JumpStart Review and Membership Giveaway – CLOSED

Do you remember the first time you used a computer mouse? I do. It was weird and felt disconnected. The pointer floated around the screen and I kept losing it off the sides of the window. I find it fascinating that Kora and Logan will never have that memory. By the age of 3 they both were able to point and click with relative ease. We have our family pictures as a screen saver on the computer and whenever they see a photo they like that has scrolled by they will run over click the mouse and point in the appropriate place to recall the picture.

Speaking of preschoolers and computers, Kora and Logan love playing online games too. There are some great educational games targeted to preschoolers out there. JumpStart is one of them. JumpStart is an award-winning adventure based 3D virtual world that is personalized and fun, it also teaches math, reading, and critical thinking skills.

Recently we were offered the opportunity to try out JumpStart online which is designed for children ages 3 – 10 years-old. The kids started off by creating their own Jumpeez or characters with which to play the game. Kora originally gave her character pink eyes and purple hair  - no surprise actually!

Then they headed off to explore the virtual world, which is large enough to keep kids busy for months. There are different lands targeted to a variety of age groups some of which you have to swim to get to. Kora and Logan enjoyed watching their characters swim so much they later declared it as one of their favorite parts of the game. I think it will soon be replaced with The Launch Pads though. While writing this post at nap time, I discovered these scattered throughout the world. Clicking on a launch pad shoots the character up into the sky to fly over the many lands. Kora and Logan are going to be all smiles when they see this!

The kids spent most of their time in StoryLand which is targeted to 3-5 year olds and was an easy favorite in our house. One of buildings we entered was the Learning House where we met a rabbit who had many preschool perfect games displayed on magic hats.

One of Kora and Logan’s favorite games from the Learning House had them matching up dangling monkeys holding flashcards to a number at the top of the screen. They had to find and click on the monkey with the right number before they all climbed back up the tree. The best thing about JumpStart though is there were no worries if those monkeys did climb back up the tree, as they all came back down seconds later. This lead to smiles and high-fives rather than tears of frustration.

We visited a few other lands as well and enjoyed driving a submarine at The Beach, adopting a puppy in Pet Land, and riding a zip cord in The Jungle.

Another fun feature of JumpStart World are the holiday activities and updates made throughout the year. For example, if you visit the JumpStart Blog you will discover a Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt is taking place throughout the JumpStart lands right now. The blog also reveals new Valentine inspired clothing choices for the characters and the ability to throw hearts and send Valentine’s greetings to other players. Other fun holiday or seasonal activities that have occured in the past include ice skating, snowball throwing, and snowglobe slides. The variety of alterations made to the site on a regular basis make it an ideal online game world for kids, a place that is constantly changing and one they can never complain they’ve become bored with.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with JumpStart. It is a wonderfully designed and incredibly well thought-out site that makes the preschool online games we played just yesterday look archaic. Kora and Logan have a blast playing it. In fact they ask to play it constantly and can’t get enough of it. I’m excited to set them up to play online at a place that combines fun alongside worthwhile learning opportunities and endless adventure. 

Kora, Logan, and I are all so excited about the JumpStart that we give the site:

A big thumb’s up!

Giveaway:

JumpStart has offered a 3 month membership to one reader of 2 Wired 2 Tired.

To enter: Mandatory – Follow 2 Wired 2 Tired through Google Friend and leave a comment below with your email address if it’s not in your profile.

Extra Entries (if you already do any of the following simply tell me so and that counts too)

• Follow me on Twitter.
• Subscribe by RSS or Email.
• Add my blog button to your site. (Worth 2 entries)
• Vote for me on TopMommyBlogs – over on right sidebar. To vote, just click the button once and come back here to let me know you did so. (Worth 2 entries)

Giveaway Rules: Giveaway ends Friday, February 12 at 11:59 pm EST. Winner will be chosen by Random.org. Must have a valid email in blog profile or leave email in comments. I will notify the winners in a post and by email. If winner doesn’t respond in 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen. Winner will receive their prize directly from the company.

 Thank you to JumpStart.com for providing access to the online games for this review. No compensation was provided for this review. The opinions are mine, yours may differ.