JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade

Rating:
Summary: The Jumpstart "Advanced" products are a keen investment.
Review: I think the thing to keep in mind is: what a child may have no knowledge of today they can pick up tomorrow, next week, next month. That said, Jumpstart _Advanced_ Grade One assumed a lot. And I far prefer that than for them to dumb it down so it's easy to beat quickly, and a big waste of money to you.

To me, Jumpstart Advanced Grade One *is* advanced. It's got Grade Two cirriculm coming on strong. But so what? The child playing it doesn't know the difference between grade one and two 'ideals' so they play, and the game naturally advances as they do. And that's what's great about these Jumpstart Advanced, they do, in fact, *advance*!

Without partental supervision or help, this is a CD for a child who can now read (or at least take a shot at sounding out) 'See spot run' and has a basic grasp of phonics. Having watched my 5 1/2 year old child play it over the last month, I have not noticed *any* phonics in it. But she plays the Reader Rabbit Phonics CDs and the Jumpstart Phonics CD, in addition with this one. If your child has no phonics skills, get a phonics CD ("Reader Rabbit I can Read! with Phonics" is good)I can sit beside them while they play and help them out while i do the laundry. It's astounding how fast they learn if you teach them to sound things out.

This particular CD, the Jumpstart Advanced 1st Grade is a very full, rounded CD. It's teaching them fractions (they build pizzas and have a list: one half pepperoni, one quarter green peppers, etc), reading, addition, subtraction, grouping, analyzing, etc.

It's entertaining. It assumes. But far better that then them have played it out in 3 weeks or become bored of it because it's too easy.

Worth the money. I plan on getting *all* the jumpstart Advanced products. I have the Jumpstart phonics one, and the Jumpstart Advanced preschool which was a huge hit.

Jumpstart Advanced (no other previous Jumpstart products *but* the Advanced) has thoughtfully included an assement test your child can take over and over again and which will automatically reset the levels of learning they are at by the score results - you can also take the test then adjust them manually if you like. There's also a report card of sorts that allows you to see which parts of the game they are playing and how many right answers they score. I never mention what they are scoring to them, but it is interesting to see what they do and what they like and what needs work.

Great product. Well worth the pennies.