As far as kid’s computer games go for the Wii – Jump Start Pet Rescue is one of THE BEST games I have found for 3-6 year olds. My children have played Jump Start Games since they were 3 and to see these characters come to life in a Wii game is WONDERFUL!  From designing their own avatar, to adopting pets to playing educational and fun games — Jump Start Pet Rescue will keep children entertained and learning for a long time.

My daughter, who is six loves this game.  She is a very good reader so thought a couple of the games were easy but still enjoys them and running around taking part in the many activities Jump Start has to offer. This game really makes children think and offers so much content that is educational AND fun. From designing their own “jumpee” (avatar) to running around and doing tasks and solving educational games — your child will be entertained AND learning for a long time. Enjoy this video to see some of the fun things Jump Start Pet Rescue for the Wii offers.

Some of my daughters favorite activities have been picking out a pet to play with, feed and train, exploring the worlds including going down the cool water slide and playing the MANY games that are offered.  Honestly my daughter is not easily impressed with games and she was blown away by this one.  Younger children might need a little help getting acclimated but the game design is very intuitive and this is the perfect game to begin your child with to learn how to use the Wii remote.

The game has 5 different worlds to explore with saving pets your main mission.  Your child will talk to and interact with the many fascinating and loved Jump Start characters to guide them to their missions.  There are games that educate in everything from math, letter recognition, repetition, memory and more.  Pet Rescue seems so vast and my daughter has played it four times for an hour each (my limit on games) and still has barely scratched the surface.

I think you can tell I like Jump Start Pet Rescue, huh?    I have reviewed many Jump Start products like their have a brilliant site (I reviewed it here and since they have added MANY additional features).  I also have reviewed  many of the wonderful games they offer for preschool through school aged children.  It was amazing to see these characters come to life for the Wii and I cannot recommend this game enough for ages 3-6. Thank you Jump Start for yet another amazing product.

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JUMPEE

When you first sign in you can alter your character that you will be using to explore the site. The best part is you can change the jumpee every time you log in and multiple times if you want. The Jumpee has many more options than some other interactive sites for making your person distinctively yours. You can edit their; hair, hat, face, shirt, pants, shoes, eyes, mouth, clothes, and color of the clothes and skin.

My daughter, Christina commented on this as one of her favorite parts about Jump Start.com:

I like Jumpstart.com because you can always change how you look. You can have different color hair, eyes, and try out different clothes for your characters each time you play.”

Jukebox:

Feel like exploring the land to a different tune? Stop by the jukebox and find one that fits. There are many options to choose from and I know my daughter enjoys stopping here right after she has adjusted her jumpee to her liking to decide which music she will run around to that day.

Theater

Watch movies that include animation and video. Very cute and the kids enjoy the different music.

Storyland (Ages 3-5)

This is a whole other land within Jumpstart. In Storyland kids can change the look of their house, watch movies that include fun sing along music videos, go to the dressing room to change, visit the school for MANY educational games or go to the library to play with the ABC book and the books you complete. The graphics are very cute in the school games and I think they are perfect for this age group. From number and letter recognition, to concentration type games for memory, lining up smallest to biggest, sorting and puzzles – these games encompass most of what a nursery school or kindergarten child would need to know. The games have cute graphics and will have the kids playing over and over again as they continue to collect prizes.

From my reader Marilyn L:

“My 4 year old daughter loved Storyland. She has not mastered moving around with the keyboard so the ability to just use the mouse in Storyland makes it more fun for her to navigate on her own. She stayed with the games in the schoolhouse for a long time and enjoyed planting flowers outside.”

In Storyland you ask some of the jumpstart characters how you can help them. As you complete missions and games your storybooks in the library fill with color. Once completed you can read the books. As you maneuver around Storyland with the mouse you will see you can interact with many things. You have a camera you can take pictures with. You can then put any of the photos taken on the billboard. You can plant flowers, display prizes and much more. This is a perfect environment for children ages 3-5.

From Nancy W:

“My 3 year old son LOVED the theater in Storyland. They had videos of many songs from his music class including “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. I had to help him with the mouse but we had a lot of fun singing and dancing with the characters. Very cute animations.”

From Natalie:

“My 5 year old loved the games in Storyland. It is perfect for preparing her for kindergarten for the fall. Her favorite games are the Critter Creator and Matching Ladybugs.”

Getting back to Non-Storyland activities….

ARCADE

Right now the arcade has two games but you can tell more are on the way. The game Dragon Playtime is GREAT for little ones. It has you taking care of your pet dragon by feeding it, playing with it and keeping it clean.

Margo says:

“My 4 year old son loved playing with the dragon. He liked that you can give it a ring to play with and play tug of war with it like a dog. He kept laughing at the sounds it made.”

The game Robo A GoGo is better for older children (5 and up) and is like Dance Dance Revolution. You have to push the corresponding keyboard keys as they get into their outline above to make your robot dance well. Miss and see you robot “not do so well”. The cute thing is you can design your own robot and play in multiplayer mode.

Justin said “It was cool to make my own robot — I like the silly things you can use as a hat”.

