 Knowledge Adventure, $19. Requirements: PowerPC, 8MB RAM, System 7.5 or higher, 2x CD-ROM. For more information, visit Knowledge Adventure at http://www.jumpstart.com.
Review by Rebecca Welt
So you’re a computer savvy kind of parent, and you want your baby to develop good computer skills early in life. The folks at Knowledge Adventure have just what you’re looking for. Jump*Start Baby is specifically designed for the nine to twenty-four month old set. No, I’m not kidding. Just because your baby is more likely to drool on keyboard than type on it is no reason not to shell out twenty bucks for this CD-ROM. Or is it? Frankly, I can’t see the point in buying software for babies, but then again, I don’t see the point in thirty dollar Reeboks for babies either. So, let me tell you about the game and the reaction my group of test kids had to it, and you decide for yourself whether or not it’s worth the money.
The insert begins by cautioning you that your baby will get the most out of this program if you play along with him or her. Okay, all you parents who let your babies use the computer (ie., bang on the keyboard) unattended, raise your hands. I thought so. Of course you’re going to do this with your child. So you’ll sit down to play and meet Teddy, a vacant eyed teddy bear with a high pitched voice. A mobile is hanging in Teddy’s room and each figure on the mobile represents a game. The figures turn slowly one at a time, and when your child bangs on the keyboard - I mean, presses one key, the game goes to the activity represented by the turning figure.
Perhaps you’ll play Puzzle Time. With each keystroke a piece of the puzzle is put into place. A two-year-old girl played this, but she was quite timid about touching the keyboard. It took her several minutes to warm up to the idea that she had to keep hitting keys for the puzzle to be completed. Once she had this concept, however, she enjoyed the game thoroughly and completed several puzzles.
The game actually seemed to run more smoothly for a slightly younger child, who was of the keyboard banging type. He gleefully pounded on the keys and watched the action on the screen. His attention span for the game was quite normal for a just turned two year old. He spent a little less than ten minutes playing before he was ready to move on to other things.
Other games include the Dress Teddy game, where each keystroke places an article of clothing on the bear. The toddlers enjoyed this game because Teddy spoke quite a bit. They were less enthusiastic about Down on the Farm, despite the upbeat music. A coloring game was of only minor interest to most of them and Color Train, a color sorting game, was not popular, either. Other activities include Where's Teddy?, a game of hide and seek, and Let's Make Music, the usual sing along musical activity.
The children I tested this game on were twenty-two to twenty four months old, on the older end of the suggested age range. I was not able to try it out on any actual infants, but a group of children considered above the age range for this game found it enthralling. Older children in the room, especially three year olds, were an attentive audience. As soon as the toddlers’ attention had waned, the threes swarmed in to play. Their favorites were Puzzle Time and Connect the Stars. They especially liked the fact that this was a game they could play without help.
I give this game a 2.5, simply for the fact that while it's a good piece of software for older toddlers and young preschoolers, I think that marketing it for babies is misleading. I would certainly recommend this game to parents with children on the older end of the age range. The fact that my threes liked it so much, shows that your toddler won’t lose interest as he gets older. If you think your infant will benefit from having his own software, this certainly won’t do him any harm. If you think your baby does just as well with an intriguing screen saver, consider giving him an old unplugged keyboard to bang on. It’ll save the stress on yours. |