 Knowledge Adventure, $30. Requirements: 68040 or better, 16MB RAM, System 7.1 or higher, 4xCD-ROM. For more information, visit Knowledge Adventure at http://www.knowledgeadventure.com.
Review by Rebecca Welt
Designed for two-to-four year olds, Jump*Start Preschool is typical of other offerings on the market. Kids choose from various games that drill them in colors, shapes, numbers, and letter recognition. The game also includes phonics skills, which will surely please any parent who is convinced that his preschooler must learn to read. I had the opportunity to test this game in my preschool classroom, where children from ages two to five tried their hands at it.
Players begin by typing in their names. As each letter is typed, a smiling train announces it, which pleased the kids who tried it. (Trains are big in preschool.) The kids are then taken to a schoolhouse where they can click on various characters to play assorted games. A word about these characters: Whomever picked the names was clearly not thinking straight. Cecil? Pierre? These aren't exactly names most kids will relate to.
Each game focuses on a particular skill. The difficulty level can be changed for each activity and parents can monitor their children’s progress in each skill area. Kids gather train tickets after completing each activity, and four train tickets buys you a ride on the train. This train takes them to their choice of exciting lands like "Calendarville.” Each land has, of course, a theme song. Any parent of a preschooler is used to hearing annoying little songs (over and over and over) and Jump*Start Preschool is no exception; it’s chock-full of catchy little tunes. My kids actually danced in their seats when certain songs played.
Some four and five-year-olds clustered around the monitor as one of them navigated the toy sorting activity, in which players must listen to three words and then choose the toy beginning with the same sound. A younger four year old was entranced by the player piano activity and delighted in playing each roll of music on the piano several times. Many of the three year olds clicked randomly on their own, but were able to play meaningfully with adult supervision.
Jump*Start Preschool is labeled for ages two to four, but don’t assume that this means that the entire game is appropriate for these ages. Some activities were difficult for the five year olds who played, and nothing more than a pointless exercise in using the mouse for the two year olds. By the same token, the fours weren’t thrilled to be sorting colors, but enjoyed looking for hidden letters. The younger your child (and the less experience he has with a computer), the more time you can expect to spend playing the game with him.
On the whole, though, my kids enjoyed playing. Parents who purchase this game can expect their children to be interested in different activities within the game as they progress through different developmental levels. I disagree with the age recommendation given on the box, however. I don’t foresee many two year olds playing this game with any comprehension of what's going on, and many of the phonics activities are challenging enough to keep five year olds interested. |