Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this game creates a virtual world full of animated animal characters who are thoughtful, funny, intelligent, and kind. They become your child's friends and encourage you child to explore the world and play learning games. The games will teach preschool basics including the alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors. But kids will also learn about friendship, sharing, health, and following directions. If your child is stuck in a learning game, you may need to help them. Parents can personalize the program by selecting holidays to celebrate (including their child's birthday) and uploading digital photos of loved ones to populate the many billboards. The Parent Corner lets parents check their child's progress.
Families can talk about what makes the world so much fun. Is it the slides and the zipwires that you can ride on? Is it the freedom to explore? The character friends? Did you like taking photos of your new friends? And how did you feel about seeing your artwork and or photos on giant billboards?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Jinny Gudmundsen
JUMPSTART ADVANCED PRESCHOOL WORLD offers preschoolers a magical 3D world to explore. They will make new friends, go on missions, create art and music, and decorate the world by growing flowers and changing the landscape.
Preschoolers start by designing their own avatar from an easy-to-use menu of choices that include skin tone, hair style, eyes, mouth, nose, and clothing. Once you have designed a character to represent you, he or she enters JumpStart World where six animal friends await to play with you. You start in a place called My Neighborhood where you meet Frankie the Dog. Frankie introduces you to the rest of the characters and, as he does, you learn lessons about friendship, sharing, health, and following directions. The characters also encourage you to play learning games. As you do things for the characters (by going on missions), you earn pages to a new book. After you find all the pages to the book, two new locations open up with new missions.
This JumpStart Preschool World is a feast for the eyes and senses. Butterflies float by, birds sing, and the friendly characters teach by sharing experiences. They will talk about the importance of eating a healthy breakfast, of exercising, and brushing your teeth daily. They explain how having friends means sharing your things and ask children to do that in the game.
The learning games do a good job of introducing preschool concepts, although at times, they don't provide enough help when the preschooler doesn't know the correct answer. For example, in a dot-to-dot game of clicking on numbers in numerical order, if your child doesn't know what number comes next, the game suggests trying again without highlighting the correct number.
Other good preschool options include: Playhouse Disney Preschool Time Online and PBSKidsPlay.org, both online subscription services for preschoolers that deliver educational learning games to play on the computer.
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Social BehaviorYou spend your time helping others, and learn about sharing, friendship, and health. The avatar-building feature lets you be any sex or race you want to be. |
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CommercialismPart of a JumpStart World series. |
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Educational ValueKids play learning games that teach preschool concepts of numbers, the alphabet, colors, and shapes. |
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