JumpStart Preschool

Jumpstart Preschool is a wonderful, learning, fun game created by Knowledge Adventure. Combining education with fun activities proves to make this game a wonderful adventure. Your child actually wants to learn. The JumpStart Learning System has won awards for their line of JumpStart software. Can be used on Windows 95/98 and Macintosh.

Characters

There are 5 cute little preschool aged animals who star in the game. They are Pierre Bear, Eleanor Elephant, Kisha Koala, Casey Cat, and Cecil Mouse.
• Pierre is a white bear with blue overalls and a yellow/red cap.
• Eleanor is a gray elephant wearing a yellow dress and pink bow.
• Kisha is a brown koala bear who wears a blue shirt and cap with yellow shapes and letters on both.
• Casey is an orange cat with a red shirt and blue cap.
• Cecil Mouse is a brown mouse with colored clothes.

Opening

On the opening page of the game there is a picture of the JumpStart Gang and a menu on the right. Below you will find the list of menu items as well as a description for each.

• Play- Push button to play game.
• Help- Help menu (self-explanatory).
• Exit- Allows you to exit game.
• Parent Resource Center- After the child has played activities, parents can view their child's progress here and monitor their success. Parents can choose which option (graph) they would like to view their child's success on. The three different graphs consist of grades, subjects, and skills. Parents can also choose individual progress or view all active players' progress, or pick a particular subject to view a child's progress on in the last 60 days. Use the print button to print the report if you would like. Very neat!
• Assessment- Allows your child to take a "test" indicating which level he or she should be placed on.
• Workbook- Printable activities for your child. You can even print the whole book! This feature is excellent!
• JumpStart Demo- This is a demo about the JumpStart Learning System (Toddler - 5th Grade) and its products and software.
• JumpStart Website- JumpStart has 2 websites. They are www.jumpstart.com and www.knowledgeadventure.com!!! The websites have games to play, online big savings offers, downloadable demos, information on JumpStart products, and you can visit their family of sites. Examples of these are Dr.Brain, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Blasternaut, Teletubbies, educast, and many more. You can also visit their online store.

Playing The Game

Upon clicking "Play", the Knowledge Adventure logo appears, then the JumpStart Preschool title. Now your child is on the "sign in" page and a cute talking train tells he/she to sign in on the passenger list. Your child can type in their name or just click on their name if they have played before. Also on this page, parents can change difficulty levels if needed. Levels consist of 1 through 3. 1 being the easiest, 3 being the hardest.

The "All Aboard" song starts playing (it's only one verse) and you see a colorful background of sky, grass, the schoolhouse, and the preschool aged animals playing in the school yard. The train instructs your child what to do. There are various things to click on to get a reaction from that object. Clicking on the schoolhouse door prompts the animals to go inside the classroom. Here's where your child can explore the different activities. The animals talk to remind your child the game is on and also give your child instructions. There are ten different activities which are described below. Your child can click on any activity. Note: Each activity has verbal instructions by one of the animals. The parenthesis below indicate which animal is in the activity and what is learned from the activity)

• 1. Bird Nests- Match the # of worms with the nest that contains the same amount of birdies in it. (Kisha the Koala, Quantities)
• 2. Easel- ABC's, 123's, or shapes (your choice) are hidden in Kisha's painting. She will tell which letter, number, or shape to find. Click on the object. (Kisha the Koala, ABC's, 123's, shapes)
• 3. Toy Box- Put toys away in their place in the toy box. Cecil indicates which phonics sound to listen for and the other characters give different example words with the same phonics sound. Pick the toy which has that same sound in it. (Cecil the Mouse, Kisha the Koala, Eleanore Elephant, Casey Cat) (Phonics)
• 4. Blocks- There are spilled blocks and 3 buckets labeled with a colored shape. Put the correct shape and color into the corresponding bucket with the same shape/color on it. Drag and drop to do this. (Kisha the Koala) (Colors, shapes, sizes)
• 5. Mouse Hole- Hide and Seek. Click the lightswitch to turn off the lights. Cecil then hides and the lights come back on. Try to find him. Cecil the Mouse will give verbal clues hinting where to find him. Click on object you think Cecil is hiding behind. (Cecil the mouse, listening skills)
• 6. Kitchen- Help Pierre cook by using recipes. Go into the refrigerator and give him the ingredients he requests. (Pierre the Bear) (Quantities and following directions)
• 7. Connect The Dots Book- Choose ABC's or 123's and then click on the correct dots by ABC order or 123 order to make pictures. (Eleanor the Elephant) (ABC's and 123's)
• 8. Player Piano- Click on one of five songs to play. The player piano plays the song and the words scroll on the music sheet allowing kids and parents to sing. The animals dance and sing. My 3 year old son loves this one...he learned to "jam" from it! LOL The songs include "This Old Man, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, London Bridges, Old MacDonald, and I've Been Working On The Railroad". Very cute! (Casey Cat, Cecil Mouse, Kisha Koala) (Music)
• 9. Wagon & Balls- Your child controls a red wagon left or right. Casey instructs which color balls to catch in the wagon. The animals then roll balls toward the wagon. Catch only the ones instructed. Move out of the way (let the balls pass) of the balls not needed. (Casey Cat, Pierre Bear, Eleanor Elephant) (Same and different)
• 10. Mix & Match Book- Match Pierre's outfit. There are three flip pages to thumb through (head, middle, and legs/feet) which display different outfits. Correctly dress Pierre in the outfit he is wearing. (Pierre the Bear, matching)

