Software Description :
When a bat named Batney Ears started singing like Britney Spears, not only were we hooked--we alsolearned about echolocation. JumpStart: Animal Adventures is a lush mix of entertainment andeducation that does detailed justice to the wild world of animals.The program starts with the news that Habitat magazine is looking for kids who love animals toenter a contest. To fill out the four contest-entry forms, kids must explore a temperate forest,an African savanna, a rain forest, and a tide pool to gather animal information, photographs, andpoints. Each habitat has three screens, with gorgeous graphics and rich, ambient sound. Leafcutterants, elephants, crabs, and 37 other creatures gladly share information about themselves and theirenvironment. Clicking on certain animals will yield a catchy video (imagine crabs sounding likeGreen Day as they sing about limb regeneration) and games.The games, which can be adjusted to three difficulty levels, give this program a seamless feel,adding depth to the educational experience. For example, when kids click on a beaver, the beaverlaunches into a detailed explanation of why it builds dams. The beaver then invites players tocut trees for a dam, adding that they must be small trees because beavers can't move larger ones.After the correct trees are gnawed down, kids can complete the dam by fitting the downed treesinto a dam-shaped puzzle. After that, they're invited to gather mud from the riverbank, then helpthe beaver use his tail to pack the mud into the dam. Your child will play four games, honespatial and sorting skills, and develop an in-depth understanding of the phrase "busy as a beaver."And this is just one animal in a program that has dozens of creatures to learn from.Goal-oriented kids will love relentlessly progressing toward the various rewards the programoffers, culminating in a quiz show called "The Animal Smarts Game" that can be played alone,or with a friend. Free-form exploration is also an option. We were impressed with the wayJumpStart: Animal Adventures immersed us in exotic environments, and treated games as a teachingtool instead of an afterthought. (Ages 4 and older) |
