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Educational: 4.7
Overall Design: 4.6
Ease of Use: 4.5
(4.0 = good, 4.5 = very
good, 5.0 = excellent)
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Program Description What The Parents Said Who Is This Program For
Why We Selected This Program Computer Requirements
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Jump Start Kindergarten is an activity centre set in a country school house. Unlike Reader Rabbit Kindergarten which has a structured story line and end goal which encourages the child to complete all the activities, Jump Start is a self directed program that encourages the user to actively explore and try out the different activities on their own. As they successfully complete an activity, they collect awards (stars) and pictures of animals that are placed in their photo album. Both are very good programs. Reader Rabbit, through the story line encourages the child to follow the path to complete all the activities. Jump Start, with simple performance awards, is ideal for the child who is a "self starter" and likes to do things their own way and in their own time.
Hopsalot, the rabbit, introduces you to the school house and the playground areas and you then choose where you want to start. Click on any object either in the classroom or outside and it will either animate or will open an activity or game for you to play. The activities and learning games are what you would typically experience in a kindergarten classroom.
In the Clock activity, children will learn the hours of the day by associating specific activities that will be familiar to them with specific times of the day. At the Bulletin Board, they will learn the months and seasons of the year.
At the Chalkboard, children will learn to construct simple sentences by clicking on images which match with the words that are read to them. This develops both listening and memory skills, as well as learning the structure of basic sentences. And this is just the beginning
This program has the largest number of activities of any kindergarten program we have seen, with a total of 18 different activities (including "sing along" and a basic art program - see bottom right) and lots of depth (one activity - the Puzzle - has 9 different learning focused activities within it.- See middle right). The program develops 50 specific skills, has 3 speed and challenge level settings in all activities, and performance tracking for all activities.
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The School House
the Puzzle
Paint Set
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My daughter has played with this program for over six months and still is not bored with it. That is quite an accomplishment." Rachel, mother of Tiffany age 6.
I played this program with my son several times and found the quality of the different games to be uniformly excellent. He really loves this program." Kim , mother of Jimmy, age 5.
" What I realized watching my daughter play with this program is that you don't have to have "high tech" graphics to be engaging, it's the quality of the activity itself that is important to the child. - Rose, mother of Marlene, age 7
Jump Start Kindergarten is for the child who is a self starter, has a basic understanding of how to make their way around a computer program, (or a parent willing to help them get going) and likes the freedom to explore. It is also a program well suited for the child who likes lots of positive feedback as they progress and no performance pressure to "get to the end". This open ended exploratory approach is highly appropriate for many children in this age range.
With the higher levels of difficulty available, this program will be a challenge and a learning experience for children up to and including the grade two level.
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For the child who has the initiative to want to explore on their own, this program offers unparalleled amount of learning based activities. There is lots to do here.
The program is easy to navigate, operates without technical problems and the graphic images and animation are well done. What we noticed, with the kids who tried this program out for us, was that many were wanting to up the challenge levels themselves once they started getting "stars" for their work with the various activities.
What we liked about this program is that it does not put out any initial performance expectation to the child. The users can do whatever they feel like doing and as they become engaged and receive positive feedback, they become encouraged (gain self-confidence) to try other activities and try greater levels of challenge on their own. In terms of sheer quantity of solid learning activities for this age level, this program, in our experience, can't be beat.
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Pricing and Online Ordering
(or call toll free -1-800-250-9229 )
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Platform: Mac or PowerMac™: 7.1 - OS X (classic mode) 68040/40 MHz or Power PC, 15 MB Hard Drive space available, 13" colour monitor, System 7.1 or higher, 8 MB of available RAM, 2X CD-ROM Drive.
Platform: Windows® 9.8 - XP, 15 MB hard drive space available, SVGA 256 - colour grahics adapter, 16 MB of available RAM, MPC-compatible sound card, 2X CD Rom Drive.
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or to see other early learning programmes
Elmo's Preschool Deluxe - ages 3-5
Arthur's Preschool - ages 3-5
Winnie the Pooh Preschool - ages 3-6
Reader Rabbit Preschool - Sparkle Star Rescue - ages 3-6
Dr. Seuss Kindergarten - ages 4-6
Reader Rabbit Kindergarten: Bounce Down in Balloon Town! - ages 4-6
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