Customer Reviews

JumpStart 5th Grade

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

After loving Jump Start 3rd and 4th Grades, I was very disappointed in Jump Start 5th Grade. It is difficult to navigate and some of the material is far beyond the knowledge of any 5th grader I know.

To solve the Art History crossword puzzle you are supposed to go to the gallery and do research. But the gallery is so hard to use that my family usually resorts to randomly guessing letters in the puzzle rather than try it. As an educated adult, I don't even know more than one of four clues in the puzzles without research or guessing.

If the other subjects were as unreasonable as Art History, I would have given an even lower rating.

We have several JumpStart levels, and so I thought 5th grade would be okay, but I was wrong! It starts out with a looong cartoon intro. Then you are forced to go through a politically correct interview of a "rat" before you can start with a crossword puzzle that stopped us cold.

One of the questions it asked in level one (the easiest) is who is (1548) the Venitian artist of the same town? So, we had to go through the "museum" of baroque art, look at every picture, read every description, and still didn't fine the answer!

I took art history in college, not in the 5th grade! Now I can't even return the ...junk!

Despite good reviews for other JumpStart programs, the 5th grade one is very frustrating. The opening scene gives no guidance for what the child is supposed to do and the dialog between the two characters is way over their heads. My daughter was totally frustrated and lost all enthusiasm for trying this program.

Join Jo Hammet, kid detective as she captures Dr x. before Hooverville is destroyed. Put on your thinking, playing and excitement caps! You will play a crossword (Geography and arts) at Hooverville Museum then you will proceed to the station to pick a math lock (Math) and get in , to eavesdrop on a fill-in-the-blanks speech by henchmen of Dr. x! Skate over (you will control Jo's skateboard and run away from the henchmen, if you get caught by them, you will go to jail. You will sequence the boxes with the biggest under and escape from the window! It's math skills you require here.) to Bertie's Juice bar to work on fractions and prepare sodas to get stuff from Bertie. Go over to Jimmy's Junkyard and arrange the tangram like the picture above and get something you need to disarm the bomb Dr x is preparing. Then it's over to Maggie Mead's underground artifact place! Be careful of the rolling stones. You have got to buy this CD! It's educational too! I have it, IT'S COOL...

Our family has over 10 titles and 7 years of experience with Jumpstart products. Do NOT waste your money on this. My child spends more time navigating the product than learning. There is way too much emphasis on Art (defined only as painting). Finally, the geography content is fine but the globe doesn't move to get to the right answer/continent.

My wife has a Masters in Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She could not complete the crossword puzzle in this STUPID 5th Grade Jump Start game. Hello, Jump Start people...what were you thinking? Educational software is supposed to make the learning process fun, not a source of complete frustration. Please pull this game off the market and retool it before you inflict it on any other poor unfortunate kids.

Not enough action, to much research. To heavy in art history and not enough material a child can expect to find in a 5th grade classroom. Our son gets too bored because the navigation is to difficult.

I first played this game a few years ago when I was a fifth grader myself, and I recently revisited it. When I was 10, I had mixed feelings about this game, and I still do.

KID APPEAL:
The game is rather engaging - its adventure-filled storyline, while slightly weird, appeals a lot to the age range, and the tomboyish protagonist, Jo Hammet, appeals to both males and females. The subtitle that is occasionally attributed to it - "Jo Hammet, Kid Detective" - is slightly deceptive; the player doesn't do too much actual sleuthing. "Jo Hammet, Kid Bomb Squad" might be more accurate, but your kid won't mind - it's fun either way. Also, some of the activities in this game are very fun and arcade-like. The activities that are not action-packed tend to be more puzzle-oriented, but rather than being frustrating, they are usually pleasurable and fun - not too challenging, not too easy.

A glaring exception to this is the Crossword Puzzle game. It asks some good geography questions, but it also asks questions about art history that are VERY obscure and that no fifth grader should be expected to know. The player can look through an entire museum to find the answers, but unfortunately, it's still quite hard - especially since there's SO much to look through. (One of the artists that you had to answer a question about only painted ONE tiny painting in the entire museum, and it was hidden in an obscure corner!) The crossword puzzle could've been interesting, educational and fun for kids, but sadly, it didn't exactly "come together". I agree with the reviewer who suggest Google!

