Bruce Von Stiers

There is a new wave of learning programs from Knowledge Adventure. These programs are based on their popular JumpStart series. These new programs now carry Advanced in their titles and have been revamped and stepped up so that they provide a wider learning experience than in previous versions. One of these titles that I recently looked at was JumpStart Advanced 2nd Grade.

These programs all have an underlying theme to them. This one is about a spy agency called the JIA or JumpStart Intelligence Agency. Frankie is Commander in Chief of the Agency. He is also a dog. He needs his top agents to go out and stop the nefarious Dr. O. In order to do this, the agents will have to seek out other agents out in the field. They will have to interact with the field agents and gather gadgets to be used against Dr. O. These top agents are C.J. frog and Edison firefly.

There are seven different games that encompass C.J. and Edison’s adventures. Successful completion of these games provides the agents with the needed gadgets that they will need to give to Hopsalot so that Dr O can be stopped.

In Red Squares, the agents go to Moscow and have to match wits with the agent there. She will have the boys using synonyms, along with past and present verbs to try to beat her. If the boys win, the Moscow agent will give them a gadget for Hopsalot.

Head back to the U.S. and down to New Orleans for some musical repartee with some fleas. Help the fleas complete their music for their circus in order to get a gadget piece. The Serengeti Cave Code has the players unscrambling coded text and reading what has been decoded.

The Amazon River Hop reminds me of the Frogger arcade game. And why not? I did mention earlier that C.J. was a frog, remember? In this game C.J. must hop across the Amazon River, avoiding turtles and alligators in order to get a key to an agent’s trunk. A Problem will appear at the bottom of the screen and you will have to move C.J. to the appropriate spot on the shore with the correct answer. A similar game is Save The Penguins where C.J. will have to hop across the proper blocks of floating ice to get to where the penguins are and rescue them.

When the games have all been played out , visit Hopsalot’s Invention Lab and use all the gadgets collected. Fix everything that Dr. O has messed up and bring everything back to normal.

There are supposed to be over 50 different learning skills that are being taught in amongst all the fun the players will be having. Some of skills that the box cover lists include Fractions, Money, Parts of Speech, Social Studies and Word Structure. There is even a game that covers classic artists and their works.

I think that JumpStart Advanced 2nd Grade is wonderful for two reasons. The first is that there are a great many ways for a child to perfect their learning skills in this program and still have fun doing it. The second reason that I think this program is wonderful is that I am a fan of spy stories. It was really cute how the developers incorporated a spy tale into their learning skills program.

JumpStart Advanced 2nd Grade can be found at stores like Best Buy and Target. You can also order it from Knowledge Adventure at www.education.com. The list price is under $30.