robots back, your child will have to work through math drills, word scrambles, "pong" type dexterity games, logic games, picture drawing, music, astronomy, biology, ecology, art history, and quantitative reasoning.

The genius of the Jump Start team is that they made the game so darn fun that my son really enjoyed playing it again and again. The robots are exceptionally well done, with the voices, mouth movement and speech well coordinated. Mort, the robot in the kitchen, is especially funny, as is Monty Monitor.

And, yes, when the game is finished Polly gets her comeuppance when her father finally discovers her misbehavior.

This is one of the best educational products that I have ever seen.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It started out good, November 11, 2001

By 

Meredith "trybonun" (Lakeland, GA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: JumpStart 3rd Grade (CD-ROM)

At first this software was very fun for my 7 year old, challenging, colorful, and not boring while teaching. The problems started when she got towards the end of the game, and discoved that there is no way to beat part of it, as if we were missing some extra software or something. Even my husband and I tried to figure out what was wrong, but to no avail. So the game did not work for us unfortunately.