JumpStart Study Helpers Spelling Bee | 
| From: Vivendi Universal
Category: Software
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $3.81
You Save: $16.18 (81%)
New (9) Used (3) from $3.81
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 689
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Macintosh, Windows
ESRB: Everyone
Media: CD-ROM
Operating System: Macintosh
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8
UPC: 020626719698
EAN: 0020626719698
ASIN: B00007LV6T
Release Date: June 3, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
How do you get your child to study for spelling tests? Make it into a game! With JumpStart Study Helpers, your child simply enters his weekly spelling words into the computer and starts playing. With arcade-style activities, playing the games means your child is practicing the words and improving their test scores!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 The tiniest bit fun, but not a good teaching tool January 24, 2008
Hi, I'm StoryMaker. I've been enjoying JumpStart products since I was in Kindergarten. For Christmas, I got Jumpstart Advanced Study Helpers V2.0, a set of CD-ROMs which includes this disc (JumpStart Study Helpers Spelling Bee) and JumpStart Study Helpers Math Booster. The Math Booster disc is a very fun way to practice math, and it has very good educational content. This disc is *a little* fun, but nowhere near as good as other JumpStart products.br /br /This CD-ROM features 3 educational, ocean-themed games starring Frankie the dog. You can use the content chooser to choose a list of spelling words from the game or you can make custom lists using the editor. Sounds pretty good so far, huh? Well, it WOULD be, if not for various phenomenons.br /br /Firstly, you never actually spell complete words in any of the games. In 2 games, you fill in 1-3 letters of a word. In the other game, you find correctly spelled words among incorrectly spelled ones. The games where you only fill in 1-3 letters barely teach anything for older children - they might teach for younger children, though. I'm not sure how educational choosing correctly spelled words is. It's probably more educational than filling in just a few letters, but it probably could be more educational.br /br /Note: Originally, in the games where you fill in 1-3 letters, you fill in just one. If you go to gameplay options (the button to access it has some green arrows close together on it), then you can set the gameplay difficulty level higher. This will make you have to fill in 2 or 3 letters. Unfortunately, this still doesn't teach much and it also makes the games longer and faster. I do it anyway, though, because filling in 1 letter teaches very, very, very little for older kids.br /br /Also, y'know the feature where you make custom lists? It doesn't work out very well, either. You have to type in 3 mispelled versions of each word to act as different possible answers in the games. This can be a real pain. In Math Booster, the computer makes the different answers. I know it's different with words, but still, they should make it optional or make you be able to type in less than 3.br /br /Here are summaries of each game.br /Seahorse Speedway: Frankie the dog is riding a seahorse in a race against other dogs on seahorses. Basically, you go along the track, tapping the spacebar to make the seahorse lap up fish with missing letters in spelling words. Correct letters will get your seahorse ahead. This is s little fun, but, as I said, not very educational as you only fill in 1-3 letters. Also, you're supposed to avoid bumping into "anchovies" (actually look like red fish with pointy noses) which will slow you down. This phenomenon is a useless, annoying distraction. The anchovies are hard to avoid anyway.br /Crab Attack: This is the boringest game. That's odd, because a very similar game in Math Booster called Asteroid Smash is fun to me. Maybe it's because the crabs go so darn fast on gameplay level 3. I digress. In this game, some crabs are stealing some gold coins which you have for no apparent reason. With bubbles, you must shoot the crabs who are holding a coin containing the letter you need to complete the word. Again, not very educational since you only need to fill in a few letters. Also, A) It's not very fun, as I said, B) When you shoot an incorrect crab, they stick their tongue out at you. This is SO ANNOYING, especially if you ACCIDENTLY shoot the wrong crab, and C) you're supposed to also shoot "slimy creatures". This is another pointless destraction. Also, it's possible that, while trying to shoot these creatures, you can shoot a wrong answer.br /Fish Frenzy: Yes! The funnest game! The only reason why I play this CD-ROM at all! The crowning glory! The- oh, forget it. Anyway, in this game, Frankie is holding a basket. Use the arrow keys to make run left and right, and try to catch the falling fish with correctly spelled words on them. The reason why this game is fun is because it's a frenzy. Making a dachsund named Frankie waddle around, catching monsterous fish in his basket - it's fun! However, I want to say three things about this game. 1. I'm not quite sure if it's very educational or not. Decide for yourselves. 2. The one annoying thing about this game is that if you catch a blank fish with no word on it, it counts it as a wrong answer. That and that Frankie calls the fish his "fish friends". We pretend he wants to eat them. 3. This game is full of mystery. Why are fish falling from the sky? How do all those huge fish fit in such a tiny basket? LOL!br /br /Overall, although this does have one very fun game (Fish Frenzy) in it, I reccommend you do not buy this game individually. Instead, buy the set that includes it, Jumpstart Advanced Study Helpers V2.0. Also, check out other JumpStart games. Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"
 This works! January 4, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
15 minutes with this computer game is part of my 3 school-aged children's homework every night. I've tried letting them skip it every now and then - their weekly spelling test grades have been lower each time. Every Monday I enter 3 spelling lists - each one takes about 5-10 minutes to enter. Some of the graphics could be clearer, and the voice could also be clearer - but we've got to remember that this generation is very accustomed to computerized graphics and sound. I just bought our second disk as 2 years of daily use has finally worn out the last disk. Bottom line is it helps the kids and they enjoy it.
Study Helpers Spelling Bee January 4, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is awesome!! My kids play the game using the 'game' words or I'll put in their spelling words or sight words and they'll play it also. Terrific game - don't mind the kids sitting in front of the computer !!!
 It will hurt your kids eyes! March 10, 2006
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Do not buy this product. It will damage your son or daughter's eyes. The image are jiggling. Even me cannot stand them. My daughter also found it is not fund to play with it. So do not waste your money.
Not as good as it ought to be January 28, 2006
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
Here's another piece of kids' educational software that does not measure up to the marketing blurbs on the box. It contains three spelling-oriented games that give you plenty of practice with hand/eye/mouse coordination, but are questionable in terms of educational value. br /br /In one game, you play a little dog with a basket, trying to catch fish falling from the air. You're only supposed to catch fish containing words that are spelled correctly. To me, it was the most fun game of the bunch. Whether it teaches spelling or not is another question entirely.br /br /In another game, you shoot hermit crabs that are trying to run off with your coins. You can only shoot the crabs carrying the correct letter to fill in the blank of a given word. I dislike the fact that the crabs each have an angry, mean expression after you shoot them, when they are closest to the viewer. Certainly not a happy game! Also, with a fast computer, the crabs emerge so fast that you have to set the game on level one in order to make it feasible. Luckily, game play level is separate from spelling level.br /br /For the third game, you ride a seahorse in a race, tapping the spacebar to have your seahorse reach up to lick a word. This is another iffy game with a fast computer, and the images get blurry rather quickly, which impairs enjoyment.br /br /I was excited about the idea of inputting our own spelling words. However, there is a limit of about 25? custom words. And the voice that reads the custom word list is barely audible. You can input phonetic spelling to get closer to the audio pronunciation, but this is not perfect. Considering that game play depends upon hearing the correct pronunciation, this is a disappointment. So the custom word feature turned out to be not worthwhile for us.br /br /I just started homeschooling a 4th grader, and we've been testing plenty of educational software. I'm sorry to say that I can't recommend this one.br /
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