Jumpstart First Grade

PC version requires:
486SX/25, 4 MB RAM, 6 MB hard drive, 2X CD-ROM

Mac version requires:
68040/40, 8 MB RAM, 1 MB hard drive, 2X CD-ROM

Description:

Children join Frankie the dog and Mrs. Flores in an interactive schoolhouse filled with activities that help them learn first grade skills. In the classroom, they can play a memory game, enjoy a paint-and-stamp activity where they can experiment with mixing colors, read 50 stories in 8 different storybooks, play a time-telling game, and make music with the musical mice in the classroom's mouse hole. In the lunch room, children learn about fractions as they rush to fill children's plates with the right amount of food, use correct change at the vending machine, fill pizza orders, do double-digit adding on the cash register, and help make baked goods at the cookie machine. On the playground, children help Frankie look for things he has buried in the sandbox, play marbles while doing math equations, and play a milk cap game. They can also help navigate the school bus to the beach or the zoo.

Frankie is a saucy but friendly dog who tells jokes, and if the computer remains idle for a little while, he will question whether the user is napping! Children earn up to 200 animated milk caps after scoring points in each of the 4 categories: Reading, Math, Nature, and Time.

Features:

• 3 adjustable difficulty levels
• Lots of hot spots
• 15 + activities
• Earn cute animated milk caps
• Visual progress report

Technical Aspects:

The graphics are bright and cheerful, and the audio is clear. My copy doesn't work with Windows 95/98 autoplay, but is easy to install. Navigation is a bit tricky and somewhat confusing for some children.

Report and Conclusions:

My children have enjoyed this game for 3 years, and it still holds some appeal. Many of the activities are quite cute. In terms of educational value, I have mixed feelings. Some of the stories are interesting, but most are not appealing enough to go back to. If children click on a single word to hear it spoken, the whole sentence is read. There are a lot of multiple choice activities, and when a child makes a wrong choice, they are told "No, that's not it" and the question disappears without any other feedback. On the other hand, I can credit this game for encouraging my son to learn double-digit adding.

Some activities have timing and children are rushed to try to fill as many orders as possible, which can intimidate more nervous children, but can be great fun for children who like this kind of challenge. The milk caps are especially appealing to collect, but children must do a lot of work to earn them. There are some great songs that we play in our audio CD player as well. In general, this title is very entertaining. Knowledge Adventure has been updating some of their older games in various ways including the incorporation of tutoring assistance, and I feel that JumpStart First Grade would be a very good candidate for this. It's a pretty solid game that would do well with some improvements.