When I was contacted with the opportunity to review
JumpStart, honestly, I was a little hesitant. We really encourage learning through play for our youngest, but it’s unrealistic for me to say or think that my 3yo has no interest in a computer or video game. Technology, mainly video games,
can be consuming, and it’s just not something we use as a form of entertainment for long periods of time. With both parents working from home right now, we do our best to schedule our time(s) on the computer around naps and bedtimes for kids, both kids are aware and know what a computer is!! The little guy (3 years old) also sees his big brother play games on Xbox and often feels like he wants to give it a try. He was a little excited when I told him mommy had a “game” on the computer for him to try.
Our main focus was the area geared toward 3-5 year olds. At first, I noticed a few setbacks with delay on mouse communication with the computer and wondered if it was my laptop, so I installed it on my desktop and it worked fine. So it must be a lag with the mouse pad on a laptop. Otherwise, controlling the game was a breeze. Making the avatar/character was fun for my 3yo and it required little help once I showed him how to point and click. Then, once in Story Land, my 3 year old was excited to hear familiar songs in the Theatre! He also enjoyed planting flowers all through Story Land.
I how the program Incorporated memory games, puzzles, and sorting sizes (big to small) as this goes along with things we’re learning at home with hands on activities through play, so when we were able to access those areas of the game it was 2nd nature and seemed familiar fun for our 3year old! As far as how often we’d use this program, I’d say maybe 1-3 times a week for 15 minutes at a time would be plenty for our little guy. He seems satisfied with the game being a special treat and I like that it goes hand in hand with things he’s learning through play at home and in the community.
There’s a Fun for Parents link that takes you to the Jump Start blog, I was so excited to see fun art project ideas, and experiments to do with the kids. Both of my kids will enjoy these types of activities and I like having a ‘rainy day’ option available to me!! If it’s messy outside we can learn how to get a hardboiled egg in a glass bottle OR we can get ideas for family game night and even learn how to make cuisine critters!! One other thing I noticed is that Jump Start is soon to release Jump Start for the Wii!
A big thanks to Jump Start for my membership and review; it’s been fun for me and the kids to work our way through the entire site of learning and activities - even our soon to be 6th grader enjoyed navigating through the site. The site has vibrant colors, clear speaking voices, easy directions to follow, and offers a wide variety of skills and learning tools. Overall, I’d say it was well received at my house!!
Jump Start has offered a 3 month free membership giveaway to one person who comments on this review. The comment will be picked at random by using a random number generator, so if you’re interested in winning a 3 month subscription go to Jump Start and take a look around then come back here and leave a comment about why you think JumpStart would be fun for your house! You can also earn additional entries by: grabbing my button, and/or you can tweet about this giveaway, be sure to add @bassackwardsmom in your tweet so your entry will count! Contest ends 06.17.09. Official giveaway rules can be found here.
