With colorful graphics and silly, rocking tunes, JumpStart Reading with Karaoke teaches 4- to 7-year-olds about letter sounds, and then has them speak target words. With colorful graphics and silly, rocking tunes, JumpStart Reading with Karaoke teaches 4- to 7-year-olds about letter sounds, and then has them speak target words.

• Jumpstart Reading Games

Review: Combining learning to read with singing letter sounds is not a new concept in edu-tainment software. Tikes have vocalized syllables with musical animals before, and no doubt will again. But what's nice about this little pre-school reading program is that its learn-to-read karaoke works and it's fun.

The concept: Kids work through eight different reading-skill activities that play like games on HipHop Avenue, earning tickets for their successes with the help of the animated and encouraging JumpStart cat named Val. The activities range from fun stuff like depositing words into talking garbage cans that speak the beginning-letter sounds, to delivering alphabet-marked packages to create words. But, in fact, they are practicing basic skills such as identifying alphabet sounds, learning vowel sounds, rhyming, blending letters, sight-reading words, and reading aloud. Some of the games even use voice-recognition technology to nudge the mispronouncing child in the right direction in reading words. When they've earned enough tickets, kids cash them in at the Karaoke Clubhouse where they get to record (microphone included) 24 different songs, all karaoke style, that reinforce the games' basic reading lessons.

Then they get to play back the songs and hear themselves singing-a remarkable moment of enlightenment for some kids, an embarrassment for others. But certainly fun. Even the lyrics of the songs the kids sing are designed to build vocabulary and practice reading skills-all of which are tracked in behind-the-games progress reports so parents can check how their young reader's doing.

With colorful, friendly graphics and silly, rocking tunes, JumpStart Reading with Karaoke teaches 4- to 7-year-olds about letter sounds, and then has them speak.

Never mind that the graphics are pretty standard. The games aren't too challenging (nor should they be). And there's no storyline per se. None of that really matters.

Why this software works is that kids who love music will come back to it-to sing more songs while getting in tune with reading fundamentals.

JumpStart Reading with Karaoke: Note: Note: JS Reading with Karaoke has high system requirements. You need to make sure your system satisfies the requirements displayed on the outside of the box. If you do not have all of these you will not be able to use this program. You must be running on Windows 2000 or XP only. There is no support for 98/ME for this product.

Refer to the section on how to check your system configuration for complete information on how to find out your system setup, version of DirectX and other system info referred to below. Problem: Sound is distorted or there is no sound. Solution: Update the Sound Card drivers to make sure they are current. Confirm you have the latest sound drivers for your sound card. You will need to download these from the card’s maker or request they be sent to you from the vendor. Knowledge Adventure’s Tech Support cannot provide these to you.

Solution: Confirm you have installed DirectX 9 and install it if you do not. Problem: Video is distorted or there is no display. Solution: Update the Video Card drivers to make sure they are current. Confirm you have the latest video drivers for your video card.

You will need to download these from the card’s maker or request they be sent to you from the vendor. Knowledge Adventure’s Tech Support cannot provide these to you. Solution:. Confirm you have installed DirectX 9 and install it if you do not. You can find the DirectX install on the CD in the Support DirectX folder.

Confirm you have a 3D graphics Video Card. Problem: The microphone isn’t working Solution:. Make sure your microphone is plugged into the appropriate socket on the sound card on the back of the computer. It is easy to get the sockets confused so refer to your user manual for further information. Several manufacturers identify each port by symbols on the back of the sound card.

Look for a microphone symbol atop the microphone port. Solution:. Make sure your microphone volume is not set to mute on your volume control settings. Volume Control Settingscanbe accessedby clicking Start-Settings-ControlPanel-Sounds& Multimedia-Audio-SoundRecording-Volume or by clicking the speaker symbol on the Taskbar near your clock. Once you see this dialog box, you may need to select ‘Options Advanced Controls’ to see all of the settings. If your microphone mute box is checked, uncheck it and try again.

Solution:. If the solutions above do not work also try all the solutions listed in the Sound section regarding downloading the latest drivers for your sound card. Problem: Video is distorted or there is no display. Solution:. To make sure you get the latest version of Media Player you should go to your Start menu and select ‘Windows Update’. Follow the instructions and select Media Player to install if you are told there is an update for it.

Jumpstart Reading Games

Try reinstallling MediaPlayer 9 or higher. You can find the MediaPlayer 9 install on the CD in the Support folder – the file name is “MPSetup.exe”.