For most parents of our generation, JumpStart has become a household name. They have been leading the way in educational software for 15 years now with games for all ages and skill levels. This year they launched their new 3D online world for ages 3-10 years old, where they’ve combined interactive adventures and their award-winning learning games to create a safe and customizable online environment for children to enjoy and explore.

This game quickly became a favorite in our household, with each child able to create their own Jumpee character and find their way around the map on their own. From my oldest to my youngest (minus Baby Jo, of course, she’s too young to play), they were able to easily navigate the game and play on their own with little help from me.  The game map is full of adventures for young ones to enjoy as well as arcade games, a store to buy things for their Jumpee, a movie theater with fun videos, and even a pet store!

I asked my kids what their favorite parts of the game were and they all enjoyed the Center Stage area on the map where they were able to make their character dance and make friends with other Jumpees. They also liked being able to make their characters talk and change their clothes and appearance. The movie theater and the Jumpee store ‘JS Threads’ were big hits as well and my little gamers made many trips to both. Torrin was very excited to point out to me the Hall of Fame on the map and announce “I like the Hall of Fame, because I’m in it!” How fun that they have a special area to celebrate their achievements in the game other than a top 10 list!

Being a home schooling family, we often use the computer as a learning tool. I think that there are a lot of great resources online for kids to help them learn and develop their skills. This new online game definitely ranks high on my list for places to send my kids. It has helped with many of their fundamental skills, which is especially valuable during the summer when kids often forget half of what they’ve learned during the previous school year.

But the JumpStart page isn’t only a place for kids! They have a whole section for parents where you can track your child’s progress in the game, join in on the discussion board with other parents, stay up to date on the latest JumpStart news and access JumpStart art (banners, buttons, wallpaper, and screensavers). The JumpStart blog is an excellent resource for parents to stay in up to date with what’s new as well as find lots of great suggestions for family crafts and activities.

Also, I should point out to those of you who have a Wii, you will soon be able to play the game on your Wii as well!

Sounds great right? Would you like to try it out for yourself? I hope you do! In exchange for my reviewing the game with my children, JumpStart is allowing me to give a free 3mo membership to their 3D Online World through my blog! All you have to do is leave a comment here letting me know you’d like to try it out and I will announce the winner here next Friday! In the meantime, you can go to the website and register to play for free now, and also watch the video explaining the benefits of membership which is offered at only $7.99/month. Trust me, the membership is worth it!

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you all enter and have fun checking out this awesome new game with your kids!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 3:11 pm and is filed under crazy kids, giveaway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.