Review and Giveaway: JumpStart-Escape From Adventure Island game for Wii

Why to buy: 
Entertaining learning tools cover a wide range of subjects; exciting, attention-getting, complex, cool graphics; incentives to keep learning; more age-focused than JumpStart World online, fairly priced, more motion-based interactivity with the program than with the computer; takes less time to load games than the computer

Why to blow off: 
Single-player mode only; cool graphics and entertainment “fluff” can distract from educational objectives

Where to Buy: You can purchase this game in many online stored including the Knowledge Adventure Store for $19.99

Full Review:  My kiddos and I were very excited about the opportunity to review Jump Start Escape From Adventure Island by Learning Adventure! We began the game by creating a completely personalized avatar called a "Jumpee".  There are lots of ways to dress up your Jumpee, but you will need to earn points by playing learning games and earn "sand dollars" in order to purchase and unlock all of the choices. Once you are in there is a whole island to explore, fun characters to listen to, and barnacle bay to swim through.  

If you've ever tried  Jump Start World online, this Wii game is very similar in that it is a seemingly endless virtual world full of kid games.  A couple things we prefer about the Wii game are first that it is more age focused (there are no toddler games for big kids to play and earn points on) and second that the Wii controller allows for more motion-based interaction. 

By playing the games, kids can practice over 150 reading, math and critical thinking skills.  A few of our favorites games are "Jet Pack", "Runway" and "Rubble Trouble".  In "Jet Pack", your Jumpee flies through space in a race to make sure that sentences are capitalized correctly.  In "Runway", kids practice following directions and listening skills by choosing the best clothing to match the occasion.  (For example: Finding all the parts to a yellow firefighter uniform.)  In "Rubble Trouble", kids learn math and counting by 5's, 10's, etc...

Being a four-kid household, we wished that this was not just a single-player game, but alas, another opportunity to learn to share and take turns.
  
Summary: If you are looking for a fun and entertaining Wii game that your 5-9 year old will love with a lots of learning games in the mix at a decent price, you'll love Jump Start World!

Win It!  Jumpstart has offered to give away a copy of Escape From Adventure Island for Nintendo Wii to one lucky reader!

Mandatory Entry: Visit JumpStart and let me what you would like your children to learn from this game.

Extra Entries: 

1.  Become a follower of this blog through google connect. This counts if you are already a follower too!
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3. "Like" Jumpstart on Facebook and leave a comment.
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5. Post about this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog and let me know that you did. (Enter daily if you'd like..) 
6. Tweet:  Enter to win a kids Iearning game for Wii by JumpStart: http://tinyurl.com/4e75fsb @ReviewMama #win #giveaway
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This giveaway will end March 31st, 2011 at 11:59 pm (EST). The giveaway is open to US residents only. The winner will be chosen using random.org and I will be notifying you by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry, as well as your email if it is not on your profile.  Happy Entering! :)

Disclosure: We received JumpStart Escape From Adventure Island Game for NintendoWii by Knowledge Adventure to review.  The opinions I have expressed are my honest opinions and have not been influenced by the companies providing the free product.  No other compensation was received.