JumpStart Kindergarten
© 1994 Knowledge Adventure, Inc.
This title was one of the best early childhood programs ever made, when it was released in 1994. It was the flagship product of the JumpStart line, and, in our opinion, one of the reasons the JumpStart series has been so successful. This original version is still available as Davidson's Learning Series Kindergarten. Here is a copy of the original review that we wrote in 1994. After signing in on a roster posted on the door, children can click on objects in a classroom scene, 13 of which launch activities. A child who can't decide can click on a talking rabbit who suggests an activity the youngster has not yet played. The activities range in quality, content and difficulty level, and cover letters, sorting, numbers, and memory. In Puzzle, children are shown an object and must make a match using concepts such as opposites, shape, size, and color. Another fun activity is Dolls in which children see a line of seven nesting dolls standing from biggest to smallest. The order of the dolls is subsequently mixed and the children must put them back in sequence. Although challenging, testers also enjoyed Pattern Blaster, an arcade-style game in which children sort falling blocks or patterns into the correct bins according to shape or color. Records of children's work are kept and the program remembers progress from day to day. We found a couple of design quirks. For instance, when lining up the set of dolls, the rabbit says "zero dolls are in the right place" when actually some might be in the right place. However, the number of solid activities offered makes this CD-ROM worth its purchase price. Note that more recent versions of the program are available. These cost more but have upgraded activities and design features.
$9.95, Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: reading, letters, numbers, clocks, patterns, colors, shapes