You can see from the many machines they have at the arcade that many new games are coming soon and I look forward to it.

There are other games as you wander around Jumpstart.com Wander over to the mine cart to play Ghosttown Grab. In Ghosttown Grab you run around the Ghost Town to collect bags of money – great for getting kids better at maneuvering around with the keyboard keys. You can tell by all the construction signs there is a LOT of great stuff being added to JumpStart.com. Right now there is tons of stuff to keep the 3-5 year olds busy and learning and I am sure there will be more activities for the older ones as they expand.

“Jenna really enjoyed running around getting the money bags. It was tough for her at first but then she got better at using the keyboard. I can see how this and the other games will help her develop her computer skills.” – Lisa T

The 3D environment and graphics are beautiful in JumpStart.com and you feel like you are in the story. I am looking forward to the additions to the site and thank Jump Start very much for sponsoring the contest for my readers and for offering quality content! Thank you to my readers that responded! I hope more of you will check out Jump Start.com

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Prizes:

– A copy of the newest version Jump Start Kindergarten called “The Legend of Grizzly McGuffin” AND

– Free 3 month FULL membership to jumpstart.com as a prize.

The rules are below and please see my previous post for reviews on the fabulous Jump Start products.

What to do to enter the Jump Start.com Contest:

1) Visit Jumpstart.com (free to play as a non-member). Or if you want to try out the full membership for one month you can use the Promo code 02CENTS to get a month of membership for 2 cents.

2) Email me a comment on or before Saturday January 17, 2009 11:59PM EST to: jennymannion@yahoo.com with SUBJECT: JUMPSTART CONTEST

I will NOT be accepting entries via the comments section (sorry) you MUST email me and follow the following directions for eligibility (sorry about being strict on this but I have been spammed repeatedly when opening up comments):

– In YOUR EMAIL TO ME: Tell me WHAT you like about Jumpstart.com and your name (at least first name and last initial) and a valid email address. Alternatively you can send in something your child said they liked about the site.

– THE SUBJECT OF YOUR EMAIL MUST READ: JUMPSTART CONTEST

(If you have a website, you can include that url info too)

3) I will include comments submitted by readers in my review of Jumpstart.com on Tuesday January 20. At the same time I will announce the winner. I will assign a number to each comment I receive in the order received. The winner will be chosen by a random number picker.

4) If you are the winner you will need to supply an address as to WHERE to mail the prize.

PLEASE feel free to email your child’s comments to me. Children play with games differently and something your child might find another might not find out about for MUCH longer. It is cool to see the different discoveries kids make when playing with games.

As an aside I thank my readers for helping jennymannion.com to achieve a wonderful web status of being in the top 100,000 websites worldwide via the Alexa ratings.  I love writing for both my blogs and it is a great honor to have made it this far.

Please continue to email me games you would like me to check out. Enjoy Jumpstart.com my daughter LOVES IT and remember to pass on the word for the contest.   Thank you!

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Kid Pix is a classic and your child can learn early on how to use the interface and make amazing creations. From changing colors to adding moving animations or stamps… My kids have spent hours on this and I taught it 10 years ago and the versions just keep getting better. My children currently use it to make great birthday cards for their friends. If you are there with your child you can probably have them start as early as 3, if they have some control over the mouse — this program would be good for kids at least until age 10. Click on the CD to learn more.

Jump Start Preschool is a GREAT game for 2-5 year olds. It teaches mouse control and offers lots of fun learning games. Lot of cute animations in cute little voices…. The Jump Start games for any ages are great but the preschool is my favorite. It teaches them how to get in and out of the different games offered which allows the children to learn some early independence on the computer.

The Dr. Suess’ games are genius. You can either have the stories read to you or you can play along. It will still read the story to you in play mode but you can stop on every page to explore. If you play along you have mini games throughout and just about everything your child clicks on will do something. This pack is AWESOME because it is my 3 favorite Dr. Suess games all bundled together: Dr. Suess ABC’s, Green Eggs and Ham and the Classic The Cat in the Hat. I have so many wonderful memories of laughing playing these with my own kids. If you get these — try and find the little yellow guy hidden throughout the ABC’s disc. So funny and will get the kids laughing and give them a task while they are learning!

Next are my favorite genre for kids… Adventure Games! These games allow kids to advance their logical thinking by figuring out puzzles and where to use inventory items. They may need your help at first but believe me you will have fun assisting them and soon enough they will be saying they want to do it themselves. The first is Ollo at the Fair which my daughter still plays at 4 and even her older brother didn’t mind helping her when she gets stuck (and he’s 7).

Putt Putt is a funny character who is a car that has his puppy travel with him as he solves adventures. There are MANY good Putt Putt games and they are all very inexpensive. The company that puts these out also puts out Pajama Sam and Fredi Fish games which are similar in humor and for the young adventurer that outgrows the PuttPutt games. The younger children will need help at first but you will have fun solving the adventures with them. Putt Putt saves the zoo is one of the easier ones and a good one to start with.

That’s it for now. I will keep updating as there are SO MANY great games out there for kids that do teach them lots without them even realizing it!

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