Every time I'm on the computer, my daughter Jordan is right there by my side, mesmerized by the screen. Jordan loves to sit on my lap and hit the keys on the keyboard, watch me play games, listen to the sounds coming out of the speakers and even loves to try and catch the cursor on the screen. After all of this excitement, I decided to go out and find some computer software just for her. I ended up buying Jump Start Baby by Knowledge Adventure for her when she was 10 months old.

Jump Start Baby is recommended for 9 to 24 month old babies’ and toddlers. Jump Start Baby teaches them colors, how to dress them self, what you wear on what parts of your body, shapes, and learn nursery rhymes, all with cute, colorful graphics that make learning fun. The can also play hide and seek, sing with Teddy, see animals, connect the dots, and do puzzles.

Jump Start Baby is easy to install and easy to use. Put the CD into your CD-Rom and it should automatically start installing for you, after you hit the install button first. If it doesn’t do it automatically go to start and hit run, and follow the directions from there. Installation is done in a matter of minutes, and then your ready for you and your little one to explore the land of learning and playing with adorable Teddy.

Jump Start Baby starts out with our cute and cuddly narrator, Teddy waking up and singing “Say hello to the sun, it’s time to have a little fun, what a happy way to start the day, say hello to the sun”. While Teddy is singing a ball, baby blocks and a car come bouncing into view. The bedroom is done in bright cheery colors of red, blue, purple, green, yellow and other colors that attract a baby’s attention and make them want to learn along with Teddy. Teddy tells us he’s happy to see you and he can’t wait to play some games together. Off we go, time to play and learn.

The activity screen is a mobile with hanging objects as the activities. If your baby hits any key it takes you to an activity screen or you can hit the objects on the mobile to choose what to go to.

Hit the picture of the shirt to help Teddy to get him dressed for the day. When your little one hits a key the dresser will open up, and clothes come out so you can dress Teddy. Your little one can hit any key to dress Teddy. Press any key after teddy is dressed so he can go out a play. The next screen takes you outside for Teddy can play (this screen only lasts a few seconds). You can dress Teddy for any type of weather, from snowy, sunny, rainy, or get him ready for bed.

Hit the picture of the crayon you can color pictures with Teddy. Teddy tells you to hit any key to color the picture. After the picture is colored you can hit any key to watch the finished picture do something.

Hit the bear hiding his face to go play hide and seek with Teddy. Press any key to find Teddy. Before you find Teddy you see other animals or objects hiding in places you are asked to look. Each time you find teddy you can play another game of hide and seek and go to a new screen by hitting a key (outside, living room, playroom, bedroom). This is another of Jordan's favorite activities. She likes looking at all the other objects that come out of hiding when she is looking for Teddy.

Hit the lamb picture to go down on the farm with Teddy. Press a key to see the farm animals and then press a key again to hear what sound they make. This is one of Jordan’s favorite activities. She loves looking at the animals and hearing them go “moo”, “nay”, quack-quack”, “baa”, hee-haw” and all the other friendly animal sounds down on the farm. She also likes the songs Teddy sings as you meet each animal.

Hit the puzzle piece to put puzzles together with Teddy. Hit any key to take it apart then every time your little one hits a key one of the pieces goes into place. After the puzzle is put together hit any key to see it come to life.

Hit the star picture to play connect the stars. Have your little one hit any key to connect the stars to make a picture. Once the stars are connected, hit any key again to see the picture in color, and watch it come to life. Jordan likes this one because she likes watching the lines move to connect the dots and watching the picture come to life.

Hit the trumpet picture to play music with Teddy and his friends (a cat, bunny and monkey). Have your little one hit any key to watch the animal friends play music. First each of the four animals plays the songs solo on their instrument. Hit any key again then all four play and sing the song with the words to the songs going across the bottom of the screen. You’ll hear “Mulberry Bush”, “Hey Diddle Diddle”, “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and many other childhood favorites.

Hit the train picture to ride the color train and learn colors ad object names with Teddy. Hit any key to make the train move and show us three empty train cars that you have to help fill them up with objects of the same color as the empty train cars. After you place two objects on each of the three train cars, it moves and you get three more to fill up.

To move back and forth between activities hit the green arrow on the bottom left. To get useful tips you can do to enhance the game or ideas you can do for fun to keep the learning experience going out side of playing Jump Start Baby hit the light bulb on the bottom left. The cursor is a cute butterfly flapping his wings. To make the game more fun, the 8 activities have a cute border with objects that move. When your little one is done for the day, exit out of the game and Teddy gets ready to go to sleep until next time.

I recommend Jump Start Baby to all the babies and toddlers in the world, just let mommy enjoy the fun, too. The graphics are cute, and full of vibrant colors to attract a baby’s attention and provides hours and hours of entertainment. Jump Start Baby makes learning fun. Teddy is cute and cuddly and has a gentle voice the toddlers will just love to hear and learn and play along with him. Teddy even sings songs in the beginning of each activity and through out them to keep your little one entertained.

System Requirements:
Windows: Pentium 133 or higher, 4X CD-ROM drive, 32 MB RAM, 35 MB available on hard drive (165 MB recommended for both CD's), 16-bit Windows compatible sound card, Mouse, 256 color or higher graphics capability.

Macintosh: iMac, G3 and above, System 8.1 or higher, 4X CD-ROM drive, 32 MB RAM free, 35 MB available on hard drive (165 MB recommended for both CD's), Thousands of colors graphics capability, 13" or larger color monitor, 640 x 480 resolution or higher, Mouse * 56.6 Kbps modem recommended.

This review is part of a write-off a good friend of mine is hosting, to celebrate his one year anniversary at epinions. We’re supposed to write a review in one of his advisor categories of computers or games. Happy anniversary Adam (awoolcott) and thank you for inviting me and thinking of me as one of your closest confidants at epinions. Be sure to check out Adam’s other closest confidants in this special write-off. KingJFS, Bluehawq, 29th_Candidate, Elorraine, Caleo.

Thanks for reading :)
Jennifer





Recommended: Yes

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