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JumpStart Spanish

JumpStart Spanish

List Price: $19.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome Learning Tool
Review: Not only do the children enjoy learning but the adults as well. It holds a child's interest based on the creativity of the CD as well as the educational factors. I would recommend this to anyone interested in learning Spanish as a starting point.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great for preschool age children
Review: Preschool age children love this program. I know because I use it with several of them. It has the color and variety that attracts them, and it can be configured for basic level learning or immersion style.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I liked it
Review: The program is well made (for the most part). The numbers section gets a bit slow, but other then that, I like it. It's Latin American Spanish. This is great, if you're taking a Spanish class, and want to expand you vocabulary. The conversation section is poor. The Click and explore stuff is much better. Learn the items in the bathroom, the bedroom, the kitchen, den, clothes, buildings around town, days of the week, and body parts. They even have a little game machine where you can test yourself on ANY category, instead of clicking on the doll house, or the map, or something else. It says everything in English after saying it in Spanish, and it displays the spelling of the word. I got it for Mac. The sound seems fine. I use it on my ibook, while I'm doing laundry, or waiting around between classes.

Use this program in conjunction with "Spanish for The Real World", these two make up for each others flaws.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: JumpStart Spanish
Review: This is a good tool for learning very basic vocabulary. It is a decent way to expose a young child to a new language. But if you are expecting software equal in quality to the JumpStart K and up programs, you will be disappointed.

The conversation "TV" is the most disappointing. But my kids LOVE to tour the town and pick up various characters for a "party."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good for Beginners of All Ages
Review: This is a pretty good game. My two year old likes it fairly well [though she definitely prefers some of her other games]. It is a good format for helping build a beginner's vocabulary, in my opinion [my husband is learning some spanish just from playing it with our daughter].

I think it could be better [specifically the section with "videos" isn't so great], but I'm so grateful to have something out there to help my daughter with very basic Spanish that I appreciate this software even though I'm not really that excited by it. The concept of how the game works it good, I think it could just be a bit better in the execution.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Product
Review: This is an excellent product for my 4 year old girl and I highly recommend it for any beginner. It offers several areas of study (colors, numbers, days of the week, and many household items). It's easy to change from one subject to another when my child becomes bored. The screens are filled with a variety of color. Additionally, it allows you to earn "stars" as you learn. Five stars allows your child to add an item to the aquarium (fish & other moving objects). My four year old loves this feature. I can't say enough about this product. I only wish JumpStart would make the next edition!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant software for young kids.
Review: This was the first program I bought for my daughter (then nearly 4) to start teaching her some Spanish. I was impressed even from the beginning, but did not truly appreciate it until I tried to branch out into additional programs for her. I have bought a number of other kids' Spanish programs and been hideously disappointed by all of them. Nothing even comes close to Jumpstart's.

Jumpstart Spanish is bright and lively. The best thing about it is its continual rewards. Kids get immediate rewards for correct choices in the form of cute actions on screen. They are rewarded again with stars for completing sections, and are motivated to keep collecting stars because they can use them to put fish in an aquarium. If they don't get the right answer, the program is very gentle in telling them, and if they miss repeatedly it lights up the correct choice for them to pick. [...,] I see it as a great feature. It lets kids jump in and play without undue frustration or negativity, and lets them learn as they go. Yes, they can guess their way to a star, but I think being shown the answer lets them learn that answer better than it would to let them get more confused with endless wrong choices. This is after all software for young children!

The main drawback to this program is that it really only teaches nouns. Kids learn colors, days of the week, household items, articles of clothing, body parts, and things around the neighborhood. They may pick up some phrases from the directions and praises given, but they really don't learn and grammar or sentences (hence my search for more programs). Here's hoping Jumpstart is working on "Spanish 2"...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very Effective Program
Review: We bought this as an introduction to spanish for our 3yr. old son. I loved the price and was relieved to find such a good program cheaper than the programs advertised on T.V. It teaches vocabulary, games, and cultural information as well. The progress report helps me to know what area he needs help with. I also love how you can earn fish for the fish tank by completing activities. The only down side it that is it too easy for my son to change the levels therefore he'll play the game before learning the vocabulary. I love this product and think it is wonderful!!A must have for all preschool parents and homeschoolers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very Effective Program
Review: We bought this as an introduction to spanish for our 3yr. old son. I loved the price and was relieved to find such a good program cheaper than the programs advertised on T.V. It teaches vocabulary, games, and cultural information as well. The progress report helps me to know what area he needs help with. I also love how you can earn fish for the fish tank by completing activities. The only down side it that is it too easy for my son to change the levels therefore he'll play the game before learning the vocabulary. I love this product and think it is wonderful!!A must have for all preschool parents and homeschoolers.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Spanish vocabulary for kids
Review: We purchased this computer program about 2 months ago for our 3 1/2 year-old daughter. This program has gotten her excited again about learning Spanish. She used to take a class taught at her preschool by an outside teacher, but the classes were cancelled. Before buying this program, she complained when I spoke to her in Spanish. She doen't like the extra work to understand me and she is a bit of a perfectionist and complains that she "can't" say the words. Having Hopsalot the rabbit teach her removes some of the pressure. The activities remind her of her Reader Rabbit program (we don't own yet the JumpStart programs, but I may look at them now). She loves the songs. She was driving Mom and Dad crazy singing the "De Colores" song over and over again, and asked Mom to show her the song in a Spanish songbook we have. She hasn't learned all the days of the week yet (she already knew her numbers in Spanish), but she asks me to sing the song to her in both Spanish and English, and she now learned all the days of the week in English. She still does not know enough Spanish for me to worry yet about the lack of grammar and conversation in the program. My only complaint, is that when you click on an item, it says the word, and a box with the word appears, but then disappears too quickly to repeat the word aloud without having to click on the word again. I had asked my daughter to repeat the words aloud, and I had to click on the buttons for her so she could see the text while repeating a word. My daughter could not click the computer mouse fast enough in this situation. It meant that when she was exploring the house or the neighboorhood, I had to be there with her while she played the game. She was able to do the coloring, video and radio activities all by herself. Like the other reviewer I would urge JumpStart should try to get a new product out, with interactive every-day conversation (Greetings and introductions, school and home phrases, Please and Thank You, etc). Perhaps at some point they could also do a Phonics program in Spanish!


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