Win a 3-Month Membership to JumpStart.com!

Congratulations to Janna for winning the free membership and CD-ROM and learning from "Full House" that when in doubt, hug it out.

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Gone are the guilt-free summer days of simply babysitting your children with endless sitcom and cartoon reruns.

We parents are beaten with the guilt stick about needing to continue our kids' education when school is not in session lest they fall behind and become total failures.

Fortunately, two such failures -- college washouts Billy Gates and little Stevie Jobs -- overcame this neglect and gave us home computers.

And these computers have games that can:

• teach the wee ones educational basics that help them meet the No Child Left Behind requirements necessary for your school system to get mucho federal dinero, and
• entertain the scamps long enough so you can enjoy a tall cold one on the patio in a bit of peace.

One such game is JumpStart.com and DadCentric can get you hooked up with a free 3-month membership to this online gaming/learning site that could help keep your kids happy this summer and you sane.

But first, a review …

WHAT IS JUMPSTART.COM?

JumpStart.com comes from Knowledge Adventure, the same folks who created the award-winning JumpStart and Math Blasters educational software -- solid products my kids have enjoyed in the past. That is the only reason I agreed to look at their stuff from the start.

The site is a virtual 3D world similar to others for kids that have been popular in recent years, such as WebKinz World, NeoPets and Club Penguin. The hook, though, is rather than just play mindlessly (which is a misnomer because all play takes some skill, imagination or knowledge), your kiddies use critical thinking, math and language skills to learn while they complete the various games, tasks and missions.

WHAT'S HAPPENIN'?

On JumpStart.com, players create their own avatar (onscreen character) called a "Jumpee" whose look can be customized.

On the plus side, you can let several kids in your household each have a separate Jumpee on one subscription (we'll get to subscription prices in a bit) so that eliminates fighting over having to share characters.

Or one player can create multiple Jumpeez (yes, with a Z). This is good if, say, your strapping young lad has those days in which he prefers being in the guise of a frilly girl in pigtails. Freedom of choice, God Bless the U.S.A., dag nabit!

The player then navigates his or her Jumpee through a virtual world. For 3- to 5-year-olds, StoryLand offers colorful pre-school fun and games like decorating houses, following the alphabet and, of course, story time. No reading is required, though. For 5- to 8-year-olds, AdventureLand has more of a role-playing aspect in which you explore a mysterious island. There's also a pretty cool Ghost Town game and an arcade with your typical race, memory and speed/skill games.

Winning these games or completing missions helps a player earn new furnishings for its virtual home or gold coins to buy more bling to outfit his or her Jumpee. Depending on your way of thinking, this is a brilliant way either to teach kids about money management or rampant consumerism.

Want more details? Check it out for free just by registering with JumpStart.com or view the online demo.

FUN AND LEARNING ...

The JumpStart folks set our household up with a free trial membership and both my kids, ages 7 and 9, played regularly for hours on end for several weeks. Both children are vets of other online virtual kid communities so they had no problems with the navigation, concepts or play. In fact, once I taught them the log-in and password, they never asked for my help.

My son, who just finished first grade, found StoryLand way too easy (as it should have been) but thought AdventureLand was a gas and especially enjoyed customizing his online home. He gives two chocolate stained thumbs up. My daughter, who just finished third grade, said she found the AdventureLand missions fun but a bit too easy for her sophisticated diva tastes. (A new JumpStart.com section for third to fifth graders is supposed to be on the way and could remedy that.)

The kids rate the game experience and fun level on par with WebKinz World and well above Disney's Club Penguin (which, I agree, is lame). However -- in all honesty -- they both abandoned JumpStart.com when they discovered Wizard101.com, an online adventure game that they have been into for the past two months. Not sure what the educational value of that site is, but they been playing only the free portion since May with great gusto. However, my daughter recently hit up my wife to get into one of the pay-as-you-go areas so we'll see.

Speaking of free, that online sampling I sent you to above and our DadCentric giveaway are the only free you'll be getting with JumpStart.com. 

BUT IT'S GONNA COST YOU ...

A monthly subscription to JumpStart.com costs a heady $7.99; a yearly subscription costs $74.99. You can also buy separate CD-ROM adventures at about $20 a pop but you can only play two levels before you need a subscription to open the remaining 10 levels of the game.

The JumpStart argument, based on its PR material and responses to complaints on their discussion board, is that this is a relatively small investment for a safe online gaming environment for kids (it does seem very safe) that has "endless" adventures (subscribers have access to future expansions and updates of the online world) and backing from a well-respected educational software maker.

It's a legitimate case, assuming you can afford the initial and then ongoing price of admission.

That's why DadCentric is here.

ENTER OUR CONTEST!

We have a free 3-month subscription to JumpStart.com -- just perfect for summer -- and a copy of "Trouble in Town," one of the JumpStart CD-ROM games designed for kids ages 5 to 7 to give away.

Interested? Then here's what you do:

Leave a comment on this post with one simple example of how childhood exposure to technology (computers, TV, radio, the wheel, etc.) made you a better person.

I'll give you an example: My habitual watching of "The Brady Bunch" every weekday afternoon at 4 on Channel 5 taught me to never play ball in the house, lest I break my sister's nose and lead her to the live the life of a failed country singer/actress who becomes a Hollywood coke whore.

That's all. We'll pick one winner over the weekend at random. Contest entry ends July 3 at 11:59 P.M. West Coast time.