GameGoo: Learning That Sticks
Website (Cognitive Concepts)
Ages 5-7
    What a treat! An educational website that acts like a CD-ROM program. Children will love the activities at www.earobics.com/gamegoo - the "stick-with-you" games for beginner, intermediate and advanced players are designed to help students develop early reading and language skills, identified as important language arts building blocks in state curriculum standards. Most of all, the use of Macromedia Flash Player (a streaming media plug-in which instantly deploys designs, animations and audio) gives children the quick interactions they need (as opposed to programs which use .wav files, requiring downloading time).
   The games are based on education and literacy research, using stories and characters to engage students in adventures which reinforce classroom learning. Beginners can play Paw Park Alphabet Bears or Kangaroo Confusion, Tina's World Buggy Trails, Real or Make-Believe to learn about letter recognition, fact vs. fantasy, alphabet ordering and following directions. The intermediate games are Monkey Business, Alien Scavenger Hunt Letter Bugs or Space Trash. They teach sentence word order and letter-sound correspondences. Advanced students can play Wizards & Pigs Poetry Pickle, Fearless Frieda, and Squanky the Tooth Taker to learn about poetry concepts, identifying antonyms, and keyboarding. New games are added at intervals.

Jumpstart Artist
Windows/Mac CD-ROM (Knowledge Adventure) - Ages 5-8
   Jumpstart Artist is another fine product from Knowledge Adventure. The program uses a thematic approach, which makes it more valuable than the typical art program - there are art projects galore, and each activity provides essential educational information to boost skills in social studies, art history and science.
     Five activities (with 3 levels of difficulty) will keep children engaged for hours. And because they will want to complete projects to earn reward puzzle pieces for Kisha's carnival ride, they will revisit the program often.
   Memory Game - a matching game, followed by a simple art history narration. Studio Workspace - make puppets, quilts, paint & draw, with a social studies tip to reinforce learning. The Quilting, Collage and Puppet Drawer tools offer unique textile templates, quilt patches, stitches, pattern tiles, buttons, appliques, stamps, chalk, charkole, hieroglyphs, puppet heads, bodies, arms, legs, costumes, accessories, stick and shadow puppets. Hot Air Balloon - a game which teaches logic, following instructions, keyboarding and mouse skills - ending with an appropriate science lesson. Inventions Tent - copy/match a sample drawing, and learn about shapes, observation, logic and mouse skills. Movie Tent - an opportunity to paint and embellish scenes for a movie, with your creations being featured in the film.

[MORE REVIEWS >>]