Toolbar

There is a toolbar which always stays at the bottom of the screen. (This is nice.) It is made up of different colored blocks with pictures on them. They are as follows (from left to right on the menu):

*** 1st Block is the Arrow- This block has a red arrow on it. It allows your child to leave any activity and go back to the classroom. If in the classroom, it will exit game.

*** 2nd Block is the ?Help- This block is marked with a question mark and is the help section.

***3rd Block is the Level Bars- This block is marked with 3 level lines. It allows parents to adjust learning levels from 1 to 3 for each game.

***4th Block is the Tutor Mode/Progress Report- This instucts how to understand the curriculum and to view progress reports. This block is marked with a book titled with an A+.

***5th Block is the Passport Book- As you guessed, this block is marked with a passport book on it. This allows your child to see the magical lands they have been to from the magical train rides.

***6th - 9th Block are the Train Tickets- If in game-mode, these blocks will show a picture of a train on each one for each train ticket your child has earned. If no trained tickets were earned yet, then these last four blocks won't have pictures on them. After 4 train tickets are earned your child can go on a magical train ride with song.

Also, there are 2 ways to play. The Game Mode and The Practice Mode. In the Game Mode, activities are played to earn train tickets for a magical train ride, which lets your child pick a tunnel and then "go" on a train ride with a special song. The Practice Mode is accessed by going into the Progress Report (4th block on toolbar). Your child can practice specific lessons if they need the extra practice.

CD Player

This is interesting! I just found this out by accident. The JumpStart Preschool CD can be played in your regular CD player to hear your child's favorite JumpStart songs. You skip to track 2 and listen away. I am going to do this. (Don't try to play track 1 because the game says there will be just noise since this part isn't for the CD player, but just for the game.)

Lyrics

The lyrics to the songs can be read or printed off the JumpStart Preschool game. This is very thoughtful so parents and kids can sing along if playing the songs on the CD player. Although, you will probably memorize every song after a while.

Well, that about sums it up. Before I go, I would like to tell you that my 4 1/2 year old daughter and my 3 1/2 year old son play this game. Once in a while even my 8 year old will take over if they leave the seat. I won't tell him I said that though...LOL! Both of my youngest learned how to completely use the mouse and become computer knowledgable with JumpStart Preschool and JumpStart Toddlers. (See my Epinion on JumpStart Toddlers) My 3 year old started out playing JumpStart Toddler and then graduated to JumpStart Preschool about 3 months ago. So, he was not quite 3 1/2. He still plays both though. He has learned to sing all the songs on the player piano and bobs his head up and down and dances. This is so adorable. He has learned to count and started learning ABC's. He has learned a few shape names, such as "circle" and much more. He knows how to do every activity. Sometimes he will play the game for 2 or 3 hours. Although, I make him take breaks from the brightness on his eyes. He absolutely loves these games. The same goes for my 4 year old. My 8 year old has JumpStart 1st Grade, 3rd Grade, and 4th Grade.

I should say too, last year my son brought home Reader Rabbit 2nd Grade from school with an option to buy (they do this every year) and I wasn't paying attention and bought it thinking it was JumpStart. Let me tell you nobody plays it. My kids love JumpStart. I did pop in Reader Rabbit after noticing my mistake and to be honest it wasn't near as good as JumpStart. Although, I have not thoroughly evaluted it. I know there are people out there praising Reader Rabbit. To each his own, but JumpStart really works for us!!!

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!









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