I bought this for my 6 year old daughter to help improve her English and Math skills, and I can't praise this programme enough!
My daughter actually looks forward to playing the games and frequently comes up to me saying "Mummy, can I play Jump Ahead Year 2 now please?" with much enthusiasm. I thought it might be just a fad - like with all toys! But she really does enjoy it. I think its because the math games are challenging and she enjoys the excitement of the "theme" of the game, like jumping over crocodiles to get across a river.
I can tell you one thing, I wish I had something like this when I was little learning maths because it would have made the subject less scary. This actually makes maths look fun and because ... Read More:
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A great disk, both my kids loved it, I bought this to try and get my little boy to advance with his reading and he loves it. Takes a while to figure out how to get into the different rooms, but both my 4 year old and 6 yr old can work the computer by themselves using this software, it really is easy. A great interactive program.
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My Son absolutely loved this programme - and the Big Reading adventure. Once patches were downloaded it worked great.... on our old computer. Now we have a new system with Windows Vista is doesn't work. On the GSP support website the only advice was 'this product doesn't work on Vista'. Slightly disappointing to say the least - you'd have thought this wouldn't have been the case. Unless anyone knows of a workaround they'd like to share, I am afraid I cannot recommend this software.
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The initial loading of the program is frustrating and I certainly didn't expect to be downloading fixes on a new product. The screen does not maximise to the full size of the monitor and this cannot be fixed as mentioned buried in the help text. I would have expected both of these things to be mentioned in the advertisement of the cd rather than being hidden within the cd itself. I would expect better performance from D.K and indeed Amazon. This is the first time that I have used the internet to purchase presents and I will consider more carefully before doing so again. I will be returning this product as unfit for purpose.
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Just to let anyone know who is interested, this CD-Rom does work on Mac. I have a recent Mac, and when I put the disk in, my OS 9 system kicks in. It works without any problems.
As far as the game itself, I was very pleased and have not found any difficulty in understanding how it works, but I suppose instructions would no be a bad idea!
We are using this CD to help my son, who has never been to school in England, and I find that this is a very effective way to work on his grammer, etc. He is not a big reader, like his brother, so this game has been a very helpful tool. He finds it fun and ejoys getting the stickers.
I am probably going to go on to year 3, but will have a look at other games, as so many people ... Read More:
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After initial enthusiasm, my daughter found the game play and the way you move around the 4 different arenas quite uninteresting. The maths items themselves were as you would expect, and there are a lot of different items with various degrees of difficulty, but the all center around just 3 basic arenas. Also, there are no short cut's to the items, so you have to repeatedly listen to the same preamble every time.
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I Love Spelling has the polished presentation we have come to love from DK's previous educational offerings but its installation routine leaves much to be desired. If you are unfortunate enough not to get this program running at the first attempt, you will find lacking instructions in the package's readme file. (Hint: if it doesn't progress past the title screen, install the WinG drivers in the D:\SUPPORT folder!). This clumsy piece of organisation on the disc costs it two stars in my estimation. Don't expect the child of the house to install it without adult help, though the games are simply understood when you have passed this pain barrier. DK has done and can do better.
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I have a 4 year, who is very bright and able to use a PC on his own, he became frustrated as he wanted to just get on with the games without me looking over his shoulder. but they were too difficult for him. I had to read each question out aloud (with today's modern technology i would have thought the CD rom would have been able to do this) but even though he got the answer right the activity connected to questions seemed to have no relevance. If he was unable to hit the correct colour relating to the answer he gave, he would loose a life. In simple terms, my son would say the answer to my question, try to play the game which was too hard for him then loose a life which would then tell him he was incorrect...basically telling him he got the wrong answer just because he found ... Read More:
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