JumpStart Before the School Start!

Posted by Mrs Zeee on 08/07/2009

When I was contacted by the folks over at Jumpstart to review their virtual 3-D world for kids, I accepted without hesitation.

I was vaguely familiar with the product beforehand, but once I finally got to sink my (and my little ones’) teeth into the experience, I must say that I was not disappointed.

Here’s the scoop:

Jumpstart is like a carnival of learning — literally. Kids enter a virtual theme park with fun little characters that greet them along the way and teach them through their stories and experiences. It’s absolutely adorable and it is so interactive and fun — the kids have no idea that they are learning so much — in fact, they think they are getting away with extra play time…. so sly!

The adventure starts out by allowing kids to create a Jumpee (essentially a 3-D Avatar like Wii’s ‘Mii’).

We did this part together, creating a cute, punky little character that kind of resembles yours truly (so of course the kids loved it – lol). We named her Olivia Sweetface:

On to the adventure…

So, picture this, I have this group of kids seated around my PC and I am navigating the game.  Do you think we were able to actually agree on a place to go without hoots and hollers and lots and lots of little opinions?? NO!!

But the good news it that once I got us en route, the kids were totally captivated.

We followed instructions from Frankie (a lovable little … I-don’t-know-what — dog?) and dove right into the interactive map.

After hopping around the Speedome and trying to get a feel for the controls, we finally we agreed upon entering the Arcade. There, we played a fun game called Robo-A-Go-Go (it’s kind of like a mix between a dancing game and Guitar Hero). It was lots of fun, although I must admit that we were not very good. I have every confidence that as the kids play more though,  they will totally rock out — notice I said the kids, not me!

I guess I should also mention that the more the kids play and learn, the more points or “jumpstars” they earn for a chance to upgrade their Jumpee Avatars with the coolest clothes (yes, these fashionable little virtual kids are very trendy!) and they can even compare their scores to a leader board of all-time highs.

Aside from seemlingly endless learning experiences in this little microworld and hours of mommy-free entertainment for the little ones, here is the great news:

1) Jumpstart will be available for the Nintendo Wii shortly, so if you are one of the lucksters who already owns a Wii, then this is a no-brainer

2) They have offered me a free 3 month membership to giveaway to one of my readers — Woo Hoo!!

Sooooo… I leave you with this:

Enter to Win the Jumpstart Membership before August 17th and get those mushy little summer brains in prime working condition before PreK begins!!