GENERAL EASE OF USE:
This product is relatively easy to use and straightforward, but not as much as other kids' educational games (i.e., it doesn't walk you through every step like other games), but this isn't necessarily all bad. There are a few points that are challenging, however. For example, over and over again in this game, you have to go through a "dialog" portion where you select things for Jo to say to various characters. Unfortunately, it's really unintuitive; in order to move on from the dialog portion and progress in the game, you need to say a certain "trigger" phrase. The option that's the "trigger" seems pretty random, at least in the first couple dialog sessions, but as you move on, it starts making at least a little bit more sense.

Also, one game (which basically consists of solving math problems) is just a tad confusing at first, due to the fact that, rather than typing in the final answer, you have to do it step-by-step - for example, if you're answering 48 + 18, you'd first up the numerals in the ones column, and thus type in 6, and then the program automatically enters the 1 by itself and carries it to the tens column. At first, it's confusing, but once you get used to it, it's actually rather nice and makes it easier. Unfortunately, if you happen to learn how to solve math problems with a different method, it kinda gets difficult and you might need a little help. (This happened with me for multiplication.)

Overall, though, the game is pretty easy to use - there are just a few issues here and there that can be bothersome.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE:
First, I'd like to say that the math in this game is really solid and age-appropriate. You have one game (described in the previous section) that's basically just answering math problems - a little tedious for some kids, but definitely very educational, and personally, I found it enjoyable and challenging. Another game has you using fractional measurements to mix up juice drinks, which is fun, challenging and definitely educational. The last game that involves math has you guiding a tiny android around the inside of a bomb, turning on and off different swtiches that each represent a decimal amount in order to end up at a certain number. All of the math in this game is age appropriate, solid, challenging but not too hard - just overall great, and incorporated well into the games too.

Unfortunately, aside from the math, I find the educational content in this game pretty weak. They try to incorporate a lot of subjects - art, geography, history, parts of speech - but the implementation is kind of messed up. For example, in the section that's supposed to teach history, you have to go through arcade-like levels to find certain objects. Unfortunately, while a window that describes each object pops up when you select it, you don't have to read it or anything - you just need to find the objects, press a checkmark, and you're good to go. No real learning is required.

There are a lot of not-explicitly-educational, puzzle-type games. They won't please parents who want their kids to learn actual school subjects, but I think they're pretty good for building some general thinking skills, which is definitely a good thing. Still, maybe it'd be better if they put in some...I don't know...READING or WRITING perhaps? All they have in the language arts arena is a weak parts-of-speech game that doesn't really teach much at all; all you have to do is figure out what words would best go in the context, and it's really obvious what words belong.

Also, if you want your kid to pay attention to one particular subject, you don't really have an option to do that, from what I can see - you have to play specific games as you progress through the game; you can't really select a particular subject. Maybe I'm wrong and there is a way, but I haven't found it.

OTHER:
I'd also like to mention that this game is very repetitive. There are only about 8 games, and you have to play most of them 6 times each. It's not exactly bursting with variety, but your kid might be willing to persevere to make it through the storyline.

OVERALL:
I'd say this game is pretty fun, and your kid will probably enjoy it. How much they will enjoy it depends. If your kid is the type to persevere through a good story despite a few long or challenging points, and they like this type of plotline, they'll probably find it really fun. If they get frustrated easily, however, they'll probably give up pretty fast.

As for the educational value, the math is really strong and fun, but the other subjects kind of failed due to implementation, and the language arts is especially weak. So if you want a game to help your kid practice math and general puzzle-solving (and using Google!), this will probably be a good game education-wise. But if you want to improve reading or writing, this will be pretty useless for them.

Like I said, my feelings are thoroughly mixed. If you can find it for cheap and your kid likes these kinds of games, you should probably go for it. But if you're looking for an exceptional product, sorry - this isn't it. Another game that is a bit better in the educational value and fun departments is ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures: Secret of the Living Volcano. Also, if you want a JumpStart game for your fifth grader, and you care most about math and spelling, JumpStart Advanced Study Helpers V2.0 might be a good match.

Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"

PS: Many of my reviews were written before I turned 13; as such, they're listed under "A Kid's Review". However, you can find them by searching [ Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!" ] (without the brackets) using the "Search reviews" feature.