Customer Reviews

JumpStart Spanish

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This was the first program I bought for my daughter (then nearly 4) to start teaching her some Spanish. I was impressed even from the beginning, but did not truly appreciate it until I tried to branch out into additional programs for her. I have bought a number of other kids' Spanish programs and been hideously disappointed by all of them. Nothing even comes close to Jumpstart's.

Jumpstart Spanish is bright and lively. The best thing about it is its continual rewards. Kids get immediate rewards for correct choices in the form of cute actions on screen. They are rewarded again with stars for completing sections, and are motivated to keep collecting stars because they can use them to put fish in an aquarium. If they don't get the right answer, the program is very gentle in telling them, and if they miss repeatedly it lights up the correct choice for them to pick. [...,] I see it as a great feature. It lets kids jump in and play without undue frustration or negativity, and lets them learn as they go. Yes, they can guess their way to a star, but I think being shown the answer lets them learn that answer better than it would to let them get more confused with endless wrong choices. This is after all software for young children!

The main drawback to this program is that it really only teaches nouns. Kids learn colors, days of the week, household items, articles of clothing, body parts, and things around the neighborhood. They may pick up some phrases from the directions and praises given, but they really don't learn and grammar or sentences (hence my search for more programs). Here's hoping Jumpstart is working on "Spanish 2"...

My daughter has this software and she loves it. It basically teaches the names of objects we see and use each day. It also teaches some basic phrases like, "My name is...., and What time is it...etc.". It doesn't get into any type of grammer or sentence structures. You can set it so the directions are given in English or other different languages. You can also switch the game and have it all play in English first, then switch it to SPanish. My daughter is 3-1/2 and she can do this herself, so that should say how easy it is for a preschooler to use. It uses songs and music to learn the days of the week, months of the year, numbers, etc. I would definitely recommend this for both English-speaking children who want to learn Spanish, and for Spanish-speaking children whose parents want a good learning game in their own language to help speech development and learning the basics in their own language.

I read one review from Oakland and she said the sound was muffled. Well it must be your hardware because my kids who are 3, 5, and 7ys old can understand and repeat everything. They just love it. They spend hours on the computer listening to Spanish. I really like the vocabulary as well as the fact that they ask questions in spanish so they can also learn how to ask a question as well as answer it. It is great. I've tried many spanish tapes and software and this is the only one that they were really interested in using.

The program is well made (for the most part). The numbers section gets a bit slow, but other then that, I like it. It's Latin American Spanish. This is great, if you're taking a Spanish class, and want to expand you vocabulary. The conversation section is poor. The Click and explore stuff is much better. Learn the items in the bathroom, the bedroom, the kitchen, den, clothes, buildings around town, days of the week, and body parts. They even have a little game machine where you can test yourself on ANY category, instead of clicking on the doll house, or the map, or something else. It says everything in English after saying it in Spanish, and it displays the spelling of the word. I got it for Mac. The sound seems fine. I use it on my ibook, while I'm doing laundry, or waiting around between classes.

Use this program in conjunction with "Spanish for The Real World", these two make up for each others flaws.

I have a 3 year old and she's been using Jumpstart Spanish since she was 2.5 years old. She just loves it, it keeps her entertained in a productive way. The colors, sound, graphics, songs,and characters are excellent. The only section of the program I am not satisfied with is the conversation section. My daughter does not seem to mind it though. She enjoys coloring and singing songs and playing games that teach her because it's so interactive. The BEST part of all this is that she is her Spanish is getting better and better! I like this program so much that it will be my nephew's birthday gift this year! Thank You "Jump Start"!

I have three kids, ages 2,3 and 8 that literally fight over who gets to play this game. My 2 year old boy would sit and play this game for hours if I would let him, it really captures his attention with the bright, colorful graphics, and catchy songs. My daughter who is 8, gets ready for school extra early just so she and her 3 year old sister will have time to play this game. Not only is it fun for them, they have really picked up alot of Spanish words from playing it. I only wish they would make a Spanish 2!

We've been very pleased with the original JumpStart products. My 4 year old has a fascination with learning Spanish so we purchased this program. We both find the words extremely difficult to understand. It's like the sound is being muffled somehow. Our hardware is top rate so it is definitely a problem in the software's sound quality. The format is good, you just can't understand what they're saying clearly enough to repeat the words.

This is an excellent product for my 4 year old girl and I highly recommend it for any beginner. It offers several areas of study (colors, numbers, days of the week, and many household items). It's easy to change from one subject to another when my child becomes bored. The screens are filled with a variety of color. Additionally, it allows you to earn "stars" as you learn. Five stars allows your child to add an item to the aquarium (fish & other moving objects). My four year old loves this feature. I can't say enough about this product. I only wish JumpStart would make the next edition!

I don't understand the glowing reviews of this program. We picked it up for our 4-year old son because he is interested in learing Spanish. He quickly got bored of it (within a couple weeks) and has learned practically nothing from it. He doesn't like the explore mode. He is used to playing different activities like in his preschool games. That's what he enjoys. In this, you can't productively play the games until after you use the explore mode to learn the words. I wish they had found a way to teach you the words while playing games.

This is a pretty good game. My two year old likes it fairly well [though she definitely prefers some of her other games]. It is a good format for helping build a beginner's vocabulary, in my opinion [my husband is learning some spanish just from playing it with our daughter].

I think it could be better [specifically the section with "videos" isn't so great], but I'm so grateful to have something out there to help my daughter with very basic Spanish that I appreciate this software even though I'm not really that excited by it. The concept of how the game works it good, I think it could just be a bit better in the execution.